According to the U.S. Public Health Service, 50% of people who start exercising quit within six months. This is because they do not have a way to conveniently and accurately test their fitness level – or train at an effective level of intensity. For those who have been training a while, heart rate monitors helps measure and track the right exercise intensity for your workout.
The PC1600 heart rate monitor from Sigma Sport is a new device that gives you all sorts of statistics about your heart rate and work out. The system comes in two parts: a pretty ugly-looking watch on your wrist which acts as the user interface and displays exercise statistic readouts, and the heart rate sensor that you strap around your torso below your breasts. As you workout, the device keeps track of your heart rate, monitors zones of activity, calculates calories burned, etc. It has quite a bit of functionality beyond that of the heart rate monitors available through the handles on most aerobic exercise equipment.
With traditional heart rate monitors, many times one would flatline, and then return from death magically by the end of my workout. This to due to the fact that the system looks for tiny electrical potentials generated across my body as my heart beats. If the connection between the hands and the handles isn’t good enough, the reading is erroneous.
The PC1600 tries to circumvent this problem by strapping the pickups to your torso. The trade-off is that the pickup pads on the torso strap need to be moist (not really a problem since people generally sweat while working out).
The bigger problem with this system is that it is really annoying to have a strap across your chest. The torso strap tends to slide down the stomach.
The display is pretty small, and the buttons are not very easy to reach while you’re in mid-stride. Navigating the interface menus is like setting the time on a cereal box watch from the mid-80s. There’s no nice alphanumeric readout that tells you exactly what the heart rate monitor thinks its doing.
Despite the interface problems, the Sigma Sport line of heart rate monitors gives you the most number of features for your dollar.
Comparable heart rate monitors from other brands retail for upwards of $70, where the PC800, the introductory heart rate monitor from Sigma Sport, is only $60. The system isn’t too comfortable, and the benefits were marginal (uncomfortable and hard to read) if you are just using the equipment in a gym. While monitoring your heart rate is key for effective fitness training, a wearable heart rate monitor might not be worth the cost and effort unless you’re exercising outside.
Heart rate monitors are one of the easiest tools to use in gauging the intensity of your aerobic and anaerobic workouts. The Sigma Sport models are accurate, easy to use, and have a wide variety of features.
About the author:
Jon Robinson has been a personal trainer for over 10 years. He has a master’s degree in sports medicine and runs his own successful gymnasium. He has written numerous articles for leading fitness magazines for the past 5 years. You can find further information about the pro’s and con’s of the different types of heart rate monitors available from his following website
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