Fit Momma Wish List: Heart Rate Monitors

At one phase in my fitness life Spinning was just becoming popular and I became a helpless Spin-aholic. It was marvelous! I took up to 3 spin classes a week and could not get enough to satisfy my growing addiction. The music! The people! The workout! I just loved it. The instructor was amazing and became somewhat of a mentor to me. She encouraged all of us to get heart rate monitors. That was a good suggestion, I supposed, but what was the big deal? I was breathing hard, I was sweating, I must be burning some calories, right?

From Personal Training pics

However, I knew the truth:

I was a drama queen.

When my spin instructor said, “Add some resistance!”--I would give the knob maybe a quarter turn or usually none all at.

When she screamed out,“It should be hard to peddle!”--I would just slow down my peddle stroke, but really the bike was doing more work than me.

When she yelled, “Climb that hill!”--I would make a big production of mopping the sweat off my face.

When she cried, “Come on, push yourself!” – I would dramatically show some strain on my face and take breathe loudly so those around me would know I was killing myself.

I could have won an Oscar for my performance. Pretty juvenile, I have no excuse. I know, I know, I was only hurting myself in the end. Blah, blah, blah. I just figured I was working hard enough, at least I hoped I was working hard enough. OK, I really didn’t KNOW if I was working hard enough.

Anyhow, I did receive a heart rate monitor for Valentine’s Day one year (ahhh! Sweet! Get it? Valentines? Heart? ) and I found I could no longer pull off my daytime soap opera routine anymore. The numbers did the talking: if the instructor said I should have my heart rate at 85-90% of my maximum heart rate – I was obedient and got it there. If she said it was recovery time, I knew I should be around 115 bpm. My workouts changed, I became a huge heart rate monitor fan, a numbers fanatic and have never looked back.

I always encourage my clients and people in the classes I teach to get a heart rate monitor. It is not just for Spin, it is for ALL types of workouts. It will:

1. Assist with weight loss.
2. Motivate you to push yourself harder than you thought possible.
3. Improve your fitness level.

A great feature that some heart rate monitors have is a calorie counter to let you know how many calories you blasted during your workout. Granted, it is not 100% accurate, but beats the heck out of those cardio machines or worse yet not even knowing.

From Collages

If you’ve never seen one before, it basically comes with two parts: the watch and the chest strap. When you work out, you just strap that baby on (don’t worry, it is not uncomfortable and does not inhibit your movement at all). Every heart rate monitor comes with different bells and whistles. Mine only requires a few things:

1. Monitor heart rate
2. Count calories
3. Serve as a decent watch (time, alarm, timer, light, etc.)
4. Be waterproof (that is not an option with three kids, three baths, dishes every day, etc.).

**BTW - I plan on doing more posts about heart rates, heart rate zones, heart rate training, in the future. That is some juicy info that I feel is muy importante, but right now I just want to add a few more items to your Fit Momma gift list. Time is a wasting, folks are shopping for you, and I need to put my two cents in!

I personally use a Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor right now. And – hhhmmm --do I smell another

Trainer Momma GIVEAWAY
coming soon?

Check back tomorrow, you don’t want to miss it!