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HomeSports & OutdoorsSports Electronics & GadgetsHeart Rate Monitors |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 36 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 48 found the following review helpful:
Good but may be overkill Dec 01, 2006
By James F. Strasma
"strasma"
I've used a Polar A1 basic heart monitor for several months, found it useful for losing weight and gaining fitness, but found myself wishing for something a bit better. Now that I also have the much fancier Polar M61, I'm seeing anew the virtues of simplicity (not to mention low cost.)
Compared to the A1, the M61 usefully adds a stopwatch and regular watch (with either visible along with the current heart rate), and a backlight. It also beeps at you if your heart rate goes above or below a specified target zone. I find all those added features very useful.
Sadly, it is also a far more complex watch to set up and operate than the A1, with many features that no longer seem as important as I once thought. Even so, it still lacks features I'd expected it to include, such as recording the highest and lowest heart rate reached during a session, and a way to record the drop in heart rate during the first minute after ending an exercise session.
I now know I'd have been about as happy with the Polar FS2 model, for half the price, but would still prefer the M61 over all other Polar heart monitors.
P.S. A great guide to effective use of a heart monitor is "Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond" by Chris Cowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
29 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 The little Heart Rate Monitor that...well...almost could... Nov 24, 2006
By S. Casper
There is so much to like about this heart rate monitor I almost feel disappointed in myself for not liking it. The wearlink transmitter is comfortable (if a little odd in the fact that you have to wet the sensors down to use it), the own zones, the custom zone, and the accuracy are exactly what I expected and thought I needed in a heart rate monitor. As with another reviewer, I have lost weight (26 pounds in 14 weeks) while using this monitor to help regulate and target my workouts.
That said, there are quite a few quirks to this monitor, and things that it simply will not do, due to design issues and logic flaws.
There is no key lock. This means that while doing some work outs, the monitor will stop and reset itself. This is particularly annoying to discover after you've just done 30 minutes of basketball, martial arts, or even weight lifting, only to see the watch showing a minute and a half and asking you if you are sure you want to quit.
This monitor also only tracks one exercise session. Which means if you do a split work out (twenty minutes of high intensity cardio followed by twenty minutes of resistance training) you have to manually note your data at the end of each session, and adjust your target heart rates. If you fail to do so, the data (time, time in zone, average heart rate, calories burned, etc, other than total calories burned) is lost. Given its lack of keylock, its entirely possible for you to lose a session just by bumping your wrist against something and having the monitor start again.
The user manual (and this seems to be a common complaint with Polar products) is overly complex and not very user friendly to the point that I nearly found it incomprehensible.
13 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Polar M61 Heart Rate Monitor Watch Mar 29, 2006
By Joseph M. Luecke
I can't think of anything that I don't like about the watch. It does what I was looking for; telling me what my HR is while exercising and giving me an average HR per workout session. You can manually set a range that you want your HR to be in between or it can automatically come up with one for you (it will alert you if you go above or fall below these limits). The transmitter fits comfortably and is easy to put on and take off. Well worth the investment.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Useful for fitness training Jan 20, 2005
By Greger Wikstrand
I have owned a Polar M62 (same as this except the colour) Heart Rate monitor for about two years now. I use it together with their web-based training diary / planner tool to plan and record my exercise sessions. It didn't take long to master the unit but I am still learning new ways to use it to improve my exercise sessions.
Here are some of the things I like about it:
* It has settings for two people so I can share it with my wife.
* The OwnIndex estimates my oxygen uptake capacity in just 10 minutes and is perfect for tracking my fitness level.
* The OwnZone feature senses my current form and suggests HR-limits accordingly letting me take it easy on bad days and challenging me on good ones.
* The InZone timer controlls my exercise - I won't quit until I have done enough at the right level of exertion.
Here are some things I do not like:
* It does not have interval timers which would be useful for running and stretching
* As a watch it is not that good i.e. lacks many features found even in cheap wrist watches (it does have an alarm though)
* It is supposed to work when swimming but I find that it seldom does
Fínally a tip: The OwnZone low and high corresponds to easy and moderate training intensities. If you plan to include high intensity training in your work-out you can set that manually before starting. After that you can switch between the three zones by pressing and holding the up and down buttons for a few seconds. So you can do intervals but you have to time them manually.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Use this several days a week Jan 04, 2005
By Greger Wikstrand
I have owned a Polar M62 (same as this except the colour) Heart Rate monitor for about two years now. I use it together with their web-based training diary / planner tool to plan and record my exercise sessions. It didn't take long to master the unit but I am still learning new ways to use it to improve my exercise sessions.
Here are some of the things I like about it:
* It has settings for two people so I can share it with my wife.
* The OwnIndex estimates my oxygen uptake capacity in just 10 minutes and is perfect for tracking my fitness level.
* The OwnZone feature senses my current form and suggests HR-limits accordingly letting me take it easy on bad days and challenging me on good ones.
* The InZone timer controlls my exercise - I won't quit until I have done enough at the right level of exertion.
Here are some things I do not like:
* It does not have interval timers which would be useful for running and stretching
* As a watch it is not that good i.e. lacks many features found even in cheap wrist watches (it does have an alarm though)
* It is supposed to work when swimming but I find that it seldom does
Fínally a tip: The OwnZone low and high corresponds to easy and moderate training intensities. If you plan to include high intensity training in your work-out you can set that manually before starting. After that you can switch between the three zones by pressing and holding the up and down buttons for a few seconds. So you can do intervals but you have to time them manually.
See all 36 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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