Anyone use a HRM or fitness band?

Wardy257

Health Club Management - Accuracy study puts fitness bands under the microscope...

Thug

Interesting read. Does it mean just the heart monitor of full package?

Wardy257

Both probably as they work in tandem.  The bottom line is avoid the gimmicky ones and use the branded long serving ones like Polar.

PSM1

Garmin do a range of GPS enabled HRM that will map your run and give you all the HR/pace info you would ever need and can display on the PC with GarminConnect.
Also Aldi are doing a GPS HRM for £65 this week which could be worth a look.

RandomLee

Trying to decide between Jawbone UP24 and a Polar Loop

Will be used for walking and cycling (using Strava).

Both get decent reviews so I'm struggling to choose which one would suit me best.

PSM1

Neither of those bands are GPS enabled so not sure how much use they are going to be when cycling and not going to be much use with strava either if you want to do segments etc. To me most of these bands are really designed for people to feel better about the activity they do during the day i.e. walking around the office etc. and not really anything meaningful in terms of monitoring your fitness etc. A proper GPS enabled watch or bike computer with HRM is going to be a much better training tool and logger. It may cost a bit more but far more accurate and useful IMHO.

RandomLee

Thanks PSM. My phone logs all the GPS info for Strava so it was more really for walking to work, sleep monitor and the general day to day activities However, the watch may still be a better option for the HRM. Are there any that sync with Android / Strava?

PSM1

Most GPS devices/watches will sync with strava and/or easily downloaded into strava. Most will not sync with a phone as such but then why would it need too since it has all it needs on board. Syncing to phone would use a lot of battery power which is not something I would want on a ride since I take a phone so I can call in an emergency would not want the battery to be dead due to using the gps function.

reiteration

I'm thinking of possibly getting one of these -

Garmin 010-01225-32 Vivofit Fitness Band, Purple Bundle: Amazon.ca: Electronics

Soleus GPS Pulse Heart Rate Activity Calorie Monitor Watch - Black/Yellow SGO008-020: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

as I can get one from work free of charge - while they seem ok (both have imperfections) - and idea which one to go for?

I don;t have a smart phone, so would upload the stats etc to a laptop...

seems the garmin is the better one, but has a dodgy strap fastener it would seem...

Wardy257

I bought a Polar H7 which works with loads of apps on Android and IOS.  So far, so good.