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Almost every fitness tracker and smartwatch has an optical heart rate sensor, but it's not always completely accurate. Not only can you improve accuracy by wearing a chest heart rate monitor, you can even use a chest strap. without fitness watch – just connect it to your phone. Chest straps don't cost much either; my favorite costs about 30 bucks.
Why Chest Straps Are More Accurate Than Watches
There are two types of chest straps: electrical and optical. When I say a chest strap is more accurate than a watch, I mean an electric watch. They use electrodes that make contact with your skin, and sometimes you may need to wait until you sweat a little before they get a good connection (though I haven't found this to be an issue in my workouts).
This makes them much more accurate than the optical sensors you'll see on the back of smartwatches. Optical sensors are also found on armbands such as Polar sense of truthand on some chest straps. Most chest straps are electric, including Polar H10, Wahoo TRACKand Coospo, which I mentioned above. You can identify an electrical sensor by the fact that it has metal connectors or contact points instead of a green light.
Optical sensors in the watch use green light and measure your heart rate by detecting the light that reflects off your blood vessels as blood pulsates through them. Relying on light means tattoos don't always work as well, and accuracy can be an issue on darker skin tones. They can also be confused by external light, so they won't be as accurate if your watch is worn loosely or is too large to wear comfortably. Runners sometimes experience “cadence lock,” where your cadence (say, 170 steps per minute) tricks the clock into thinking your heart is beating at that rate. If your app reports a heart rate that matches your step rate, there's a good chance it didn't measure your heart rate at all.
You can get around all of these problems by wearing a chest strap. As I've found in my device reviews, even the most accurate watches don't always accurately record your heart rate 100% of the time. If you're really concerned about your heart rate during workouts, just invest in a chest strap.
Why Coospo is my favorite
I've been wearing a cheap Coospo heart rate monitor for years. I didn't buy it for review, I just bought it because I wanted a cheap and easy way to track my heart rate without a watch. (I trained a lot with kettlebells, and the kettlebell lies softly on your wrist during overhead exercises where your watch would be in the way.
I have continued to use it since then. It has been successfully paired with iPhone, Peloton, Apple Watch, Garmins series, and probably a bunch of others I'm forgetting about. When I write the “accuracy” section on my fitness watch comparisons And reviewsI use Coospo (either paired with my phone or a third watch) to get the gold standard heart rate graph and see how the tested devices perform.
What are your thoughts so far?
My Coospo heart rate monitor is a slightly older version of the one above (since I've had it for a long time). It uses Bluetooth and also supports ANT+ and is powered by a coin cell battery that I have to replace about once a year. It has no storage space on the device, which I don't need since it transfers data directly to the connected watch or phone. It is convenient and easy to adjust. The device is removable and I can wash the strap. And although there are more expensive straps (for example, for $100). Polar H10which I've heard is great), I can't think of any chest straps that would interest me that I don't already own.
How to use a chest strap without a watch
On my iPhone, I found that the easiest way was to download the Polar Beat app (free on iOS And Android) that connects to my band via Bluetooth. If you're going for a run or bike ride with your phone, it can also use your phone's GPS to track your pace and record where you went on a map.
However, I typically use mine for indoor cycling and kettlebell training (which I write down as “other indoor”). Using a strap without a watch is especially useful with weights, as in some positions the bell would otherwise hit the watch. But if you have a fitness watch and enjoy using it, most models will allow you to connect the watch directly to your chest strap. This way you can get the most accurate readings, And be able to check the numbers from your wrist.
