[Sportsandrec] Talking HR Monitor

[Carly Mihalakis]

Hi, Kelly,

         Thank you SO much for the HR info!
It sounds like most "innovations" that are hatched with blind folks 
in mind,, almost adequate to Ol' Sighty's toys but in the end not really.
I should probably consult with some of my mentors from the gym, and 
explore any of their thoughts on the  matter. Again, thank you so 
much for your knowledge!
CarlyAt 11:50 AM 7/22/2009, you wrote:
>Carly,
>
>Oregon Scientific makes a talking heart monitor...It works, but I'm 
>not overly happy with it. I find it to be consistently 10 or more 
>beats off (reading high), and when I really start to sweat it jumps 
>all over from not reading anything to reading over 250 beats per 
>minute. Other people might have better luck with it.
>I paid around $80 or $90 if I remember right, and this included the 
>radio. The radio is a small, FM receiver that plugs into the HR 
>monitor, and you plug the headphones into it, and the HR information 
>cuts out the music when reported. Its nice if you get some decent 
>radio stations in your area. There is a less expensive model that 
>does not include the radio, but I'm not sure of the cost.
>The set up of the monitor takes some playing with, but is manageable 
>once you figure out the details. You can set it up to count down 
>workouts (including a warm-up, workout time, and cool-down counter), 
>or as a stopwatch, set HR zones, and it tracks your workout with 
>average HR, cool-down HR, your total workout time and time in your 
>zone, and calories burned (not something I trust as fact, but nice 
>to use as a rough estimate).
>Another talking monitor is by HEARTalker, but I've never used one of 
>these. They are priced somewhere between $60 and $80 depending on the model.
>I used to use a Polar monitor, which I found to be much more 
>accurate, but I needed sighted help to set it up. These come in a 
>wide variety of models, ranging from around $30 or so to well into 
>the hundreds. Even on the cheaper models, you can set up your target 
>heart rate zone and alarms will sound if you are above or below (and 
>you can judge by how hard you are working whether its above or 
>below). On the simpler models its pretty easy to remember how to 
>start and stop the monitor, and works well if your workouts are 
>generally all in the same target zone (or if you have assistance in 
>resetting the zones). Some Polar monitors, once set up, are as easy 
>to start as putting on the chest belt and the watch, then holding 
>the watch close to the strap for a couple seconds...but watch 
>putting them both in your gym bag together as they might start and 
>run down the batteries. The chest belt batteries are not user 
>changeable, and if they die, just buy a new chest belt, its way 
>cheaper then sending the belt off to Polar to have the battery 
>changed (the last time I bought one, it was around $35 to replace 
>the belt, and around $75 to replace the battery...welcome to a 
>throw-away society).
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