If a $200-plus heart rate monitor is beyond your budget, Polar offers a bargain monitor too, that does exactly what it’s supposed to do — tell you how many times your heart beats in a minute. The FS1 model ranges from $60 to $70 and has “extra large” digits, one button functionality for the simple-minded among us (I count myself in that category), and a watch feature, in case you need to know just how much longer your spin class is going to last.

A couple of reviewers have weighed in on this monitor, and here’s what they say:

Jibreger calls it “easy to use straight out of the box. Perfect for those who want an accurate heart rate reading for an affordable price.” The one weakness the reviewer notes is that you have to wear a chest attachment in order to get the heart rate reading. That’s the band with the signal that stretches around your chest as you work out. The alternative is a monitor that counts beats through your pulse. The chest band does tend to get sweaty, yes, but the advantage of wearing one is that you don’t have to attach the monitor it transmits to to your wrist. You can have it hanging off your handlebars.

microg from AZ points out that the FS1 lets you set lower and upper limits for your desired workout heart rate. The monitor beeps when you hit a threshold telling you you’re in the zone, then beeps again when you’re out of the range you’ve set — when you’re out of the zone.

If you’ve ever heard about the zone, you know that working out at an aerobic pace makes for great fat burning. This is in contrast to an anaerobic workout, where you’re gasping for air and the whole body quakes with agony while it slowly eats up your muscle tissue. The bottom line on this highly complex science that I hardly ever worry about: Aerobic good; anaerobic to be consumed in small doses, say, about 10 percent of your total workout. (I prefer to follow the sweat measure: If I sweat for more than half the class, it has been a decent workout.)

The two essential features that I mentioned in my review of the pricier Polar F55 were readability of the beats per minute on the face of the monitor and the ability of the monitor to continually show BPM without having to push a button first. The FS1 meets both goals admirably.

But since I don’t want to count other monitors out too quickly, next time I’ll look at an offering from a competitor. There are some truly amazing sports tools out there.

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by dian