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turtle
2012-12-18, 00:09
So I'm finally actually going to the gym 5 days a week. I'm doing mostly cardio now until some time just before Christmas when my trainer is going to put me doing weights too. However, I know my body enjoys the cardio stuff. I can excel at running. Thing is I want to be able to track my heart rate without having to hold onto the machine grips or manually count it out.

In my research Polar seems to be the brand to go with. That and the machines at the gym have the Polar logo on them so I would assume this means that they can sync to the Polar strap monitor. This would keep me from having to hold onto the grips and just workout as naturally as possible.

Anyway, here is my workout tech now: iPhone 4S with RunKeeper (http://runkeeper.com/) and FitBit Ultra (http://www.fitbit.com). I use TactioHealth (http://www.tactiosoft.com/en/products/tactiohealth) to monitor my body's overall health and stats. Daily I'm logging my food and water intake via the FitBit app and weighing myself on my FitBit Aria (http://www.fitbit.com/product/aria). So FitBit products help me see my calories consumed and burned through "normal life". (Sleep tracking too, but that's not for this topic.) I use the "Activity logging mode" with the Ultra when I do an activity like the elliptical trainer or treadmill, etc. I also use RunKeeper for these to more accurately track them.

TactioHealth Syncs with both of these so I can see my activity, weight and all the other data in one place on my phone/iPad. It's great for this. (I also have Fitocracy (http://www.fitocracy.com/) connected to RunKeeper so I get points there too.)

As you can see, this is already a handful of apps and sites to track my health and monitoring. I don't really want to add another one that doesn't "just fit in". What are my best options for HR monitoring while working out and be able to sync across platforms. The HR would only be needed during the actual workout sessions and thus pairing to RunKeeper would be best. I'm also ok with a whole other solution though looking to not add another thing if I can help it.

This is the Polar computer I was looking at: FT7M (http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Heart-Monitor-Black-Display/dp/B004KMOY9C)