How we chose the best heart rate monitors
From fitness trackers to smartwatches to rings, read on to learn how to find the best pick for your health and budget. The good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to heart rate monitors. “Hearts that are healthier tend to recover more quickly,” says Nicole Harkin, M.D., board-certified cardiologist based in San Francisco and founder of Whole Heart Cardiology. Tracking your heart rate can also help you learn how your heart performs at its highest and lowest, allowing you to see when something may be wrong. “The heart rate is an important part of understanding how well the heart is supporting those other organs,” he says. And blood is important because it carries oxygen and nutrients needed to support all of the body's organs,” explains Nishant Shah M.D., co-chair of the American College of Cardiology Digital Health and Devices Work Group and associate professor of medicine at Brown University Alpert Medical school. “The heart rate is a measurement of how many times the heart squeezes to pump blood out to the body every minute. If you’re wondering why it's necessary to track your heart rate, health experts claim it’s beneficial to understand how well your body is functioning overall. The best heart rate monitors will help you stay on top of monitoring your heart rate and other conditions without interfering with your workout. But there’s more data that you can be looking at to be sure you’re reaching your peak physical performance. From walking apps tracking your steps to tracking the calories you burn, even keeping tabs on your medications. Nowadays, you can track just about anything through your phones. It ultimately comes down to priorities, but if cash is limited then the Polar H9 is one of the best heart rate monitors you can buy.We updated this article in July 2022 to add more information about each featured product, based on extensive research done by our team.
What you don't get is the ability to connect to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously, or the ability to store data from workouts for syncing later (both of which are offered by the more expensive H10). As a chest-strap monitor from a brand that specializes in biometrics, you can be confident in the accuracy and immediacy of its readings, and it's compatible with a wide array of third-party apps and devices. Polar launched the H9 in 2020 as a low-cost alternative to its top-end H10. This is a chest strap heart rate monitor from the biometrics experts at Polar that's surprisingly affordable, putting it within the reach of runners and cyclists who are keen to get more serious about their training, but can't justify the price of a top-end monitor.
Many of the best heart rate monitors have one major drawback: price. Our main criticism is that the MyZone companion app is too busy and cumbersome for our liking, but the device also pairs with compatible third-party apps so this shoudn't deter you. When used in chest strap mode, its results compared well with those from the HRM-Pro, though the limitations of technology mean results from the optical sensor have a wider margin of error. That includes swimming the MZ-Switch is water resistant to 10 meters and stores up to 36 hours of data, so as with the Garmin HRM-Pro, there's no need to worry about syncing when you're in the pool. It automatically detects where you're wearing it, so there's no need to worry about switching modes, and although it would be nice to have a choice of different arm band sizes, it's comfortable to wear for any type of workout. The MyZone MZ-Switch gives you the best of both worlds: an ECG sensor so it can be worn on your chest, and an optical sensor so it can sit on your wrist, arm, or a pair of swimming goggles. It's up to you to decide which you prefer, and we've picked out the very best of both for you here.
This method is less accurate, but more convenient.
The other way of measuring heart rate uses an optical sensor, which shines a light onto your skin and measures changes to the light that's reflected back from your skin. However, not everyone finds them comfortable – not least because they need some sweat to establish a good contact with your skin. They also respond to changes in heart rate much more quickly, which is extremely useful for interval training. They are more accurate than wrist-worn devices as the signal isn't affected by movement of your arms. Chest strap monitors measure small electrical impulses created as your heart beats. There are two main types of heart rate monitor to consider. Results between monitors can vary hugely, and poor quality devices can report sudden peaks and troughs when none were expected. Virtually all modern fitness trackers and running watches can record heart rate, but not all are accurate.