eatingThinking

Tip 1: Always moistened the back of the belt along the grooved areas even though they say this is optional.   It improves the belt’s contact with the skin, which makes it easier for your watch to pick up the signals from the belt.  I find myself needing to do that quite often, so I just make it a habit, because it is rather embarrassing to try to wet it while I’m running in public!

Tip 2: Salt helps conducts electrodes better.   When there is no accessible water and you are losing contact, you can try using sweat or saliva to moisten the belt.

Tip 3: If you are a outdoor runner like me, you may want to opt for a coded transmitter because  a non-coded transmitter such as Polar T31 (as shown in picture) can pick up any signal from any transmitter within a 1 meter range, which means if a runner passes by you close enough, you watch may start picking up some other reading other than yours and you would have to reset the watch in the middle of your workout!

Tip 4: I’ve found that when you want to switch readings (say from your heart rate to the actual time), it is best to bring your watch close to the logo on the belt, while at the same time, try to keep your watch below the logo.

Tip 5: Always wipe the sweat off the transmitter before storage.   Salt and moisture will shorten the battery life.

Tip 6: The estimated average battery life of the Polar Transmitter is 2500 hours of use.  If the battery of the transmitter is running low, the transmission range decreases and you lose signal easily.

The Polar FS1 is what I usually recommend my clients because it is the most basic model and it is all you really need for a cardio workout.   I use this watch myself and I think it’s a great tool to keep you motivated because it gives you a target and it turns boring old cardio exercise into something more interesting and challenging!  This simple watch has only one button and it tells you your heart rate reading during your cardio exercise so that you can stay close to your target heart rate, which I have talked about in prior post.

Using a new equipment can be daunting and I don’t want you to be bogged down by reading the manual.   If you are anything like me, you would want to get straight down to the basic functions and not get distracted by all the fancy features.   So here’s some very simple instructions and useful tips to get you started and psyched with your new gadget.

Your watch comes with a black transmitter belt. Wear the belt by putting it on right beneath the chest or breast area with the logo right in the middle of your chest.  Now put on your wrist watch.  Push the button once, and the timer will start, and you will see a flashing black heart, which means that it is trying to catch the heart rate reading from the belt.  Give it maybe 10-20 seconds to do this.  When it is done, the heart rate reading will appear on the screen (and the flashing black heart becomes a static hollow heart with a tiny heart flashing on either side of it).

You can read your heart rate, the actual time, and the duration of your exercise at any given moment.  For example, when you want to see how long you have been exercising instead of your heart rate, just bring your wrist watch as close to the logo on the chest strap as possible, and the reading will switch.  If you repeat the action, the reading will switch again.

I will talk about some tips on using the transmitter belt on my next post.

Because you want to be effective in your workout.
Because you want your sweat to worth every drop.
Because you want twice as much result as you have gotten before.

So yes, your target heart rate is KEY.

Your target heart rate (THR) is a percentage range of your maximum heart rate (MHR), so you need to first establish your MHR, which is simply 220 minus your age for men and 210 minus your age for women. Then, depending on what you want to accomplish, you will set your target at different zones. There are many training zones, but for most of us, it is sufficient to concern ourselves with just High intensity and Low intensity zone. Again, there is a more exact way of calculating this, but I like simplicity as I am sure my readers will appreciate, so here is a simple example of a man who wants to work at a higher intensity range of 80% to 85%.

Age = 30 yrs old
MHR = 220 – 30 = 190
Upper THR = 190 x 80% = 152
Lower THR = 190 x 85% = 162
His THR is 152 to 162, which means he should stay within this range during a high intensity workout.

If you are here to lose weight, you have probably heard people saying that you should stay within your fat-burning zone, which is the Low intensity zone. Take a look at the table below and you will see that there is no free lunch. What you get is what you put in. If you stay within the low intensity level, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories, but you burn less total calories than if you work up to a higher intensity level. Burning any 3500 calories (fat calories or not) will get you to lose one pound. The math never changes so total calories burned directly determines how much weight you lose. Below shows the amount of calories a 130 pound women burned during her cardio exercise.

I think the key is to make sure you are working at an intensity that you can enjoy, while making sure you are at least above the low intensity range. Enjoying means that you can actually see yourself coming back to doing this again. If you feel full of energy one day, then work it up to the higher level, but if not, at least you know that you are being effective in burning fat (even though you know you could be burning even more calories if you work at higher intensity).

Does this make sense? I hope it does because this is how I get myself back into my jogging/running 3 times a week!