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If you only want to know your heart rate occasionally, you can simply take your pulse with finger on wrist or neck ( if you can find it). That's what I've been doing.
Or you can get a cheap clip on finger pulse oximeter that measures pulse and blood oxygen, and keep it with you to use when you want to.
or if you want continuous monitoring there are lots of brands. I've just bought a fitbit wrist monitor that does heart rate and activity / steps, but it's not even out of the packet yet... I chose this brand because I'm already using a fitbit activity monitor, so it's familiar. No idea yet how good it is.
This thread turned into a discussion of heart rate monitors, where I posted about my new toy:Tagging @TiredSam, he recently recommended one that sounded quite good.
I thought I'd bought one of these at Christmas........but when 'it' arrived it turned out I'd only ordered the charging lead.
I'd waited weeks for it to get here from China
thanks everyone for your input. so am considering fitbit charge 2 hr vs. mio alpha 2 vs. vivosmart. I agree with @TiredSam that the vibrating alarm could be a cool feature to have.
I wonder, since everyone else on the planet needs to be encouraged to exercise, does anyone know if these come with annoying "goals" and "nudges" to move more that one can't turn off? because that would really get to me.
Mine doesn't have any annoying pre-sets. I can set all the levels when the alarm vibrates (maximum and minimum), and use it to make sure I don't exceed my maximum HR. If you have to set a minimum, set it to below a level you would ever reach, for example HR of 20. If that alarm ever rings I'll be dead and past caring anyway. I don't use the steps function, but I could set it to a low target that I don't want to exceed. I also have a "do not disturb" button which turns off all alarms, but the screen still flashes a message, which is handy for when I don't want those around me to wonder why my wrist is buzzing.thanks everyone for your input. so am considering fitbit charge 2 hr vs. mio alpha 2 vs. vivosmart. I agree with @TiredSam that the vibrating alarm could be a cool feature to have.
I wonder, since everyone else on the planet needs to be encouraged to exercise, does anyone know if these come with annoying "goals" and "nudges" to move more that one can't turn off? because that would really get to me.