Wahoo TICKR Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap, Bluetooth, ANT+

Product Information

Verity Sense is a serious heart rate monitor for running, swimming, cycling and workouts, but it's also designed to be comfortable and easy to use. The latest from hardcore Finnish fitness brand Polar, it's one of thebest heart rate monitorsto date to use an optical sensor rather than the traditional electrical one. Without getting too technical, chest straps read the small electrical signal your body creates to make your heart contract. Optical technology sends light into the skin and reads what reflects. Based on that information and what we know about how light scatters when it hits blood, these sensors translate the data into a pulse measurement. Honestly, Garmin doesn’t do that. Some companies do – but really, Garmin has far better things to do than write pieces. Plus, there’s no reason too – they’re a big enough company that more than enough people will cover their stuff.

Using a chest strap to detect your heart’s electrical signal is still more accurate, if less convenient than wrist-based measurement using light, which is prone to missing pulses when exercising. Sounds good? It is good. The Frontier X provides endurance athletes with loads of data and recommends workouts based on previous sessions. It also assesses your workouts straight after they conclude via the Frontier X App, where you can analyse and overanalyse each and every activity you did wearing the heart rate monitor. Sadly, no matter how large the head unit is, the Frontier X hasn't got a built-in GPS, so you'll have to take the phone with you if you need distance data attached to your workout assessments. Alternatively, you can connect the Frontier X to watches and fitness machines via BLE (no ANT+, sadly), although it's too expensive to be used only as an external heart rate monitor. A) Self-inflicted wound #1: Garmin.com for example showing a product when it’s not yet out, typically due to early staging or date changes or just a stupid human mistake.

Scosche Rhythm24

Peloton has its own shoes and apparel line; it's no surprise the most popular at-home exercise bike class provider sells a Peloton-branded heart rate monitor that seamlessly connects to the Peloton Bike+ and Peloton Tread. The Scosche Rhythm24 is an excellent choice for swimmers, triathletes, and anyone else who uses heart rate zone data as part of their training. It provided accurate results in testing, but its optical sensor means the data won't be quite as accurate as that from a chest strap with electrical pulse technology. Also, I find that when I first start running, there will be a massive spike up to the 160s when I am barely moving. After a bit of messing around, sometimes having to ‘forget’ the sensor and re-syncing it, it might work but isn’t guaranteed.

When it comes to heart rate monitors, the cream of the crop is the Garmin HRM-Pro Plus. It combines the best features of the Garmin HRM-Run and HRM-Swim and can be used both in and out of the water. It can also provide advanced running metrics and can be used without a watch too. I have a Garmin Fenix 5X that I am connecting to as well as the Wahoo App on my Android tablet. The 5x thru Ant+ and the Wahoo App thru BT.E) General leak: This is when someone says something, or perhaps passes on a product presentation or such. Also pretty rare. Got all that? Phew! If not, swing over to the product comparison table dedicated to heart rate sensors to make your own chart goodness! The only errors here are those little spikes we see in the Polar Grit X (the norm for it) and a slightly rough start for the Fenix 6 Pro. But hey, in a rare show of correctness – the Whoop strap nailed it. See, sometimes it happens. NOTE: If a firmware update is available for your sensor, the Wahoo Fitness app will now prompt you to proceed with performing an update using the Wahoo app. If you do not, the update may be performed later. The free Wahoo app is required to perform firmware updates and is available from the Google Play Store.