Heart Rate Monitors on Treadmills

FGR

Hi all. Hoping you can help on two questions:

1) Treadmill HR Monitors - Are they accurate? I was on a serious run in the gym earlier. Exceptionally high tech machine and the 'bars' that you hold to check your HR kept returning 178 - 185 as my HR.

Of course I was thrilled with that. But is it accurate? I was monitoring my Pulse on my neck and I was hitting 30 beats in about 10 seconds so I thought it was matching...but am I doing this incorrectly?

2) Calories burned based on HR - The Treadmill says I burned 750 calories in my run. Great stuff! But then I went and used a number of online calorie checkers based on my average HR and they say I've burned the bones of 1,000..!

Which would be more accurate?

Thank you all.

**Timbuk2**

It's possible that the heart rate monitors on the machines are not accurate. Sometimes they can be way off the mark. For example, if I use the bike on the gym, it won't measure accurately if I have my iPod resting on the display and I am listening to it (I haven't a clue why, though) - it gives readings of anything from 20bpm to 300bpm!

As for the calories burned - take that with a pinch of salt. It is at best a guess, and a machine cannot possibly know how many calories your body used up to do that exercise, even if you input weight and age.

You could always invest into getting a Heart Rate Monitor. These are straps that go around your chest. You wear a watch which picks up your heart rate. They are far more accurate than the start HRMs on the machines where you put your hands on them. The calories burned are more accurate also as it takes into account your gender, age, height, weight and most importantly, heart rate (and therefore exertion).

However, it's usually not necessary to buy a heart rate monitor unless you are really serious into cardio exercise. Often, the age-old rule of exercising so that you can just about keep up a conversation is a good guide.

The Davestator

OP, the machines in the gym normally err on the side of caution with HR to cover their arses if you drop dead!!

If you enter your weight etc, your calories wont be too far off, but if you just use the 'quick start' it will be.

Invest in a HR monitor - it will motivate you big time

Khannie

I wore a chest band and compared the watch readout to the crosstrainer there recently. Crosstrainer said slightly higher for the same piece of kit but they were fairly close (within 5% like). I didn't compare the chest band to the hand grippers though. Might try that on Monday.