Best Heart Rate Monitors

Your fitness goals have been set; weight loss objectives determined; and you have committed to running or cycling competitions. This could be a “get fit” year or maybe one in which you plan to improve on an already impressive cardiovascular strength and endurance.

What you need now is a device to accurately monitor your heart rate. If it does other things, that’s a bonus, but the main feature of items found in this top 5 list is their ability to monitor your heart’s activity when you work out and at rest.

The Top 5 Heart Rate Monitors For 2016

1. Suunto Quest

Time your run, learn how far you went, and find out how many calories you just burned with the Quest by Suunto. It won’t set off an alarm when you hit your heart rate objective, but there are many great features like the heart rate strap and watch which work together.

If you wonder which is better, you don’t have to choose. Enjoy the accuracy of a chest strap with the readability of a watch.

Customers receive an online account called Movescount where they record data from the monitor and keep track or customize objectives. Provide the system with information about your age, height, and weight so that it can set an ideal fitness performance zone within healthy parameters.

2. Polar RS300X

Polar has been at this game for 40 years and their RS300X is your guide when setting fitness goals according to personal details. Learn how many laps you did and calories you burned when running or swimming. Set your device for “training” to show heart rate on the display or turn this off to show the time. You get a chest strap too for extreme accuracy.

There’s an alarm telling you that your target rate has been achieved. Learn how long you worked out for and how far you traveled, such as the distance of a run, walk, or bike ride. Only the non-replaceable battery is a problem: you’ll need to visit a service center to replace it within the year.

3. Garmin Forerunner 15

Track your heart rate with a chest strap and learn all the basics with a high degree of accuracy: distance travelled, heart rate changes, how long you were moving, and the number of calories you burned (estimated by your heart rate). Create personal goals and track how close you were to meeting them if you didn’t, in fact, exceed your goals.

GPS is installed but turn this off and the battery lasts more than a month. A USB cable comes with the Forerunner 15 so you can recharge or transfer information to the computer. This is one of the most expensive heart rate monitors on the list.

4. Mio Alpha 2

Mio’s Alpha 2 is easy to use. Wear it on your wrist all the time without the discomfort of a chest accessory. Some would say this diminishes accuracy, but Mio recognizes that many people are not drawn to the chest-strap format and wouldn’t wear one no matter how accurate it is.

Synch to one or several of the many fitness apps. As a watch it’s sporty looking; as a heart rate monitor the Alpha 2 has lots of features, including a decent display size though without built-in memory. App-synching capability makes up for the lack of memory.

5. Timex Ironman Road Trainer

This is the low-cost member of our list at under $80. Build quality is strong, monitoring is flexible, and you can even take this monitor in the water. It loses points for weight (too heavy) and won’t tell you when you reached a target heart rate, but you can simply follow and read details.

The battery is incredible: about 2 years before you have to replace it. That’s probably owing to the lack of technology found here, but for a basic device Timex has come up with a sturdy product capable of storing details of 50 miles of running hiking, or cycling.