Newbie - Heart rate monitors

[Beer4Recovery]

Hi Guys,

 

I wonder if you can give me some advice on this topic? I was diagnosed with a high cholesterol count (7) at the beginning of the year and was advised to follow a certain diet, shed some weight (was 100kg's) and do at least training 4 times a week.

 

Since February I have managed to shed 9 kilos and got my fitness levels up and cholesterol down. I try to ride mtb 4 times a week and have read that the type of training i require is "High intensity interval training."

 

I feel great, and want to get even fitter. I see a lot of athletes train with heart rate monitors and I am thinking of getting one. I need to get my heart rate with the interval training between a certain BPM etc. (as per the article i read)

 

Sportsman's Warehouse are running a special on a few HR monitors and from what I have seen the Suunto M5 is what i had in mind (it's got a weight management feature as well)

 

Would I benefit for having one? Can i use it on my mtb to calc distance etc?

Is it difficult to figure out & train for the first time?

 

I would greatly appreciate any feedback.

 

Thanks.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

I've got Asthma and the best thing I ever did according to my Doc was to get a HRM. It makes a huge difference as it will tell if your out of breath because your maxing out or your just plain unfit or more important, sick.

 

Also get yourself a cadence sensor if you do not already have one. The cadence lets you train better on those uphills.

 

BTW, I got a cheap HRM from Chris Willemse and it works 100%. I use it each day on my commute.

[scotty]

I only use mine when i do spinning to monitor how hard or easy i'm going. On the bike i rarely use it.

[brad890]

If your just going to be using it on the bike then maybe take a look at these

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=17274

 

they are the delphi bike computers, been using mine for over a year now and am very happy with it, plus it comes with a lifetime guarantee, my cadence sensor started playing up a year later, sent it back and got a whole brand new computer

 

otherwise if your wanting one of the watches just for heart rate, and not the bicycle functions take a look here

 

https://www.bikehub.co.za/classifieds/1421-heart-rate-monitors-now-70-off/

 

i dont know anything about the watches but i'm sure if you ask around someone will have bought and tried one

 

hope that helps a bit