Whether you’re a serious gym rat or just looking for the best wearable heart rate monitor for your personal health, you’ve likely heard of the latest and greatest heart rate monitors on the market.
But how do you know which one is best for you? We have done the research and found the top-rated heart rate monitors on the market.
In this article, we review the top 5 heart rate monitors you can buy right now.
Learning About The Best Wearable Heart Monitor Watches
One of the most outstanding and most convenient features that many smart watches have is a heart rate monitor.
The main type of heart rate monitors includes:
- Chest straps for small electric impulses
- Optical sensors
Therefore, it is up to you to choose the most accurate and convenient method to measure your heart rate when running or exercising.
Many people have different reasons for checking their heart rate ranging from managing stress levels and tracking heart health to improving athletic performance.
However, it is important to know that heart rate monitor watches are not medical devices; hence they cannot always be accurate, especially if worn wrongly or don’t fit well. Regardless of the difference in prices and features, the smartwatches’ sheer number can be confounding.
The best wearable heart monitor will always provide an accurate reading. Triathlon and running watches are the most popular pulse measurement smartwatch since they can measure the optical heart rate even on a sweaty body.
Therefore, you will need armbands and heart rate straps. The technology involved in these fitness wearable devices does not lose signal; hence chances of getting an accurate reading are always high at a given time.
For serious athletes, it is crucial to have the best heart rate sensor, regardless of whether it is an armband or a chest strap. Sometimes, using a heart rate monitor is one of the only ways to track your heart rate when working out. In weight lifting, wrist wearables are not precise and safe heart rate trackers.
Many people will prefer a wrist-mounted optical heart rate sensor during their fitness program, but it is hard to get precise readings since fitness trackers can be affected by external factors easily: sweat and too many wrist movements.
The best wearable heart monitor provides more accurate readings, especially chest straps, because of:
- The elastic strap fits the torso better.
- They don’t need to see the skin like the optical sensors.
Other wearables heart rate monitors like the best heart rate monitor chest strap can provide accurate measurements underwater, but it is essential to look for water-resistant heart rate sensors. If you are looking forward to upgrading your running or workout gear, ensure you look for the most accurate heart rate monitor watch.
The list of heart rate monitors listed below are assembled according to the following criteria:
- Suitability for unique needs
Adaptability to specific individuals like people with heart problems or athletes. - Functionality
Measuring heart rate and offering other important features. - Customer‘s reviews
Positive reviews from people who have already used the product.
The Best Wearable Heart Rate Monitors
Below is our list of the best wearable heart rate monitors available on the market today:
Fitbit Versa 2
This heart rate monitor tops the list due to its unique features and overwhelmingly positive reviews. Fitbit Versa 2 offers continuous 24/7 rate tracking that is displayed on the watch‘s home screen. Also, you can check your heart health and trends over a period and any historical report using the Fitbit application.
Considering all the features available, the price is excellent and affordable. You can sync some music apps like Spotify and Pandora to have some entertainment. You can track your sleep metrics, steps taken, and calories burned when synced with the phone.
Garmin
This is one of the best heart rate monitor watches for heart patients. It offers both heart rate estimation and oxygen saturation level. Therefore, you will always know the amount of oxygen getting down to your tissues at a given time.
Measuring oxygen saturation is very crucial for people with lung or heart ailments as an early warning sign. You will always have the upper hand if the oxygen saturation is dropping. Also, you can use this heart rate monitor to assess the working of the current medical treatment.
Additionally, this watch has a feature that can monitor your stress levels and offers a guide for breathing exercise during high-stress moments. It can receive phone notifications for activity and a sleep tracker.
You can get a Garmin heart rate monitor in different designs and models like:
- Garmin HRM-Swim
- Garmin for runners
- Garmin Pro
Gamin Pro is among the top heart rate monitors you can use when running and swimming when linked with a compatible smart watch. The Garmin running sensor can estimate lactate threshold more accurately and precisely when using a compatible smart watch-like Garmin Forerunner 745.
It is a perfect heart rate monitor for inexperienced runners who wish to exercise at the correct pace.
You can feed your heart rate data in different devices since Garmin Pro can connect via Bluetooth hence suitable for people who wish to monitor their performance using different devices. It is possible to collect offline data on your daily activities using a heart rate strap. The data collected will be fed into the connect app as long as you have HRM-Pro in place when performing an activity.
MyZone MZ3
This is one of the most accurate heart rate monitors. It comes with a rechargeable battery that can last for up to 6 months.
The sensor type is a transmitter or electrode pad.
Why Do You Need to Buy
- It has an integrated PPG and ECG sensor
- Bluetooth and ATN+ connection
- It offers a light heart rate indicator zone
- Store a lot of data (up to 30 hours)
The MyZone MZ3 is a versatile fitness watch that can deliver precise and accurate measurements at any given exercise. It offers one of the best experiences with exceptional battery life, a lightweight and compact design, a feature-rich companion, and easy-to-use applications.
This heart rate monitor is a cheap design for many users, but it delivers the designed job regardless of the exercise condition. MyZone monitor uses a unique monitoring system compared to other heart rate monitors: MEPs system. This watch will track the current heart rate zone and gives MEPs (MyZone Effort Points) after every fitness program.
MEPs are similar to other fitness reward systems, but it can confuse starters to see a coloured line in the MyZone app. However, once you understand its working mechanism, it will be straightforward to use.
Polar H10
The Polar H10 uses a transmitter as the sensor and a CR 2025 battery type with 400 hours of life.
Reasons for Buying Polar H10
- Versatile
- Precise
- Worth the price
This is the best heart rate monitor you can buy to monitor more than one type of activity. Polar heart rate monitors come in different varieties, but polar H10 is the most accurate heart rate monitor watch. Additionally, it can monitor tickers accurately and precisely.
The best thing about polar H10 is that it has an inbuilt space memory for a single exercise. Therefore, you can strap the monitor around your chest and leave the phone behind. The phone will sync with the strap once you are back home.
Polar H10 can use ATN+ and Bluetooth to connect to sports, gym equipment, fitness apps, and smart watches (you can connect your Polar H10 monitor with different devices simultaneously).
You can use it when swimming even though it will not offer the best result compared to swimming heart rate monitors. Also, it is equipped with a comfortable polar pro strap that runs along the belt insides and sports tiny non-slip dots. Therefore, the best will stay intact without making it more synthetic.
This heart rate sensor is also equipped with Polar’s orthostatic test that can help in recording heart rate variability and help you know more about your recovery and training tools for optimisation.
Polar Verity Sense
Polar Verity Sense is one of the other types of polar heart rate monitors you can use when working out. The difference is that it uses an optical heart rate sensor with a rechargeable battery.
However, you can use this heart sensor for swimming, workouts, running, and cycling. It is among the best heart rate monitor that uses optical sensors. Because of that, it is wrapped around your arm (which is more convenient for many people) rather than around your chest.
It is a feature-rich, versatile, and affordable heart rate monitor that can be used by anyone doing any activity. It is recommended to use the Polar Beat application, which offers more friendly use and can feed data into the Flow application.
You can monitor your heart rate and initiate a workout using the Polar Beat application to monitor your calories using an external screen like your phone. Polar Beat can help you perform tests like the polar fitness Test – VO2 max assessment.
Apple Watch
You can monitor your heart rate anytime you walk or do some activities using an Apple Watch heart rate monitor. The only thing you have to do to measure your heart rate using an apple watch is to turn on the watch and wait.
The watch can also show you the workout, recovery, walking, and breathing rates during the day. You can either add the application to the dock or the compilation to the watch face to open the application easily.
This watch has a feature for turning on the notification if the heart rate is below or above a chosen BPM or checking an irregular heart rhythm.
Using an apple watch for a workout will measure your heart rate non-stop and 3 minutes later for recovery rate measurements. The system in the apple watch is simple to use and navigate through, making it one of the best heart rate monitors in the market.
The watch will collect all information for the calculation of the calories burnt. The watch is designed to take readings throughout the day regardless of the activities; hence the measurement time will vary.
Apple Watch can calculate walking average and resting rate using the correlation between background heart rates readings and accelerometer data. You have the option of choosing a third-party application to access personal health data.
How to Select the Best Wearable Heart Monitor
Fitness involves more than the amount of exercise one does in a certain period. Exercise intensity is what matters. A heart rate monitor is a device that reminds you when to slow down or speed up to attain certain results. Selecting the right heart rate monitor is not something that a lot of people find easy.
Therefore, you need to consider some factors when selecting the perfect heart rate sensor.
Monitor Type
Monitors have different sensor location with some having them on the wrist and other on a chest strap. Chest strap heart rate monitors are the most accurate, while wrist-based heart rate monitors are more convenient.
Monitor Features
The best wearable heart monitor will do almost everything you could imagine about measuring heart rates. These devices are the most expensive.
The top of the line monitor should track your heart activities and display the heart rates on a screen whether you are exercising or resting.
Cost Factor
You need to consider the cost of a certain monitor before investing in it. The price is directly proportional to the quality and feature that a certain heart rate monitor has.
Some smart watches will only measure heart rate, while others can connect with your phone to offer other features like activity tracking and GPS. Heart rate monitors with built-in GPS are essential for athletes for directions.
There are smart watches with blood pressure and heart rate monitor installed in the same device while other are specifically for people with lung or heart problems. Invest where you see the worth of your money.
What is the Best Pulse Rate?
Also known as resting heart rate. It is the number of times the heart beats per minute when resting or inactive. Pulse rates vary from person to person depending on several factors like health conditions. 60 – 100 bpm is considered the normal pulse rate. Resting heart rate will vary throughout the day and can be lower during a certain sleep stage.
Athletes, especially younger and healthy ones, have a lower pulse rate of 40 bpm and below.
What Happens When the Resting Heart Rate is Too High?
It is not healthy to go high than your normal maximum heart rate, especially if it is the first time to do that specific exercise.
People who continuously exceed their maximum and target heart rates while doing a certain activity tend to have poor recovery rates after an exercise. Also, they have a risk for different cardiac events like:
- Chest pain
- Arrhythmias
- Discomfort
It is advisable to return to a more comfortable place if you reach your maximum heart rate during activities. Stop the activity if you feel dizzy, ill, or lightheaded.
An average pulse rate for runners will differ from one person to another because of different factors like:
- Fitness level. More fit runners will have lower pulse rates than non-athletic individuals.
- Age
- Medication use. Some medications like beta-blockers can slow your heart rates, while a high thyroid dosage can raise your pulse.
- Air temperature. Humidity and heat may raise your resting heart rate.
- Stress. Emotions from stress can quicken or slow your heart rate.
You can use a chart and formula to calculate your pulse rate range based on your maximum heart rate and age. You need to aim at 50 to 85% of your maximum pulse rate. Subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate.
If your heart rate is above the maximum, you will need to slow down a bit, and if it is below, you need to pick up the pace to get the maximum result from your exercise. A heart rate monitor can help you with this.
The Importance of Monitoring Your Heart Rate
Exercise is an important element in the health of everyone. However, finding time to exercise is not an easy thing will all the daily activities. Therefore, you will need to monitor your heart rate to get the maximum out of the exercise you are planning to do. Monitoring your heart rate during an activity of exercise is important because:
- It eliminates undertraining woes
- Avoid overexertion dangers
- Knowing your maximum heart rates during different exercises
- Learning about the fat burning zones
- Examining and determining weight loss and heart rate relationship
- Understanding medication influence
Best Wearable Heart Monitor Bottom Line
The market is full of different wearable heart rate monitors that suit every need and budget. However, you should consider the cost of a heart rate monitor instead look at its features, functionalities, and reviews to have the best in the market.
The option provided in this article is the best place to start looking for the best wearable heart monitor to suit your needs.
If you are looking for accuracy in your heart rate measurements, go for chest strap monitors.
Christian Scott is the founder and director of MindBodyFit, a website dedicated to providing the latest information on fitness, health, and mental well-being technology. With over six years of experience in the health and fitness industry, Christian is a passionate fitness enthusiast who combines his love for technology and wellness to help others achieve their best selves.
