Heart rate
301 watchers
7 Jul
8:28pm, 7 Jul 2025
6,156 posts
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J2R
Yes, that's the plan, @larkim  ! The cardiologist I saw was rather more gung-ho about returning to training quickly than I had thought he would be, so with a bit of luck I won't have lost too much fitness by the time I start ramping things up again. |
8 Jul
11:34am, 8 Jul 2025
2,585 posts
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Brunski
Great update J2R, look forward to hearing how it goes 👍🏻
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8 Jul
11:50am, 8 Jul 2025
6,159 posts
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J2R
After the diagnosis back in March and while waiting for the angioplasty, I was understandably anxious about my heart and wanted to keep a very firm eye on heart rate. But for some reason, I seem to be incompatible with heart rate monitors! I already had what was regarded as the most reliable and accurate on the market, the Polar H10 chest strap, but that was occasionally throwing out false but almost plausible readings from time to time. I got myself a Polar Verity Sense armband, and that was fine at first, and then that started giving me false readings as well (I was able to check they were false by comparing either with finger-on-pulse or with a Kardia ECG device)! So I swapped back to the H10 and tried changing the strap, and that helped, but then I got problems with the other strap as well (not a new one, but one from an older HRM I hadn't used for a while). A bit of research online seemed to suggest that the newer Polar straps are not nearly so reliable as they used to be - or rather, have much shorter lives before they start playing up. All very vexatious! So the other day I bought one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D2D4DFVT. £5.70! And it appears to work just fine. My plan now is to use this until it starts throwing out false readings then buy another one, and so on, anticipating getting just a matter of months out of each strap. It seems to me that paying top dollar for Polar straps which fail after such a short period is simply not worthwhile. I feel bad that my new plan is wasteful - we shouldn't just be buying things and throwing them away so soon - but getting an accurate HR reading is super-important for me. |
8 Jul
1:12pm, 8 Jul 2025
27,663 posts
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larkim
Surprised that the arm band didn't prove reliable. I've not had good experiences with chest straps (many brands, many straps), which for me I put down to enjoying wearing loose fitting "technical" tops (I've experimented with taking the top off mid run and instantly the "correct" readings appear - but my locality doesn't need the sight of me running topless!), but my arm band Polar OH1+ never seemed to skip a beat in terms of giving consistent, logical readings even if there are some small potential issues with a tiny bit of lag (1-2s delay max) if instant readings are important.
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8 Jul
2:35pm, 8 Jul 2025
48,259 posts
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SPR
For the Verity it's worth trying different ways of wearing it. Outside of upper arm doesn't work for me, inner upper arm does. It needs to sit somewhere where it will be flush and I guess for me that wasn't the outer arm. It may be that position wouldn't work for other activities for me.
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8 Jul
2:42pm, 8 Jul 2025
28,960 posts
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Dvorak
Back in the day, pre GPS, I had hrms with chest straps, which worked afaik pretty darn well. A couple from Lidl and a Sigma Sports one, which promised ECG accuracy. With the caveat of wetting the sensors and ensuring a good initial contact. In fact, the Lidl belt was better than the Sigma one, which was less comfortable and ran through batteries very quickly, so I just used the Lidl belt with the Sigma watch. Unfortunately I had no way to download the info, and changes to the training pages mean I can't see what I did note down back then. |
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8 Jul
6:20pm, 8 Jul 2025
6,160 posts
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J2R
@SPR , I did try a number of different locations for the Verity Sense, without ever getting 100% reliability. I must be some kind of weird outlier. @Dvorak , I get the sense that the old Polar straps used to be much more reliable. |
11 Jul
10:40am, 11 Jul 2025
1,902 posts
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Daz Love
I have always found the Verity Sense to be solid.
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11 Jul
10:53am, 11 Jul 2025
6,171 posts
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J2R
@Daz Love , it has a great reputation and a good friend of mine who is knowledgeable about heart rate monitoring recommended it to me, which is why I was especially dismayed when it started giving dodgy readings. I must be a serious outlier! Anyway, so far so good with my £5.70 Chinese strap, which has so far proved 100% reliable and thus, in my eyes, has already paid for itself after a couple of weeks! Fortunately when I have fully recovered from the angioplasty in a few weeks time, I can stop being so neurotic about heart rate anyway (if I can manage that). |
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11 Jul
10:57am, 11 Jul 2025
1,903 posts
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Daz Love
Sounds like a bargain J2R.
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