This post is part of the Sizzlin’ Summer Sweeps – 31 Days of Giveaways for July 2010, brought to you by Crazy Coupon Mommy and Sisterly Savings! Make sure you check out all the other awesome giveaways you can enter!
Did you know that your heart rate is the most important indicator of your physical fitness? It is the most accurate way to measure how hard your body is working (or fitness intensity), as well as your overall fitness level over time. This is done by measuring your resting heart rate. The National Institute of Health says that the normal adult resting rate is usually between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm). But as you become more physically fit, your heart becomes more efficient at pumping and your resting heart rate will lower. Runners have a resting bpm of around 40!!
Because of this, knowing your heart rate helps you get more out of exercise. It tells you if you are working hard enough (too low of a heart rate and you won’t see any results!) or too hard (you could hurt yourself or quite exercising early due to burn-out). To get the maximum benefit out of exercise, you need to be “in the zone”, your Heart Rate Target Zone that is. (You want to be working at 50%-80% of maximum to see benefits.)
Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but..um, sounds like a lot of work. I don’t have any time to waste – every spare chance that I do happen to get to exercise, I want it to be worth something….BUT…I also *know* I’m not going to sit and take my pulse and do the calculations before, during and after exercise to get optimal results. The likelihood of that happening is just as high as Ed McMahon showing up to my doorstep to give me a big happy oversized check for millions of dollars. Not likely.
Which is probably why I’m not really seeing any results from the limited workouts I do get in. I don’t think I’m working hard enough, but I don’t really have a way to measure that…easily anyway. Well, check out this handy gadget I found. Its the Sportline Women’s Heart Rate Watch (Model Solo #915) from Sports Authority.
Even though you wear it on your wrist, it is NOT a pulse reader. This watch measures your heart rate by measuring the electrical signals on your skin – just like an ECG (Electrocardiogram). This is very accurate! And you don’t have to be standing still to use it either. Any time you want to see your current heart rate, you just touch anywhere on the stainless-steel case and it will appears within seconds. Not only does it give you your heart rate in bpm, but it tells you at what % you are working at (remember that Target Zone from earlier?)
So what would have taken me several minutes plus a calculator to do, I can now do in just seconds. Anytime. Sweet! (I just took my resting blogging heart rate – its 73.) In addition to this really cool feature that sets it apart from all other sport watches, it has your usual set of sporty features like:
- * 12 or 24 hour time display
- * backlight
- * alarm
- * hourly chime
- * stopwatch
- * water resistant to 50 meters
- * calendar
- * countdown timer
But my other favorite feature is that is calculates calories burned over time. What does this mean? Well, you can set it to Calorie timer mode. It then starts counting like a stopwatch, but displays along the bottom the total number of calories you have burned in that time. It uses your heart rate to determine this, so it is very accurate. All you need to do is be sure to update your heart rate (by touching and holding) as often as possible (prior to starting, several times during, and after).
For instance, I have started the timer when I started my evening blogging session :) It has been 2 hours and 31 minutes later and my watch is telling me that I have burned 432 calories in this amount of time = 172 calories/hour. According to a google search, this is much higher than the 42 cal/hr I would burn by just sitting and just under the 180 cal/hr I would burn repairing shoes :)
I’m motivated by data and figures. This means I’m going to be testing out all sorts of activities and seeing how many calories I burn by doing them – washing dishes, giving baby a bath, shopping at Target, playing with my new Wii!! Already, just because I want to know the results, this watch is driving me to be more active! Silly I know, but I always say, if it blows up your skirt then do it :)
If you’d like to join me in charting the different ways a SAHM burns calories, you can get this super cool watch from Sports Authority, OR you can win it right here!
Sports Authority is generously offering one reader their very own Sportline Women’s Heart Rate Watch (Model Solo #915)!
Wanna win it? Just click on the button below to go to the giveaway entry page! (Also, it would be nice if you thanked Sports Authority for the chance by leaving them a note on Twitter or Facebook)
Contest will end 7/26/2010 at 11:59pm PST. The winner will be chosen randomly via computer using “And the Winner is…” WordPress Plugin or Random.org. Winner will be notified by e-mail and a blog post (so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter so that you don’t miss the winner announcement!). Winner must respond within 48 hours or another random winner will be chosen.
Many thanks to Sports Authority who provided me with a sample for the purpose of this review, as well as one to giveaway on the Sisterly Savings site to a randomly selected winner. No other type of compensation was received. This has no bearing on my completely honest review and the opinions expressed are 100% my own.
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