I always knew the calorie counts on exercise machines aren’t accurate. But I continued to rely heavily on them during my workouts. After reading some blogs and doing some research, I decided to buy myself a present – the Polar F7 heart rate monitor watch.  I read that it is difficult to set up, but I had no problem at all. I am very smart.

I’ve used it twice so far — and I am in love. After going on my second machine with it, I realized that it actually transmits my hear rate onto the screen on the machine! Of course, being obsessive as I am, I constantly look at my watch while I am exercising. I’m excited for my shoulder to get better (bone marrow edema) so I can start doing better workouts and get stats for when I am in classes. Right now, I can only do exercises that don’t move my arms, which really sucks. I am basically limited to the elliptical with no arms, the treadmill and the stairmaster. I miss my favorite kickoxing class. I also miss Zumba and this pilates-like class called Body Contour. 

I can spin though, so I am also looking forward to getting my stats during a 45 minute spin class. I just don’t spin much as I’d like because my gym is very fancy and they don’t keep the feet saddles on the bikes because most of the people wear spinning shoes, and it is VERY difficult to get the saddles on myself. Also, I never know exactly how to do the settings on the bike, even though I was told a couple times. It is all very stressful for me! I will go to a class soon though since I am dying to know how many calories I’d burn and where my heart rate is!

Today I plan to set up my target heart rate on the watch so that I will know if I am in my zone. Soon I will start uploading my stats onto the computer. I just have to set it up and haven’t gotten around to it yet. But working out is already far less boring! The watch inspires me to run faster and longer. I am sure the novelty will wear off, but hopefully the motivation will not!

 

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