Saturday, July 7, 2012

Polar FT80 Best Price, Excellent product.

Polar FT80 Best Price, Excellent product.
Let's start with bottom line. I love and enjoy my new Polar FT80.
Got it about a month ago after training for a couple of years with an older version of a Polar heart rate monitor. The FT80 is a big step forward and upward.
First the physical aspect. The chest belt is wider and much more flexible and comfortable. Wetting it before the training to make sure the heart monitor connects well to the body is much easier and more reliable.
It stores 100 training sessions in its memory, so my whole training regiment for the last month can be reviewed. It also accumulates summaries so I can review the results on a weekly basis. This makes it much easier following my calories intake/spending on a daily or weekly basis.
During aerobic training there is a display that shows both the calories and the time spent from the start of the session. The previous version required jumping between two different displays to see these.
I set a weekly goal for training calories spending. I did not get the GPS Sensor or Foot Pod since all of my training is in the gym. I do not know how well they work, but if it is as well as the components I have, it should be very enlightening to get all the extra information like distance and speed statistics. It is also possible to set weekly distance goals.
The concept of heart rate based training zones is implemented very well. The time spent in each zone is recorded separately for each training session and accumulated through the week. The target time to be spent in each zone is also set on a weekly basis.
There is a special strength-training mode that shows the heart rate on a graph. On the same display I also see both the heart rate and the time from the start of the session, so I can time the rest between the exercise sets based either on time or my heart rate. It also suggests when to start the next set, although it currently gives me only about 30 seconds for rest and I feel I need more - or maybe I need to challenge myself more :-)
When my gym visit includes several sections like warm-up, strength training and aerobic training, I record them separately in the appropriate modes. Then when I come home I synchronize the watch very easily through the FlowLink with the [...] site and it stores all my training history. It also shows my target status, training-zone statistics and graphical curves of the heart-beat during all the training sessions.
I just skimmed through the training program feature, so I cannot comment on it. I did see that I can define a detailed training program with pre-defined exercises or add new ones I define myself. I'll probably do it further down the line.
It is even much better as a watch. It has a Stopwatch application with a nice multiple-laps recording feature and the wrist-band is very comfortable.
Finally, it even looks very nice - rounded, hi-tech shape. It looks different.
...Told you I love it :-)

Polar FT80 Best Price, Works Great.
The Polar FT80 has worked great for me. No issues with the display. I wear it playing basketball, aerobic excercises, and weight training and I haven't had any problems.

I have worn it outside in the sun and can see the display without issue both inside and outside.

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