Essentially a dashboard readout for your ticker, a heart-rate monitor is the most important piece of exercise equipment to have if you’re serious about cardiovascular health. It displays the calories you’re burning, your heart rate, and your recovery rate, and it sounds an alarm before you overexert yourself. This allows you to get more out of your workouts by lowering your resting heart rate and boosting your recovery time. A
New England Journal of Medicine study showed that men with a resting heart rate of 75 were three and a half times more likely to die from a sudden heart attack than men with a resting rate of 60. “A lot of adult men use what I call ‘the puke index’ to know when they’re overdoing it,” says exercise physiologist Jose Maresma. But he says the tough-guy approach merely increases your chance of injury. Instead, use a heart-rate monitor to vary the intensity of your workouts—low, mid, high—and expose your heart to different levels of stress to maximize the healthful benefits of exercise. Here’s a primer on the best monitors for your money.
BEST FOR PROS The
Polar RS800 scrutinizes the millisecond-long intervals between heartbeats. At rest, the lengths of these intervals change frequently, but they become much more consistent once you begin exercising. The device uses this measurement to determine if you’re fatigued and adjusts its recommended intensity accordingly. What’s more, it predicts VO2 max—the body’s ability to absorb and use oxygen—as accurately as a stress test. $389, polarusa.com
BEST FOR NEWBIES Most heart-rate monitors beam data from a chest strap to the wristwatch. The
Impulse D-71, however, works without a chest strap: It reads your pulse when you press your fingers against conductive buttons on its face. It’s an entry-level model for guys just beginning to take fitness seriously. $40, sportsbeatusa.com
BEST ALL-AROUND The genius of the
Suunto T3 is that it crunches the data it has acquired from your previous workouts, as well as the stats you’ve programmed (e.g., your age and weight), and turns it into a number on a scale from 1 to 5. As you exercise, a corresponding line will fluctuate to tell you if you’re maintaining fitness, improving, or risking injury. $150, suuntousa.com
BEST FOR RUNNERS The
Garmin Forerunner 50 is one of the lightest, thinnest watch/heart monitors on the market. The curved glass display fits snugly on the wrist, and the menus are intuitive and easy to use while running at full speed. Best of all, it sends data from your workout to your computer automatically. $107, garmin.com
BEST FOR GYM RATS The
New Balance N5 Max gives you only the simple stuff—beats per minute, average heart rate, and target zones—and helps you get the most out of your workout by sounding an alarm whenever you’re underperforming or overdoing it. Each button has a single function, so it’s easier to use than watches with multifunction buttons and menus. $90, nbmonitors.com
BEST FOR PROS The
Polar RS800 scrutinizes the millisecond-long intervals between heartbeats. At rest, the lengths of these intervals change frequently, but they become much more consistent once you begin exercising. The device uses this measurement to determine if you’re fatigued and adjusts its recommended intensity accordingly. What’s more, it predicts VO2 max—the body’s ability to absorb and use oxygen—as accurately as a stress test. $389, polarusa.com 
