Heart Rate Monitor

[kkottkamp@gmail.com]

I'm still a relative newbie and this is the first time I've been on these forums. I'm 57 and have begun to do some ranked rows and am enjoying competing in a remote way, albeit, but it's fun. I know I should have an HRM, but can someone give me the low-down on selecting a compatible HRM and how you can use it with ERGdata and the log book? Suggestions on how to pick one (chest, watch, etc...) and what I should be looking for? Thanks in advance!

[HornetMaX]

My .2c (been rowing for only 1yr, but did look into threads and info on HRMs):

• Chest, always. I have a polar H9 (chest) and a polar Unite (watch with HRM sensor). The Unite HRM sensor is worse. Also, I hate it sits where usually have wrist bands (to absorb sweat). Common opinion, chest are better.
• From what I've read around: go polar H9 or H10. H9 is a bit cheaper, H10 has dual connection (2 devices at same time). Others may be as good, but basically you can't go wrong with these.

[Joebasscat]

Polar H10. It’s a chest strap and considered to be about as good as it gets. There are other chest straps that will do the job very well, Garmin for instance. Chest straps are much more accurate than wrist worn watches/trackers, especially at high rates. If you get interested in Heart Rate Variability tracking as well the Polar H10 will also be a good choice.

While wearing your monitor you will hit the “Connect Button” on your PM5 and you will see an option for connecting heart rate monitor. Once it identifies your monitor you will choose it and confirm it.

ErgData will recognize the heart rate monitor and should ask you if you would like ErgData to automatically connect your HRM in the future. Takes a few moments on startup. Either way connecting is not difficult.

As for using the HRM and heart rate guided training others will be better at explaining the science behind it etc…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MALsI0mJ09I. Take a look at Stephen Seiler’s info on YouTube.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[HornetMaX]

Just a note, the polar H9 does HRV too. Sensor is identical I think between H9 and H10.
Only differences I can see are: 2 connections for the H10, onboard memory (1 session) for the h10, different strap.

https://www.polar.com/blog/polar-verity ... -polar-h9/

[Dangerscouse]

I use a CooSpo, and it's significantly cheaper than Polar. I've never had an issue, apart from occasionally having to wash the chest strap, and eventually, after about five million metres, having to change it

[RowFLA]

Polar chest strap. I’ve been using them for years.
I assume you have a PM5, make sure you get the BLUETOOTH transmitter. I use to have the older Wearlink transmitter- they look identical.
Bluetooth Smart is what you’ll need. I use the H7 transmitter since it’s less expensive and fits on all my chest straps. H7, H9 and H10 work via Bluetooth.

[Tony Cook]

I use a CooSpo, and it's significantly cheaper than Polar. I've never had an issue, apart from occasionally having to wash the chest strap, and eventually, after about five million metres, having to change it

+ 1
Every bit as accurate as named brands. If you just want it to link with PM5, ErgData, Strava and similar apps why waste money for a name?

[thaloun]

I'll break the trend and say definitely get an apple watch. If you are using ergdata on an iphone it all works automatically. And you're likely already wearing it, unlike a chest strap. I think the claims about inaccuracy of wrist based devices are very overblown. Additionally if you settle in to the apple health ecosystem it can track all sorts of other activities and metrics. Seeing the improvements there is my main motivation for continuing to expand my workouts and I certainly wouldn't have that with just a standalone chest monitor.

[HornetMaX]

I think the claims about inaccuracy of wrist based devices are very overblown.

I only speak for what I've tried: polar H9 chest vs Polar Unite wrist (maybe Apple Watch is different / better / worse, no idea).

I did a 1h workout, steady pace starting from rest.
I recorded it using the polar H9 via ErgZone (logged to the concept2 logbook) and the polar Unite (logged to polar Flow).
1st graph below is concept2 logbook as recorded by H9+ErgZone+logbook.
2nd graph is polar Flow as recorded by Unite.
3rd graph is HR data from the two on the same graph (after respective export).

Now, given that that was essentially a constant pace exercise, I suspect all the Unite peaks to be 100% fake (except the peak at the very end, in which I did an all out last minute, visible on both H9 and Unite).

• My HR does not go up/down 10+ bps in 10 seconds or so during a steady state training.
• There's some shady stuff at workout start.
• Checking the HR during the workout, if you have sudden changes in HR (e.g. rest periods or interval training), the Unite seems to react much les promptly than the H9.

To me, the H9 data makes a lot more sense and seems closer to reality. The Unite data looks "wrong" / very noisy.
And that doesn't seem relate to it's higher sample rate (1s in polar Unite logs, roughly 3-4 seconds for concept2 logs, as exported).

How much of an issue that is ? Don't know, but why having to deal with it when a chest strap does just better ?





P.S.
To be 100% sure one day I'll try to log with the H9 connected to the Unite (i.e. Unite logs but data comes from the H9): that way we can rule out any post-processing done by ErgZone and/or the concept2 logbook. I expect no surprises.

[JaapvanE]

I use the Garmin Dual Chest strap. I also have a Garmin Venue watch, but especially during sprints I've noticed my watch is shacking too much to reliably measure HR.

[Carl Watts]

For starters what Concept 2 monitor do you have on the rower ?

If you have a PM4 or a PM5 then an ANT+ chest strap is the way to go.

Currently I'm using a Garmin HRM RUN and its very good. Problem is the straps are quite high maintenance and its generally its hard to get a rock solid reading. Just switched to a bit of cycling with it to rehab my foot and because 100W doesn't generate any sweat I need to totally soak the strap before using it.

If you have an older Concept 2 monitor you are kind of stuck getting the nice graphs above into your C2 LogBook and you have to use the older Polar technology to get something on the monitor.

[HornetMaX]

I have a PM5 and the H9 can do ANT+ and/or BLE: I haven't found one to be better than the other, both are rock solid (for me, at home, not a lot of interference probably). No problem with the straps either (but I've only used it for 1 year 4 times per week).
Only time when readings are dropped is when the battery is dead or near dead.

[winniewinser]

Another vote for Polar here....mt H10 has been going well for 3 years and only the battery has needed changing.....still accurate.

The strap died to salt incrustation and has been replaced but more fool me for not washing it.

[smokersteve]

I have a Coospo chest strap that works great. They have a couple different models on Amazon. The one I have is $22.99 right now. This one beeps after it detects a heart rate and when you take it off it beeps stating it is disconnected. I like that. I use it for cycling and rowing and It has been rock solid for well over a year.
I’ve had a Garmin in the past and the Coospo is very similar. The chest strap is identical. You can actually interchange the chest straps.
I tried 4 different brands of arm band heart rate monitors and did not care for any of them. Everyone of them had sporadic readings and were not accurate. I tried wearing them on my wrist, forearm, and bicep. I wish the arm bands worked because I personally don’t think the chest strap is very comfortable.
Good luck and don’t obsess to much over the heart rate numbers

[doulos0]

Been using a Polar H10 chest monitor and so far it has worked really well. (Note: For a long time I left the monitor on the strap and just rinsed the whole thing off. I didn't want to remove/replace it on the strap over and over as I was concerned about wearing out the snaps. Turns out, you really burn through batteries if you leave it on the strap. Something I learned the hard way after not reading the manual.

I've tried two different kinds of wrist heart monitors (FitBit and Wyze) and while both worked fine for most activities, neither could track heart rate when rowing. They always under-report it. I had read somewhere that other wrist monitors have issues with heart rate when rowing. Maybe something to do with the kind of arm/wrist motion that takes place? <shrug>