Swimming accessories - heart rate monitors for swimming

Hi, when i started to learn to swim the main motivation was, well, to be able to swim... heh, so that for one thing i could do activities like snorkeling more confidently, or don't just wade around when i'm at the pool. There are however various other benefits to swimming, and one is to improve your health and fitness.

So one of my motivation for swimming was getting fit, and yep that includes losing weight. But i'll talk more on that in another post (really i lost 5kg). Today i was looking for a way to monitor my heart rate after laps (or should i say after one lap where i'm already tired and out of breath..). Let me share some of the info i found.

Heart rate monitors for swimming:

Well there are several types, and it's not easy to find the best and also the cheapest solution (i did mention i was cheap) for your needs.

Us Malaysians can look up lelong.com.my and you can find cheap heart monitor watches to the tune of RM50 (less than 20 dollars) or the expensive timex ironmen series. But are they suitable for swimming. Most just say they're water resistant, but not recommended for swimming.

So i searched further and roughly i found some products which are supposed to be fit for swimmers. The two main types are the ones with chest strap to monitor your heart rate (with or without accompanying wrist watch) and just watches that can measure your heart rate by putting your finger on the sensors. You choose depending on your needs.

The first product mentioned are the Polar heart rate monitors. These monitors consist of wrist watches that communicates with a chest strap that measure your heart rate. There are many products like these in the market but the main issue is they us 2.4 ghz transmission band which experts say doesn't work in the water. So certain polar hrm uses 5 ghz, allowing them to work for swimmers.

These chest strap monitors are used when you want to actually monitor your heart rate while you're swimming, not after, but you're not going to be looking at your watch while you swim right? Which means that you need to choose the models which allow you to save the heart rate data and can download for later analysis. Some sites suggest Polar FT7 with accompanying Wearlink chest strap.

Polar FT7

Another product recommended for swimming with almost similar in concept is Suunto Memory belt which records your heart rate while you swim for later download.

Suunto Memory belt

For myself i'm just looking for a simple heart rate monitor watch that is recommended for swimming to record my heart rate after a swim or in between. For this i found this particular product to be recommended called Sportline Solo 960. It has a sensor to read your heart rate and tons of other features like pedometer, making it more at a mid range price point (around 90 dollars). However there are other models with less function that could serve my need such as Sportline Solo 915 which is much cheaper at around 50 dollars.

Sportline Solo 960

Now if all the above doesn't cut it for you, for example, if you want to monitor your heart rate during swimming and not wait to download later, there is this solution for you which is the Aqua Pulse from Finis. You actually wear it near your ear i believe by clipping to your goggles and while you swim your heart rate will be broadcast to you ear. Cool? Well don't need that for now, wait until i become pro.. ;)

Aquapulse

I know that i have not covered everything out there, but these are the ones i found while i was looking and it has helped me to get a good perspective of the various options available. You're welcome to add anything, even a review of any of the above products, or whether any shop in Malaysia selling them. My source right now would be ebay.