The Ultimate Treadmill/Elliptical/Spinning Heart Monitor

The Polar F6 is the heart rate monitor of choice if you do your cardio workouts at a gym.

This monitor is very simple to setup and use. It will log your average heart rate and maximum heart rate for a given workout, as well as the time you spend "in the zone" (i.e. cardio zone, fat burning zone, or a custom zone that you set up). It will also calculate the calories burned in a workout. In two minutes I set up a custom zone to track my workouts in the 125-150 beats per minute range and to beep if I fall below that.

If you enjoy group spinning (instructor-led stationary bike) classes, this monitor is a must. The chest strap is coded to only display on your monitor. I've seen people wearing identical Polar F4 monitors (the F4 is the cheaper, "uncoded" version of the F6) and if they sit next to each other on a stationary bike, there is occasional confusion as your neighbor's pulse shows up on your monitor! Not so the F6!

One added benefit is that the F6 chest strap will also display on the heart rate readout of any LifeFitness elliptical or treadmill machines automatically...you do not have to hold the sensors on the machine anymore to get a heart readout.

My single complaint about the F6 is about how you set your body weight. If you are on a weight loss program, you want to update your body weight so that your calories burned are correctly calculated. Unfortunately, every time you want to change your weight you have to go through the entire setup screens again and confirm that your sex hasn't changed, your birthday hasn't changed, etc. It's not a showstopper, it's just a tad annoying that you have to re-confirm about 12 items just to change your weight.

Overall, I strongly recommend this ugly monitor (and other reviewers are right...this is one ugly piece of technology). It is the ultimate cardio workout watch. I've used this for three months and I'm kicking myself for not buying this earlier.

Most retailers sell this monitor for $109.95 online, but there are wholesalers on ebay who will sell you a brand new monitor for about $80.