GEARing Up for 2013- Polar FT40 Review

Happy New Years Eve!! It blows my mind that it is already the last day of 2012. What a year this has been. I have made some awesome progress this year, but I am planning on doing even better in 2013! I don’t know about you, but I get even more excited about working our and staying on track when I have awesome gear. It can be electronics, clothing, jewelry, protein… Having awesome stuff makes me want to work that much harder. Some of it helps me work smarter. So this week I am doing a series of reviews and some giveaways for my favorite gear! My hope is that this gear will help encourage you to stay on track throughout the year (and not just the first few weeks of January… GUILTY OF THAT!)

So, first up…. A review of the Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor.

I was SO excited when FitFluential selected me to review this Heart Rate Monitor. I’ve been wanting one forever! I have a Garmin, but that I use just for Pace/Distance and it doesn’t have a HRM with it. I really dig the idea of being able to see the actual calories that you are burning with each exercise. Especially doing CrossFit, it is so hard to estimate what your burn is when the activities are so varied.

I was concerned about wearing the strap and watch during my CrossFit workouts. I thought they would bother me, but they didn’t at all. Sometimes I would forget I was wearing them. I love that the watch is small and cute, I would even wear it when I am not working out. Some heart rate monitors or fitness watches can be oversized and clunky, but the Polar FT40 is small and light. Perfect, even for smaller ladies!

You can toggle the display on the wrist watch to see different information. One of my favorite features is that after a workout it tells you what percent of the calories you burned were fat calories and what amount of time was spent working on fitness.

This is an amazing tool to help with working on fitness and weight loss. Knowing the actual calories you burned makes it easier to eat the right amount of calories and maintain a deficit and lose weight. It also makes workouts more fun when you can see your results. I make it a game to see how much calories I can burn in one session. I think 816 is one of my best burns.

Polar also has an app that you can download on your iphone and if you have the bluetooth heart rate monitor. They also have PolarPersonalTrainer.com that can help you analyze and track your data.

Overall, I am really pleased with my FT40. I will continue to use it with my CrossFit training and my half-marathon training. It’s probably my favorite Fitness Tech Gear that I have.

What is your favorite Fitness Tech Gear? Do you have a Heart Rate Monitor?