Or at least, count it. Yes, today I bought a heart monitor.

Or rather, I bought two. The first one looks like a normal wrist watch. 
"No chest strap!" it boasts. Which is true, but unfortunately to 
complete the circuit you have to touch the metal frame with your other 
hand. Only when you do this do you get a reading. Which is of course 


So I returned it to the shop and got a nearly identical device which 
also comes with a chest strap. This transmits wirelessly to the watch, 
which displays a reading and some basic statistics.

So now I'm probably going to spend the rest of the way obsessing about 
my heart rate. ;-)

Assuming this device is anywhere near accurate... should I be worried 
that I'm idling at about 75 BPM, it hit 101 BPM at one point, and I 
haven't actually got out of my chair yet?? o_O

(Seriously. I got the thing working, and I thought "right, this is gonna 
be fun!" And I rubbed my hands with glee. And the counter hit 101 BPM!)

It'll be interesting to see what kind of readings I get tonight. I'm 
going out to a Rock & Roll dance night. Up to 5 hours of Rock & Roll 
dancing, likely to be combined with high temperatures, high humidity and 
social stress.

Maybe you guys could take bets on what my maximal BPM reading for the 
evening will be? :-P

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> also comes with a chest strap. This transmits wirelessly to the watch, 

I got one of these, then discovered that the chest strap is compatible with 
gym exercise equipment as well. If you go somewhere like a gym and check out 
the stairmaster type things or the bikes, see if it works with them.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that its best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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>> also comes with a chest strap. This transmits wirelessly to the watch, 
> 
> I got one of these, then discovered that the chest strap is compatible 
> with gym exercise equipment as well. If you go somewhere like a gym and 
> check out the stairmaster type things or the bikes, see if it works with 
> them.

Hmm, OK. Well I doubt I'll ever be inside a gym (far, far too 
expensive), but I'll bear that in mind.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Assuming this device is anywhere near accurate... should I be worried 
> that I'm idling at about 75 BPM, it hit 101 BPM at one point, and I 
> haven't actually got out of my chair yet?? o_O

More puzzling is that sitting doing something gives me a lower reading 
than sitting doing nothing. I can only imagine because I'm not staring 
at the display and going "OMG, that's really high!" Like, just now, as 
I'm typing this, I glanced down and saw a reading of 63 BPM. That's the 
first time I've ever seen it drop below 70 BPM. Playing music, listening 
to music, typing, anything but doing nothing seems to lower my heart rate.

Also puzzling is the way I do something (e.g., walk up stairs), look at 
the reading, and it's, say, 95 BPM. Then I sit down, and the reading 
rises to 115 BPM. Wuh??

And then, just occasionally, the meter gives me seemingly bogus 
readings. Like just a minute ago, it said 88 BPM. I took two paces, and 
it said 237 BPM - which seems *highly* implausible to me. :-P I reset 
it, and it went back to reading 88. Go figure!

I haven't tried doing anything actually energetic yet...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:53:15 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> also comes with a chest strap. This transmits wirelessly to the watch,
> 
> I got one of these, then discovered that the chest strap is compatible
> with gym exercise equipment as well. If you go somewhere like a gym and
> check out the stairmaster type things or the bikes, see if it works with
> them.

Yes, I've got one like that as well - very nice especially with the 
treadmill and the bikes, because the equipment will adjust to keep your 
heart rate in the 'zone'.

Jim

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I haven't tried doing anything actually energetic yet...

Are you sure you're wearing it right? You're supposed to make sure it's 
conductive, you know. Like, a bit of water or oil on the zig-zag parts of 
the pads, assuming you have the same basic kind I do.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    C# - a language whose greatest drawback
    is that its best implementation comes
    from a company that doesn't hate Microsoft.

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Darren New wrote:

> Are you sure you're wearing it right?

No. :-)

> You're supposed to make sure it's 
> conductive, you know. Like, a bit of water or oil on the zig-zag parts 
> of the pads, assuming you have the same basic kind I do.

When I first put it on, it wouldn't give me a reading. The manual claims 
that after a couple of minutes, a layer of sweat develops which makes it 
conductive. And, sure enough, just as I was about to package it up and 
take it back, it suddenly started giving me a reading...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Jim Henderson wrote:

> Yes, I've got one like that as well - very nice especially with the 
> treadmill and the bikes, because the equipment will adjust to keep your 
> heart rate in the 'zone'.

The hilarious thing is that my monitor tells you when your heart rate is 
"optimal" for burning calaries. Except that it tells me mine is optimal 
when I walk across the room or something. :-D

What it does is estimate what your maximum heart rate is, and what 
percentage of that your current heart rate is, and then it tells you 
that 50% - 70% is "optimal". Except I think it's badly underestimated my 
maximal rate. It's telling me I'm getting a great workout just from 
walking around my bedroom, which just can't be right. ;-)

God damned funny though! :-D

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:10:11 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> Yes, I've got one like that as well - very nice especially with the
>> treadmill and the bikes, because the equipment will adjust to keep your
>> heart rate in the 'zone'.
> 
> The hilarious thing is that my monitor tells you when your heart rate is
> "optimal" for burning calaries. Except that it tells me mine is optimal
> when I walk across the room or something. :-D
> 
> What it does is estimate what your maximum heart rate is, and what
> percentage of that your current heart rate is, and then it tells you
> that 50% - 70% is "optimal". Except I think it's badly underestimated my
> maximal rate. It's telling me I'm getting a great workout just from
> walking around my bedroom, which just can't be right. ;-)
> 
> God damned funny though! :-D

When one is out of shape, your resting rate will be higher than normal.  
Mine tends to rest between 70 and 90 bpm, no idea what it is these days 
as I've not been to the gym in months.

But the rates in mine are adjustable, but the instructions say not to 
adjust them unless you know what you're doing or have the assistance of 
someone who does - there's apparently tests that can be done to 
individualise the settings, but the resulting numbers aren't arbitrary.

Jim

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On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:06:30 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Darren New wrote:
> 
>> Are you sure you're wearing it right?
> 
> No. :-)
> 
>> You're supposed to make sure it's
>> conductive, you know. Like, a bit of water or oil on the zig-zag parts
>> of the pads, assuming you have the same basic kind I do.
> 
> When I first put it on, it wouldn't give me a reading. The manual claims
> that after a couple of minutes, a layer of sweat develops which makes it
> conductive. And, sure enough, just as I was about to package it up and
> take it back, it suddenly started giving me a reading...

You can get an electrolyte cream that will provide better conduction - 
generally much more efficient than waiting for sweat or using saliva 
(another common recommendation).

Jim

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