The essence of a heart rate monitor can only be comprehended by someone who knows how to make good use of the information provided by it. No matter how much you exercise your heart rate during those time intervals matter to a large extent. Exercising can have different effects on different parts of your body depending on how high it pushes your heart rate up and for what amount of time. Training hard is a concept of the stone ages; the modern era requires you to train smart.
Why is heart rate so important?
Now the term smart training implies that your workouts should be guided by your heart rate. For example, if you want to burn fat and have longer workouts then you would obviously want to keep your heart rate lower. Pushing the rate higher would mean that you are targeting particular muscle group and it is more advisable to have shorter workout sessions. In order to measure your heart rate, you need smart devices that can provide consistent and reliable data. Smart bracelet heart monitors have thus emerged as one of the fitness gadget of the decade and as days pass more and more youngsters have leaned towards them and hence leaned towards intelligent workouts.
How does smart bracelet heart rate monitor help?
As stated above smart workouts require the use of smart gadgets and smart technology. Smart bracelets are one of such smart tech that assist your workout by providing real time heart rate values that guide your workouts as per your requirement. Here is where smart bracelets become an indispensable part of your workouts. Whether you are running or at the gym or even resting, monitoring your heart rate and acting properly reaps a lot of medical benefits for your health. Heart rate monitors can be of various types and styles available in the current fitness market. There are traditional ones and the new age inventive ones, each having their optimum usage in specific cases. In this case we shall discuss more about smart bracelet heart rate monitors which are the most trending fitness device in the market. It is undoubtedly one of the most sought-after fitness accessories available nowadays.
How to track our heart rate?
There are a lot of people who have no idea about tracking their heart rates. Our estimated maximum heart rate can be calculated quite easily by simple arithmetic. All we need to do is subtract our age from the numeric value of 220. A 20-year-old’s max estimated heart rate will be 200 (220-20). Now when we undergo moderate levels of exercising our heart rate is supposed to achieve 50 to 70% of the maximum estimated value and in case of rigorous exercises our heart rate will be around 70% to 85% of the max rate. Now when you use your smart bracelet heart monitors while working out you can monitor your actual heart rate against the required specific heart rate.
Things to consider while buying the right heart rate monitor
Now when you decide to get yourself a heart rate measuring device and try browse the internet to find the right one, you are bound to get confused as to which one product will be the perfect one for you. There are so much on offer out there on the net that it becomes very difficult to settle for only one. In such scenarios you have to remember a few requirements to determine the right product for you.
Chest straps or optical
The first thing that needs to be decided while finding the right heart rate monitor is the whether to go for a classic strap on the chest, that using an electrical pulse to measure the heart rate or another using optical tech to do the same. Most Fitbit devices make use of this optical tech which sends light inside our skin and reads the returned light. Then it uses the information regarding the scattering of light after it hits the flowing blood it deduces the heart rate and translates the received data in terms of pulse. On the other hand, chest straps read the electric pulse our heart emits during contraction. Now electronic deductions are supposedly more accurate. That is why people now tend to switch to smart bracelets and smart ear buds which measures our heart rate with better accuracy. Now let us understand why accuracy is such a desired aspect in this scenario.
Why is accuracy such an important aspect?
We have garnered some idea about the different types of heart rate monitors and how their accuracy varies. But we should know beforehand why does accuracy matter so much in this aspect? From a general consumer’s point of view, there are only two reasons for wanting to know their heart rates, to learn their heart rates while resting and to learn their heart rate variations while working out. Now when you are resting it is very easy to count your heart rate by monitoring your pulse using two fingers. Or even a smartphone app can read it for you. Accuracy isn’t such a desired factor in case of resting heart rate, your doctor doesn’t quite mind if your heart rate increases from 60 to 62 as long it is within the healthy range. So, it is a fact that a fine degree of accuracy isn’t quite required for local consumers who aren’t medical practitioners or pro athletes. In case of active heart rate monitoring accuracy is required to be higher than but not as high as medical devices. Many fitness apps can calibrate and achieve a fine level of accuracy which is acceptable by the consumer working out. But when you are measuring heart rate recovery which is the time your heart rate takes to decrease to normal after a certain interval of intense activity, accuracy does matter to a certain extent. But there are instances when monitoring heart rate become a matter of extreme accuracy especially in case of professional boxers and swimmers as well as athletes.
Top 5 smart bracelet heart rate monitors in 2021
Having treated the basics, let’s check out the list of top smart bracelets currently available in the fitness market for your convenience along with their pros and cons. Do refer to this post before you buy one for yourself.
Fitbit Charge 2
Not only does a smart bracelet fitness tracker monitor your heart rate 24×7, it also provides an aesthetic and sporty look to your wrists making them the most popular accessory for the trendy youth. This is exactly what makes the Fitbit Charge 2 a runaway favorite among the fans boasting off around 9000 five-star reviews on online vendor Amazon. And most of them are owing to its can-do-all features.
It can continuously measure our heart rate by counting plus points on the wrists and is also capable of monitoring our daily activities such as the number of steps we take and the amount of calories we burn throughout the day. It can provide a feedback on our sleep routine and inform its user of bad sleeping habits i.e if we are spending too much time sleeping. It can also instruct you on breathing exercises which can keep us rejuvenated after we have worked ourselves out too much. It is very user-friendly and accurate for general heart rate monitoring and is bound to improve your workouts to a large extent. It also comes in a variety of attractive colors such as blue, purple and the basic black. The bands are obviously interchangeable which makes it easy for you to match them to your outfits.
What we like:
- The interface is user-friendly.
- Accuracy is well above the general desired level.
- Comes in three attractive colors.
- Interchangeable bands.
What we dislike:
- Currently the item can only be shipped within the U.S.A.
Lintelek Fitness tracker
Lintelek brings one of the nicest fitness trackers to the fitness market with their fitness bracelet. It tracks your activities throughout the day including the number of steps taken throughout the day, the total distance traversed and the subsequent amount of calories burned. On top of that users can avail a number of other features such as remote camera control, Anti-lost feature, Multi-sports management etc. All in all, this is a great gadget to monitor all your fitness related activities and attain a clear idea of your fitness.
When you connect this bracelet with the Zeroner Health app via your smartphone, you can monitor your sleep quality as the data will be recorded and transmitted to your app. Sleep quality can be monitored by analyzing deep sleep hours, sleep scores, awake hours etc.
On top of that every call and message notifications will be delivered to your smart bracelet so that you never miss any while tracking your heart rate. It also comes with a first time reply feature. The .96-inch OLED screen provides ample space for visuals. 75 mAh battery offers sufficient juice for your smart bracelet to support you throughout your activity.
What we like:
- Comes with lots of added features keeping the user hooked to it.
- The 0.96-inch OLED screen provides amazing graphics.
- Messages and call alerts keep you updated on your connectivity.
- The sleep quality control feature is an added bonus
What we dislike:
- The battery life might prove to be disappointing
Wesoo K1 Fitness tracker
This product from Wesoo K1 is one of the finest fitness tracker available in the market with a few attractive features for the takers. Firstly, the design is very stylish and allows the bands to be replaced as per the user’s wish. Daily activity tracker allows you to monitor every step as you run the distance and burn calories along the way. Monitoring sleep quality is also one of the useful features this product boasts off. When you pair it with your fitness band you can receive every phone notification on your smart tracker. And last but not the least the IPX7 waterproofing offers you the option of wearing it in any kind of weather condition thus not hampering your workouts.
What we like:
- Receives alerts and notification when connected to your smartphone.
- Sleep quality monitoring provided.
- IPX& level waterproofing.
What we dislike:
- Heart rate monitoring isn’t up to the mark.
LETSCOM Fitness tracker
Although a relatively new name and not as popular as FitBit, Letscom promises to deliver the same features at a fraction of the price tag of the popular smart bracelets. The rubber band is soft and it comes in different colors. The fastening of this device is press fastening, and a USB connection is provided on the device itself whilst the tracker can be removed from the band. The battery is impressive and allows a whole week worth of juice with one full charge which takes around an hour. The OLED screen display is quite basic yet impressive. It comes with an able pedometer, heart rate sensor and sleep quality monitoring features which make this device competition worthy.
What we like:
- The pedometer, heart rate monitor and sleep quality control combines to make one deadly feature combo which impresses us completely.
- The battery life is up there with the competitors but it is the charging time that is nearly as half as theirs.
- Remote camera control is an added feature worth the praise.
What we dislike:
- There are a few basic connectivity issues which are being tended to by the company.
Linetek Activity Tracker
The last on our list but certainly not the least is the activity tracker from Linetek. Starting from the build quality to the ease of use and the efficient sleep monitor system, the Linetek activity tracker offers all the familiar features in a rather unfamiliar standard. It has a sensor placed at the screen’s bottom which helps us choose from different screens. There are sufficient data fields available which you can choose from while working out.
What we like:
- Comes in solid yet comfortable build.
- Enhanced features which provides complete control over workout monitoring.
- Very user-friendly.
What we dislike:
- Difficult to view in bright sunlight.
- Absence of more than 3 workouts modes.