Polar HRM FT40

First I must say that I never thought of Polar heart rate monitor as a consumer product. I have used their straps plenty of times in the professional and academic settings. From undergrad when we wanted to track the heart rate of a person as they worked out and a 12 Lead ECG wasn’t needed; to currently using it in the lab on the project that I’m working on. Truth be told I didn’t know that Polar had consumer products until recently. I just looked up one day and everybody had one, including me! Last month I was super excited when Polar sent me their FT40 heart rate monitor.

When I first opened the box was I a little intimidated, even though I’ve used their products other people. I felt like I was the one that was going to be in the experiment.  After toying around with it for a couple of days, the one word that best describes the Polar FT40 heart rate monitor is EASY! The first thing that I liked was the manual was only 5-8 pages long, which made for an easy read. It took me about 30 seconds to get the watch fully function, which made for an easy setup. The FT40 has nice big numbers, which made for an easy to read display. The Ft40’s main feature the energy pointer always showed if I was fat burning or fitness training, which made it easy to target my intensity. The FT40 kept a log of all my sessions, which made it easy to track my progress. Lastly the FT40 has a smart calories feature which has been validated to be the most accurate estimation of calories burned commercially available, which made it easy for me to know that the calories I burned are accurate. See everything about the FT40 is easy.

I’ve had the Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor for about a month now and it’s amazing. I take it on my runs and when I’m doing CrossFit. It has the potential to be a staple in my workout regimen. However I have one main caveat that stopping it from being a main staple in my regimen and that’s the strap. I’m 6’2, 300 pounds, I’m bigger than the average man and sometimes the strap is uncomfortable for me. I have to adjust the strap to make it the longest that it can be and it’s on my jelly rolls very snug. Add in the fact that my rolls move and jump around when I’m running and that will equal a tight, twisted polar strap cutting into my fat. This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does, I have to stop and take off the strap. However this shouldn’t discourage anyone from checking out the Polar FT40, it’s just a reminder for me how much I got left in this journey.

All in all I would give this product an 8.5/10, the product is very easy to use and Polar has a great track record. However I’ve found the strap to be uncomfortable at times and that mainly because it’s not long enough to fit me properly. I would recommend Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor to anyone that is looking for a quick and easy way to know if you’re burning fat or improving fitness. You can get these on the Polar website for about $180, I’ve also seen them on Amazon for about $100. This is definitely an investment for your health in fitness.

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Until next time I’m 300 Pounds and Running

Disclaimer: The Polar FT40 heart rate monitor was sent to me through a campaign with FitFluential. There was no compensation other than the heart rate monitor. All opinions are my own of course!