Cardiovascular activity is all about exercising your heart. Our range of heart rate monitors from Polar, York Fitness, Timex and Oregon Scientific allow you to plan and adapt your training session.

Why monitor your heart?

As many athletes know, a heart rate monitor is essential in keeping track of fitness. You can monitor the intensity of your exercise, allowing you to increase or decrease this as appropriate. Seeing your heart rate increases motivation and clearly indicates underperformance or an improvement in fitness. It also means you can train at your own pace and adapt your fitness programme, making it an ideal training partner.

How Heart Rate Monitors Works?

Heart rate monitors are like rev counters. They're usually attached to your chest and continually transmit your heart rate information to the monitor's receiver, normally a wrist watch. Most monitors feature alarms that can be set at a target level that beep if you go above or below this, and often you can store session information for future use.

Target Heart Rate According to Age and Physical Shape:

Heart Rate Monitors

CHEST STRAP TYPES: These are used if you want to carry on normal exercise / activity and have CONTINUOUS monitoring of your heart rate. They generally have functions like heart rate ZONE ALARM to bleep when you go above / below a certain HR threshold. They generally give post exercise feedback like calories burnt, average, max and minimum heart rate throughout the session. CHEST STRAP types can be ANALOGUE or DIGITAL.

NO CHEST STRAP - STRAPLESS = These units work with ECG accuracy to provide heart rate "on demand". That means as and when you press the buttons on the front. For light / moderate exercise, and for use throughout the day, this is convenient and often preferred to a chest strap type. However, for continuous monitoring of heart rate, especially throughout shorter duration, higher intensity exercise, the chest strap type is often preferred. See Techtrail, MIO, Sigma Sport PC3T, WK045 etc . QUALITY NOTE. We do NOT sell the cheap optical / movement sensing pulse watches you may see on other sites for under £20.. why not? because they're inaccurate and cannot be trusted. We only sell ECG calibrated devices that electrical sense the heart rate activity.

ANALOGUE CHEST STRAP = These are the most popular heart rate monitors. They sense heart rate activity via a small chest sensor worn around the chest and send the data using wireless technology to the watch. They will give continuous heart rate monitoring throughout a session. They provide accurate post exercise data review as they have been recording throughout (unlike the STRAPLESS versions that only read HR when you touch the sensors) These units will generally interface with most popular gym equipment. There is the potential for interference from other HRM users, if used within 3 feet of your unit. However, If used in a quiet gym, or on your own... no problem.

DIGITAL CHEST STRAP = Everything as above, with the exception of a more ROBUST digitally signalling signal from chest strap to watch. This has the clear advantage of reducing the risk of interference. However, it will NOT interface with popular gym equipment... no big deal.... you can see your heart rate on your wrist :-) You will find digital HRMs from Timex, Suunto (T6), CardioSport and Oregon Scientific

Polar make a CODED analogue transmitter / watch system that has ability to interface with most popular gym equipment and a reasonable degree of crosstalk / interference protection by way of "coded" signals. See Polar FS2C, F6 and above, RS series, S series (except S120 and S15)

DUAL MODE - ANALOGUE CHEST STRAP and NO CHEST STRAP = These units have the best of both worlds. Strapless monitoring for times when you just need heart rate on demand, as and when the user wants to monitor heart rate, and, continuous monitoring via the wireless analogue chest transmitter for more thorough monitoring. Currently we have two units that can do this. The MIO Ultimate and Techtrail DUO.

Heart Rate Monitors are very much essential for following Exercise & Fitness equipment beside other outdoor activities such as cycling and road running.

Treadmills

Treadmills are without a doubt one of the most popular items of home and commercial gym equipment, powered or motorised treadmills use a motor to move the belt, keeping the rate at which you walk constant. Many motorised treadmills have powered incline adjustment. One of the main advantages of a motorised treadmill is that it's more challenging - it can go faster than you can, so you have to work harder to keep up. At Argos Sports we offer folding treadmills - for those looking to save space and who may be on a budget. Non-folding treadmills - for those who have enough space for a treadmill, and commercial treadmills - for those who want a high quality treadmill with advanced features, similar to the standard you get in gyms throughout the world

Elliptical Trainers

Cross trainers also known as elliptical trainers offer the same benefits as a treadmill but are low impact machines, i.e. your feet remain stationary. These cross training machines have adjustable resistance, sophisticated digital displays and are quiet in operation. At Argos Sports we offer compact elliptical trainers for those of you short of space and on a budget, standard elliptical trainers for those of you who have the space available. We also offer commercial elliptical trainers for those who want a high quality elliptical cross trainer similar to the ones you use at a gym

Rowing Machines

Rowing Machines have the advantage of using the entire body in a single, fluid motion. The seat on a rowing machine slides on rails and there are handles attached to stretchy cords that simulate the arm motion of using a paddle. Rowing is low impact and non-load bearing. At Argos Sports we offer air rowing machines such as the concept2 model which is used in gyms throughout the world. Magnetic rowing machines that are silent in operation, and finally water rowing machines - if you are serious about indoor rowing we suggest water rowing machines

Exercise Bikes

Exercise bikes (sometimes referred to as exercise cycles) are good for the large muscle groups in the legs. These bikes are manual and have variable resistance. Some exercise bikes will also work the torso and upper body. A recumbent exercise bike puts less pressure and stress on the back. At Argos Sports we offer upright exercise bikes which give you the feel of a pedal bike, recumbent exercise bikes where you sit back and pedal putting less strain on your back (good for those who have the room and beginners). Finally we offer spinners and racers designed for those serious about there biking.