A Garmin Heart Rate Monitor is a great investment for anyone interested in monitoring their heart for fitness.


Garmin heart rate monitors are some of the best available on the market. They offer great heart rate monitors at both ends of the price spectrum, having some of the best low-end heart rate monitors available.

Although Garmin only offers a small collection, you would not be disappointed with one of their monitors. Despite their low-end monitors being priced slightly above competitives, they do offer a simple interface and offer more features and practicalities.

A Garmin heart rate monitor comes with the speeds sensors (foot pod), interval training, the ability to set target heart rate ranges with alarms to warn you when you go out of these during your run/exercise, training software, the ability to record and save work outs to download onto your computer (which is very simple to do with their USB stick). These features come with even the very basic Garmin heart rate monitor, and with the more high-tech you get many more features.

A Garmin heart rate monitor is great for a beginner because of its simplicity in use. It won’t take you very long to figure out how to use it to your advantage. Some heart rate monitor watches can be confusing and you really have to spend an evening to sit down and work out how to use it. With Garmin’s very basic model this isn’t a problem at all.
Some features included with Garmin heart rate monitor:

GPS navigation/Foot pod
With a basic Garmin watch like the Garmin Forerunner 50, you can get a foot pod as well as heart rate monitor. The foot pod is placed on your shoe laces and tracks the distance you run as well as tells you your speed. It does give you the ability to synchronize it to get the most accurate reading, but after trying it out it seems to be superbly accurate anyway. Although the foot pod is a great addition, it is only splash proof so may be a problem in heavy rain. The Garmin Forerunner is a great beginner heart rate monitor and very cheap. You will not be disappointed with purchasing it!

More high-spec Garmin heart rate monitors come with GPS functionality. GPS is considered more accurate than other tracking devices and also comes handy if you get lost!

Managing and Tracking Your Progress
Garmin heart rate monitors make managing your work outs easier. It is very easy to program a work out into any Garmin monitor (especially the basic models). With the ability to upload to your computer you are able to see your progress and how you ran/biked over a specific mileage.

You can also see how fit you have become over time and how quickly. Seeing such results can give you a great boost in motivation to progress further.