The sun is out again in the UK (atleast for a while) and there’s no excuse for anyone who wants to keep fit not to go out there, go for a run. If you do go for a run, or if you have a gym membership then there are possibilities you don don’t monitor your progress or if you do, you just use the old fashion way, getting on the scales or looking at the mirror and looking for changes.
The Scosche myTREK will help you make the most of your workout by motivating you, guiding your intensity levels and keeping you entertained so you don’t mind the workout as much. In fact…you don’t want the workout to end.
Getting and staying in shape requires more than just blindly exercising without direction or guidance.
- By monitoring your pulse you can ensure you get the most out of your time spent exercising.
- Pushing yourself too hard can lead to over-training. Also, not working hard enough makes it difficult to reach goals and see results.
- That’s where the Scosche myTREK comes in…
The Scosche myTREK Wireless Pulse Monitor allows you to monitor your heart rate as it rises and falls during activity by reading pulse from your forearm. The Scosche myTREK will help you stay in your ideal zone during your workout.
I have had opportunity of working in elite sports environment and monitoring your Hear Rate exertion is very imortant when it comes to quantifying the quality of your work out; your Red Zone minutes which is HR above 85% is where you need to be for long period of time to keep up to shape and keep the heart in shape, it is where you burn the calories. In order to get this up and running it is imortant to know how to get your Resting Heart Rate:
How to measure resting heart rate:
- If you didn’t measure your RHR before getting out of bed, you can lie down and relax for 15-20 minutes before measuring your RHR.
- It is easiest to measure your RHR at the Radial Pulse; the Radial Pulse can be found on the underside of your wrist. To measure, place the tips of your index, middle and ring finger on the thumb side of your wrist. Adjust your fingertip position until you feel your pulse.
- Once found, count how many beats occur in 15 seconds, and then multiply that result by 4.
Now you also need your Max heart rate:
The term maximum heart rate, or HRmax, is the highest heart rate an individual can safely achieve while involved in activity. To determine your HRmax the Scosche myTREK employs the industry standard formula (220 – your age) = your HRmax . The Scosche myTREK App then finds your training zones (next tab) by taking a given percentage of your HRmax.
- Example of (40 year old) HRmax: 220 – 40 = 180 HRmax
Now that you have those figures, you can then begin to monitor what zone you are working at, in order to show if you are been lazy, or working really hard which is where you see results.
On Scosche website you can get more information about the zones.
When purchasing a heart rate monitor for work out, it is very important that they are accurate and you can trust the device you are using; myTrek is pretty accurate in comparison to known manufaturers like Polar which gave similar results after workout. It connects via bluetooth to you iPhone myTrek app or Android app and dispays live what you are doing and how hard you are working yourself. myTrek will give you all the stats you need to know about yur workout session in a very simple format, either on graph or just numbers. The app also allows you to listen to your music whilst running so it’s multipurpose and truely serves it’s purpose as a workout gadget. The hardware it’self is comfortable to wear and doesn’t annoyingly move up and down whilst running, looks the part and you will look like an individual serious about their gym sessio or running session.  The non intrusive charger is also great and will power your device for prolonged period of use (up to 5 hours).  On the deivece are three gray-colored remote control buttons with yellow and red lights that flash during initial pairing and subsequent powering-on. The remote’s buttons are used to stop and start music that plays through the app during your workout, as well as to adjust the volume up or down. The device will also prompt you or encourage you to work harder as you train.
How does it get data so accurately?
Integrated dual LED/optical sensors produce real-time pulse monitoring letting you assess the intensity of your workout. Scosche myTREK does this by sending light into the skin, and assessing how much light gets through and how much gets reflected back to the optical sensor. This indicates the oxygen saturation of the blood, and therefore represents the frequency of the blood flow from the heart and lungs.
Verdict
myTrek has alot of advantages that out weighs the disadvantages and the only downside for me is the price (£99.95), but you can’t put a price on a technology that works and serves it’s purpose. If you are serious about yor fitness then this piece of tech is for you.
The App to go with myTrek is available from Apple online store and Android Google Play market.
