Polar RS100 Heart Rate Monitor and Stopwatch

It's unisex, easy to use, and has all of the features a runner needs without all of the expensive frills. I chose the RS100 because it had features that the women-specific watches did not, including interval timers, two zone limit monitors, and a back light (essential if you run at night or cross train in spin class where the lights are usually low). I recommended spending a half hour reading the manual and setting up the watch that way. It covers every feature simply and clearly.

Being able to set my own heart rate and percentage limits is great since those numbers change as my fitness improves. I also like that the running total tells me the percent of calories burned from fat, super essential for proper training.

The total only keeps track of one run at a time, which is fine. I log my runs in an Excel spreadsheet and I've found this to be more useful than storing them in the watch because I can write all sorts of formula combinations and create averages and see a big picture and completely geek out. Other models allow you to upload logs to the Polar website but paying the extra money wasn't worth it for me. I like doing that stuff myself.

The medium chest strap fits me fine once it is adjusted (female, 34" chest) and stays in place. Be sure to moisten the transmitters before wearing, a few drops of water will do, your sweat will take care of the rest ...

My only issue is that the watch is a little bulky for my small wrists, which causes some discomfort at times, but I've come up with a few workarounds to solve the bulky problem:

1. I wear it somewhat loose but not so loose that it spins around on its own. This keeps some of the pressure off. It's loose enough that I can manually rotate the face around to the inside of my wrist if I need to.

2. For longer runs, I sometimes wear the watch strapped to my gear belt or zipped in my pocket. Since the watch has interval timers and warning beeps when I go out of zone, I've been able to keep track using my hearing instead of my eyes. The beep is pretty loud so as long as my headphones aren't cranked, I can still hear it.

3. The treadmills at my gym are Polar ready so they pick up the transmission without me having the wear the watch. While the treadmill doesn't have any logging features, I can at least keep track of my heart rate during a run if I don't want to wear the watch.

Overall, it's a great running computer for the money.

It is simply the best product anyone can give themselves to workout, because you know exactly what you are doing. It gives you heart rate, calories, fat%, you can gradute so it lets you know on what basis you want to work out.

I wont work with out it

This is my fourth HR monitor. I've owned a Nike (garbage), two Timex models (one solid and one I returned). I bought this one because it had three lines of information so I would know my total time and my lap time.

Some points:
- For the first month the watch never gave me an inaccurate HR. Since then I've had two instance when it's been whacky (you know, shows you at 185 when you're at 145). My previous HR monitors were MUCH worse than the Polar on this account.
- The three lines is nice, however it does not allow you to swap the lap time with the total time. I would much prefer the lap time to be in the middle or at least bigger (it's hard to read when you're doing a hard run and you're bouncing around).
- There is a lap number. I like that a lot.
- If you press and hold the button a little too long it will pop up Limits and adjustments and whatnot. This is annoying and happens too easily.
- If you use the light/indiglo while using the stopwatch it will automatically light up whenever you hit lap/stop afterwards. This is a great feature. Often I'm running in the dark and this feature is a lifesaver.
- Getting the information from the watch is just OK. Not terrible, but not as streamlined as the simple Timex HR monitor I previously used.
- I don't use the totals. I have a database for that.

The bottom line is that HR monitors are pretty unreliable generally. After 2 months, this model has been solid. I would still like a tweak here or there because of my personal preferences.

Got it today, took it for a test run.
Awesome is the one word for it.

It took me about 5 minutes to configure it fully. Granted, I would probably say I'm above average when it comes to figuring gadgets out so don't feel bad if it takes a little longer. It seemed rather intuitive to me, but when I showed it to my roommate he was completely lost.

This is the perfect self-motivation tool for someone that wants to lose weight, burn fat, and ultimately get in better shape.
Speaking as a soon-to-be (250 hours through a 500 hour program) personal trainer, I consider this a solid investment for myself.

You don't need to be a total fitness nerd to love this toy. If you're just looking to burn fat and lose weight without paying for training (which is understandable given the current state of the economy), I would highly recommend this (type of) watch to help you achieve your fitness goals. Whatever they may be.

I had tried a timex hrm before this and it didnt even come close in accuracy. Even though the RS100 is a bit more than some of the timex models its well worth the money. It is accurate and simple enough to use. I would actually reccomend this one over the RS200 since that model seems to have more problems. The only gripe I had was the T31 chest strap which always felt like it was slipping down while I ran. Although my dog has recently destroyed the T31 transmitter and I am looking forward to getting the Wearlink chest strap which looks to be an improvement over the contemporary design. Apparently my dog didnt like the T31 either....