Today I have been at the gym. There’s nothing new about this, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you a bit more about one of the Christmas presents I’ve received – my Polar FT60 pulse watch! I don’t do reviews all that often, but seriously, I love this thing. Also, I know a lot of you have included workouts in your new year’s resolutions, so it’s the perfect January product to review, no? :)
Here’s the actual watch. It’s not bad looking, I’ve seen far worse-looking sports watches! It comes in four different designs. Yes yes, I know, we’re not supposed to be vain at the gym. Tell that to the concealer that resides permanently in my gym bag.
Included in the box you’ll find the chest strap that tracks your heartbeats. It’s actually really comfortable to wear – I managed to forget I was wearing it today, until I had to do strength exercises laying on my stomach. Big plus!
The watch can help you set targets, and it will help you reach them. It will tell you if you’ve got room for improvement, if you’ve been improving, or even if you need to take a week off. If you want to lose weight, it can keep a weight diary for you. If you want to improve your fitness, or maximize it, it will help you with that as well, telling you what you’re doing right and what you need to do differently. And of course, it keeps track of your pulse, calories, intensity AND – wait for it – it can tell you what time it is.
As you may have noticed, there’s also an USB-sensor type thing in this picture. This is not included when you buy the watch, but is sold separately, at least with the FT60. If you get the higher-end model, the FT80, it is included when you buy the watch. So, you might think, why even mention the USB-reader if it’s not included? Because it’s really really cool, that’s why! Or at least if you’re nerdily inclined, like I am. See, if you place your watch on top of the USB-reader after a workout, it will download all the data from your watch and upload it to polarpersonaltrainer.com.
And it will give you all your workout statistics! This is an example of one of the things you can choose to view – as you can see, I’ve only worked out twice this week, as I got my pig flu shot on Thursday and my arm felt like someone had punched it for two days afterwards. On the website, you can also pick training programs, study strength exercises, keep track of your progress, or join the discussion forum. I really like this feature, as reading your statistics on the watch interface can be a bit fiddly. And I like graphs. And the Internet.
To sum it up, I love my watch. It’s easy to use, it’s fun to use, and it appeals to the nerd in me. Two thumbs up!
