Shopping for an advanced fitness watch? Consider a Timex Ironman Heart Rate Monitor watch.
A heart rate monitor device provides extra information on how your body is handling your current level of training intensity. It can allow you to set specific training zones for specific sessions, assuring you are working out hard enough and more importantly that you are not over-training.
When you over-train you are not allowing your body adequate recovery between hard sessions. It can lead to long term fatigue, drops in performance, illness and injury.
On the other hand under-training is where you are not pushing your body hard enough to achieve a performance benefit. On a balance, it is probably better to under-train than over-train, but ideally you should seek a healthy balance and work within that. This is where a heart rate monitor watch can be an extremely useful training tool.
A sports watch company that delivers surprisingly good quality heart monitoring equipment is Timex.
More noted for their affordable and functional, Timex Ironman sports watches, Timex's more advanced sports watches come bundled with a heart monitoring strap that measures continuous heart beat readings for real-time benefits.
All Timex Ironman Triathlon monitors utilize digital technology. This has the advantage over analogue devices in that the wireless transmission does not interfere with other exercise equipment and is not affected by high voltage power lines. With synchronized transmission, cross talk interference from other monitors in the vicinity is prevented, so you can rest assured that with a Timex Ironman Heart Rate Monitor, the wireless transmission between the watch and the chest strap will be clear and reliable.
Timex heart devices provide the convenience of user replaceable batteries. Other heart monitor companies require you to return the chest strap unit to their factories, which is annoying and time consuming and also forces you to train without the device until they get back to you, in their own time.
The chest strap is also water resistant to 50 meters. While heart measurement won't work in the water, it allows you to use the device in the water without fear of damage, making it useful for triathletes who wish to wear the heart rate chest strap in the swim leg of their event and activate it after transitioning to the bike.
Typical Features In Timex Ironman HRM watches include Target Zones, which allow you to specify upper and lower heart beat limits. An alarm will sound when you fall outside the zone. The watch also records your total time in a zone and your maximum heart rate while within a zone.
Other common features include average heart rate measurement over a workout and each individual lap of a session, a recovery heart rate mode - a useful guide between repetitions as an indicator of when you are ready to run your next effort and an indicator of over-training.
Some Timex heart watches are also compatible with Timex's Data Recorder. The data recorder is a small external device that records heart rate and GPS data over multiple sessions, which can be transferred to your PC for further analysis.
These watches of course include typical Timex sports watch features such as:
100-hour chronograph with lap and split
Multiple lap storageCountdown Timer FeatureINDIGLO night light illumination technology for night runsNIGHT MODEAlarm with 5 minute backup2-3 year battery life and50-100 meter water resistance
Timex heart watches are a great choice for those who want a sports watch that is a proven performer and is extremely user friendly to set up and use compared with other sports watches.
While other manufacturers offer more sophisticated features, Timex Ironman Heart Rate Monitor watches tend to be more expensive and have a steep learning curve. For those who just want to put on their watch and go, a Timex might just be the perfect choice.
