Fitness Motivation: Polar FT4 Training Computer

So here we are 3 months in to the “New Year” and where are you with your resolutions? If you are anything like me, you always have your repeats: eat better, drink more water and exercise. And I always fail or come in short on the exercising part.

So, we at Modern Day Moms decided to look for items/devices that would help keep you motivated in your resolutions aimed at being healthy and active. One of the items we found that seems to be growing in popularity is the Polar FT4 Fitness Training Computer. Now with this device, there are features where you can:

 

• Automatic Target Zone – helps improve the level of intensity during workouts by calculating what heart rate range is best for each user

• OwnCal – counts and displays personalized calorie expenditure
• OwnCode – prevents cross-talk from other heart rate monitors being used nearby
• Graphically displays the target zone
• Show calories burned, exercise duration and time spent in each zone
• Stores 12 training files

Doesn’t that sound amazing?! We tested one out to see exactly how easy, how motivating and how fun they are. We were blown away! Not only do they come with these features, but they also have an app and website where you can send your data.

As I said, I always fall short in my exercising. I am not a gym kind of person, but once I started using the Polar FT4, I wanted to get up and be active just to see what kind of exciting results I could get! To me, seeing the calories I burned after doing house chores gave me a better idea of my caloric expenditure and encouraged me to be more active to achieve the results I wanted: weight loss! After doing my tests, it showed me that I could burn calories at home, but if I went to the gym or joined some classes, I could really have an impact.

Here are the 3 activities I did and the results from each:

1. I did 16 minutes and 57 seconds of standard exercises (jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc) and burned 114 calories. (Don’t laugh…as I said, I have slacked at working out!) That took care of that canned soda I had for breakfast.

2. I did 20 minutes of walking at a steady pace to pick my son up from school – and on the way back. Walking is very easy to do and I can admit that I could have walked for an hour straight with no problems. It’s just hard to do when you have a dog in tow and a 6 year old who is ready to go home and play!

Here is a photo of the Polar in use as I am walking with the dog (see Oscar at the bottom?!). This shows how the device displays your heart rate as you are exercising:

3. The last activity was me doing house chores for 2 hours and 5 minutes at a moderate-quick pace. I was really happy to see the amount of calories I burned: 623!!

Now imagine what you could do in the gym. I think that this device is for people at all levels of exercise. Whether you are a fitness novice or you could teach the rest of us a thing or two, it’s informational, it’s fun and it’s very motivating! I found myself wanting to measure for everything I did. Grocery shopping was next on my list…lol!! As long as you are active, the Polar FT4 will be there to help show you how well you are doing. I have certainly been motivated to be more active.

And it was very easy to use. All you have to do is wear the device on your wrist and wrap the fabric transmitter around your chest (I tucked it right in under the girls). The transmitter sends the data to the device. It isn’t bulky and you really forget that it is there after a couple of minutes.

I absolutely love it!

They are a great investment for anyone who is active and wants to know how well they are doing as they exercise.

*We were sent a product to test and all opinions are our own.