Polar FT40 VERY GOOD.

Polar FT40 VERY GOOD.
This is my first Polar. I have been using it for two weeks and is doing it job. I feel more confident when doing my cardio exercises and i began to track my performance.

Polar FT40 Everything you need in a heart-rate monitor.
I am already very familiar with the men's FT40 heart-rate monitor by Polar. As a woman, I used to own the women's version. There are only 2 very minor differences between the men's and the women's version. The men's wrist band is wider and longer, and the face of the watch is slightly bigger, but it's barely noticeable (see the photos I've posted).

PROS:
Basic Settings:
You can enter and save your weight, height, date of birth, sex, and activity level.

Fitness Test:
For more accurate workout readings, you can perform a fitness test to create a baseline. The fitness test result helps you compare your aerobic fitness level with those of others of the same age. You can retake the fitness test at any time and save the result to track your aerobic fitness.

Fitness vs. Fat Burn levels:
This is a smart watch. It can detect your body's daily state from your heart rate and heart rate variability. So, depending on the type of day you've had before working out, the watch will set a Limit Heart Rate value between the fitness zone and the fat-burning zone. This allows you to adjust the intensity of your workout. The limit heart rate value will vary depending on how active you've been during the day. This helps you gauge your activity level, and to not overdo it. Cool, huh?

Keeps track of your workouts:
You get a training summary after each workout: Calories burnt, fat percentage of calories burnt, average heart rate, maximum heart rate, time spent in the fat-burning zone, and time spent in the fitness zone. It also gives you weekly summaries. The watch keeps up to 50 training sessions, which can be viewed at any time. You can delete any session or all of them. Once the watch starts running out of space, it will erase the oldest training session in order to save your latest session.

CONS:
I wish the heart-rate monitor could keep track of every heart-beat during the workout so that I could graph and see the various levels of my workout intensity. But that would probably require a LOT of memory. I don't think such a watch exists. I could always see a cardiologist.

A word of advice:
I seriously recommend you have the battery changed at a qualified watch repair shop. When I changed the battery in the women's version of the FT40, it didn't get a good seal. Consequently, whenever I washed the watch with soap and water, the buttons malfunctioned. The watch display faded, and the numbers became difficult to read. No matter how much I tried to dry the watch, it never worked properly again. That cost me a new heart-rate monitor. Lesson learned.  

Polar FT40 GREAT PRICE.

Polar FT40 GREAT PRICE.
I've been using this HRM 6 days a week, about an hour each time, for the past 3 weeks. For me, it's been perfect. I like that it counts calories burned, and I really like the 'fitness zone' visual: if the little heart is to the right, you're in your zone; if it's to the left, you're not; if it's off the page to the right, you should settle down a little before you kill yourself.

I don't use any of the Polar.com tools to track my activities or fitness - I use a combination of BeachBody.com and MyFitnessPal.com - so I don't need the computer upload features that some of the higher end Polar HRMs have, although I might try an FT60 just to see what it can do - I've been bitten by the bug now, so I'm curious. But for my every day workouts, this unit has been great, and has worked flawlessly.

One thing to keep in mind... before you wear it, you have to wet a specific area on the back of the strap - the side that touches your skin. There are two grey-ish looking strips to either side of center, and *that's* what you have to soak in water (I recommend warm water!). Maybe everyone else knew this, but it took me over a week to figure it out, and when I told my wife that those two grey strips are the 'electrodes', she had no idea either. Up til that point, I was soaking the whole strap a little mindlessly, and it was working. But now that I figured out the part you're actually supposed to get wet, I feel a lot better about what I'm doing.

In short, great piece of equipment that has been great for me, and I've been putting it through its paces, I can promise you that. Big thumbs up!

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor AWESOME!

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor AWESOME!
I love this watch, I did a lot of research before I actually made a decision, so this is it. the watch performs as described, along with heart rate training info on Polar's website, I've been training at the right intensity, so that I can reach the intended goals. Programming and getting use to it is very easy.
couple of things I don't like:
1) the "stopwatch" feature can only be use if you start the training, not as if you want to use it for something else than working out
2) the beep sound, although it set to high, with the gym music and else noise, you may not notice hat the watch is beeping.
things I like:
1) in low light conditions, the display back-light is great, i notice that if I get the watch near the transmitter it will actually light up on it's own and switch between some of the screen, this is not mention anywhere but it's cool so that you don't need to press the back-light bottom while you are working out
2) the files of each workout if great, you an go back and review previous workouts, great feature
3) fatburn versus fitness target zone allows you to train at the right intensity which is at the end the most important idea behind this watch

overall a great watch, I will definitely recommend this product

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor Very Pleased

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor Very Pleased
I'm very please with the FT40. It is so easy to keep track of my workout sessions, the targeted heart rate zones and the calories I've burned.
It cost a little more than I had planned to spend but it was worth the extra expense for its versatility and it is actually a workout motivator for me.
Delivery was prompt and as advertised.

Polar FT40 Watch Great.

Polar FT40 Watch Great.
this product delivered everything I was expecting. It is very easy to use and provides great feedback while tracking my progress. I do not use the watch to it's full potential as I do not link to my computer, however that feature is available for those who like it. My hope was to get an easy to read and use device that would help me track my heart rate as I worked out. Along with that this device gives me calories burned, percent of calories from fat, average heart rate and maximum heart rate after each workout session. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good, easy to read and use heart rate monitor.

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor Great watch.

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor Great watch.
I bought two of these espectacular watches, one for me and my wife, now we can have total control of our bpm and make excersice in a different way. This watch works for jogging, ciclying, gym, etc.