The Gear guide to heart rate monitors

Heart rate monitors, or HRMs for short, have become a popular training tool, and even though most of them require you to drool all over their sensors and strap them under the drooping flab around your chest, they're well worth it...

So what exactly do they do?
Basically, they tell you how fast your heart is beating. A lot of them will tell you your heart rate as a percentage of your upper limit - so if it says 92%, you're about nine percent away from flying off the back of the treadmill and landing in a crumpled heap. But seriously, it allows you to structure your training, building up and down gradually and keeping an eye on your overall fitness level.

How?
The first thing to do is to work out your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from a certain number - 226 for women, 220 for men. So if you're a 25-year-old man, your maximum heart rate is going to be around 195bpm.

And after that?
Well, once you know your maximum, you can use your heart rate to determine what kind of exercise you want to do. If you want to lose weight and burn fat, aim for longer periods of exercise at 60-70%. It's better though if you can work between 70-80% of your maximum, which builds aerobic stamina. Continuously work higher than that (80-90%) and you'll be ready for Athens, in which case it's too late for you to start reading this now.

How much should I spend on a HRM?
The more money you fork out, the more features you'll be treated to, but it's worth thinking about what you actually need your chosen gizmo for. "The correct use of a cheap monitor is likely to give far greater benefit than buying a top-line monitor and not using it correctly," says Callum McGregor, managing director of hrm manufacturer Healthcare Technology Ltd.

But there are all different types of hrms, aren't there?
The market has really opened up in the last few years, and these days you can get speed/distance monitors and pedometers that work with your bog standard heart rate monitor.

Hang on a minute... speed what?
A speed distance monitor. It's probably of a lot more use to a more serious/club runner, as it breaks down how long each mile (of a marathon, say) took as well as telling you how far you ran. There are two types, one that goes in your shoe and can only be used for running, or GPS. The GPS units can be used for anything from rowing to riding, though they don't work inside buildings. They're pretty pricey at the moment, but it's unlikely to be long before you'll get change from ?100.

And pedometers, was it?
Yes. Pedometers are the everyman's gadget of choice, basically totting up how far you've travelled while wearing it. They're handy for anyone, whether you walk from Land's End to John O'Groats twice a week or just want to know exactly how many steps it takes from bed to work to bed again. Most of them are slightly inaccurate, but at around ?10, they offer a cheaper, mechanical version of a speed distance monitor.