Review: Polar F6

As promised, here's my review of my shiny new toy: a Polar F6 heart rate monitor. In the box there is the watch, a transmitter band, and an instruction/warranty booklet.



There are two styles of the F6 - men's, and women's. Mine is a women's style though the thing is still really big. Reminds me of those old calculator watches. Despite its size, it's still pretty with a floral design around the watch face. It also comes in pink and black for women and just black for men.

Setup was easy. First, you enter your details into the watch as per the instructions. Next, you strap on the transmitter, making sure you moisten the contact strips. Then you press a button on your watch and bingo! Your heart rate will appear within 15 seconds and will stay that way, giving you real time updates to it.

With a few more button presses, it'll start to record your heart rate, calories burned, and duration of the workout until you stop it. After stopping it, it'll give you a summary of these figures, with an average and a maximum heart rate.

I was worried that the transmitter wouldn't stay put or that it'd be uncomfortable. However, it stayed where it was supposed to and after awhile, I forgot about it.

There's a lot more settings to it than I've tinkered with so far. I know that you can switch it from beats per minute to heart rate percentage (the latter being most useful to us WWers in calculating intensity levels) and that it records up to 12 of your workouts that you can review. If you want it to alert you when you've reached a particular heart rate zone, it can do that as well.

You can also download software to your computer that enables you to change the watch settings (including the logo on the front) or to upload your exercise data to an online tracking program. You will need speakers or a microphone to do it, but it's pretty nifty - it transmits info using bleeps and bloops from your speakers or your watch.

The first thing I did was install a new logo from Polar's logo gallery. That's my new watch face on the left; it's just too darned cool. I've also played around with uploading my exercise file from the watch to the online program. There was some trial and error (on my part), but once I got it working, it worked like a darn. The tracking program looks like it'll be very useful in recording my exercise. I like that I can go in and see info about each of my exercises, including calories, and heart rate percentage.

As to price and where I got it: I ordered it from the Running Room and it was $125 plus tax. The US retail for this watch is $119, so I think it was a pretty good deal. You can also find F6s at any of Polar's dealers, Mountain Equipment Coop (men's only), or Sport Chek.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to take the guess work out of calculating calories burned during a workout. Thanks to this lil' baby, I now know how many activity points I should be recording...and eating!

Bootcamp: Day 8

We were indoors for some of Bootcamp last night, but spent most of it on a little field trip. Our instructor had us run up to a local rec centre then do a bunch of exercises there with resistance bands. There's nothing like working out around a busy rec centre with parents and kids coming and going and gawking at you, hehe.

She'd have us to do some sort of exercise, then we'd have to run after her as she went ahead to another area. She used bike racks, curbs, stairs, trees, a hill, and so on as props to vary the exercises. The trees were the most fun despite the rain and the mud. We had to step on an exercise band with both feet, haul up the handles to our shoulders and then waddle, duck-like, around a bunch of trees. I did rather well at that, but wow, did I ever get muddy!

I also tried out my new Polar F6 last night for the first time. I think I paid more attention to the watch than I did Bootcamp, heehee. I'll say more about it in a separate review though. I'll get that up asap!

The rest of the evening was spent in the gym with core exercises and yoga. Another great night at Bootcamp!

Play Along at Home: An exercise ball is a great way to condition your core. In particular, our instructor loves to make us do crunches and back extensions.

Duration: 01:16, Calories: 523, HR Average: 71%

Lean and mean

In other news, I've been feeling rather lean this week. I've been noticing sticky outy bits like bones (up until now I thought there was only fluffy white stuff keeping me together). There's also definition in my legs, too. And I have something that I'm pretty sure is a ribcage. Yes, a ribcage of all things. I keep touching it because I can't remember the last time I had one.

It’s in!!!

My Polar F6 finally arrived. I just have to walk down and get it on my lunch break. Exciting! A nice piece of good news in an otherwise turbulent week.

Update: It's official. I love it. I tried it out at Bootcamp tonight; the photo shows its inaugural workout. I'll do a full-review of it later. Love it!

New find: Lindt dark chocolate bites

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a dark chocolate connoisseur. Sure, I like it, but I don't love it. However, these little packets of 65% Madagascar dark chocolate are sinfully good. There's an exotic flavour to them that hits the right spot. They're small, but they go a long way. I take a good long 10 minutes to savour it.

You can find them in the bulk section of grocery stores. I'm estimating them to be about 1 point each because I'm having a heck of a time finding nutritional information for them. I went with what CalorieKing.com had to say for about 5g. Though I weighed one using my food scale, it's not an exact weight (but it's pretty close).

Bootcamp: Day 7

There was a real humdinger of a wet and wild West Coast storm moving in last night, so our instructor decided to be "nice" to us by letting us work inside the gym. Little did I know what she had in store for us – circuit training. *cue blood-curdling scream*

Okay, I know, that doesn't sound so awful. And it wasn't really. It was just very tough. Essentially, we had to work at each station for a minute at a time. There was probably 20 stations in total and they were either some form of cardio or some form of resistance training.

The cardio was the most difficult – between each station you had to skip rope or run up and down two flights of stairs. The resistance training involved resistance bands or weights that we used to perform any number of moves we had previously learned. The hardest of these stations was one where you had to sit on a wobble board, hold a v-pose, and do the "kayaker" movement with an 8lb weight. I didn't accomplish anything on that station except for sliding off and laughing a lot.

As if that wasn't enough, the mats the instructor put down were the most stinkiest, dirtiest, vilest mats in the world. And let me tell you – it was more than enough motivation to hold any given pose for as long as possible to prevent the barest minimum of your body from touching those skanky mats.

The evening ended with a power walk outside combined with weights. As we walked, we had to do bicep curls, lateral raises, etc. I worked out a lot of stress with that walk and I felt more than refreshed when we came back and did yoga. Great evening. Even if it was indoors ;)

Play Along at Home: Find a skanky mat (or a clean one) and try a few bicycle ab exercises. Tip: the dirtier your mat, the more apt you are to keep moving.

New book

I'm still working through You on a Diet, but decided to add a new book into the mix: The Beck Diet Solution by Judith S. Beck. I finally found it at a bookstore last night and literally devoured the first fifty pages. There was so much that I could relate to on an emotional scale. I still have issues with food and am looking forward to tackling them. Especially now as I get closer to goal. I want this weight to be gone for good and not sneak back again when I let my guard down.

I've read through to Day 1. I bought some index cards and a notebook on my lunch hour as instructed. Tonight I'll do the first task if I have time after Bootcamp. It feels good to have something to focus on instead of dwelling on the bump I mentioned below.