Best heart rate monitors (2026): Polar, Coros, Garmin

Frequently asked questions

We have tested and recommended all of the heart rate monitors below, which do a flawless job. But what do all these terms mean?

Heart rate zones: If someone told you they were doing 80/20 training, they were doing heart rate zone based exercises. Heart rate zones are an easy way to break down your range of effort during exercise. Zones range from 1 to 5, and 5 indicates working at 90 to 100 percent of your maximum heart rate. Zone 2 represents training at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate and represents light training. 80/20 training aims to build endurance and means that 80 percent of your runs should be in Zone 2. If your heart rate monitor doesn’t tell you your zone, you can calculate it using Polar’s simple tool.

Maximum heart rate: Some monitors can tell you your maximum heart rate, which is the number of beats your heart can reach during exercise. This is useful for knowing when you are training at maximum intensity and can be used to establish heart rate zones. Factors such as your age and fitness level can affect your maximum heart rate. You can create an estimate of your maximum heart rate by simply subtracting your age from 220 and using that as your starting point.

Voiceover₂ Top: VO term₂ max stands for the maximum rate of oxygen your body can consume during exercise; The more the better. It provides a useful indicator of your ability to withstand intense effort for long periods. This is calculated precisely in laboratory conditions, so heart rate monitors and watches often use their own algorithms to approximate a laboratory test.

Heart rate variability: Heart rate variability measures the intervals between heartbeats and is measured in milliseconds. High heart rate readings are better than low readings, because they mean the body is responding in a resilient way to stress. However, your heart rate readings can vary greatly from person to person because they can be affected by age, fitness level, or even the time the measurement was taken.

Resting heart rate: This is the number of times your heart beats in one minute at rest, and is a simple indicator of your current level of cardiovascular fitness and general well-being. Normally, your resting heart rate should range between 60 to 100 beats per minute. A lower resting heart rate is associated with athletes, because the heart has been trained to be more efficient. But an uncharacteristically low or high heart rate could mean something isn’t quite right.

Calories burned: The heart rate monitor checks your effort based on your heart rate and uses the company’s proprietary algorithms to provide an indication of how many calories you burned during your workout. Heart rate is one of, if not the, strongest indicator of effort, which means a heart rate monitor is one of the most accurate ways to get this information.