Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor

The Polar F6 heart rate monitor is an intermediate heart rate monitor. Designed for fitness training and weight management, it has memory to store training data for multiple sessions. The Polar F6 is much better at letting you track and review your personal progress than the more junior models in the Polar fitness series.

Note: BPM = Beats per Minute. % of Max HR = Percentage of Maximum Heart Rate.

The main features of the Polar F6 heart rate monitor are:

Continuous heart rate monitoring
Manual setting of heart rate training zones
Two automatic methods of setting heart rate training zone: one age-based and the other fitness-based on the DAY of your exercise (OwnZone)
Both automatic methods allow you to choose four exercise intensities to determine you heart rate training limits: Basic, Light, Moderate and Hard
Heart rate can be set and displayed as BPM or % of Max HR
Heart rate zone audio alarm beeps when you train above or below your target zone
Visual zone pointer on the wrist watch keeps you training within your target zone
Instant (and post-exercise) display of calories burnt (OwnCal)
Instant (and post-exercise) display of time in target zone
Stop watch to start and stop exercise session
Short post-exercise summary: Duration, calories burnt, average heart rate, maximum heart rate
Full post-exercise summary (Daily File): Time started, duration, calories burnt, fat percentage of burnt calories, maximum heart rate, average heart rate, time in training zone, training zone limits
It stores the last 12 Daily Files (exercise sessions).
Current week summary (Diary). It tells you the sum total of stats for this week: total number of sessions, total duration, total calories burnt, and total time spent in your light, moderate and hard exercise zones. It is saved every Sunday as a weekly file.
It stores the last 12 Weekly Files.
Cumulative stats of sessions since the last reset date: Total number of sessions, total duration, total calories burnt
Basic time keeping: Time, date, alarm
Backlight
Polar UpLink to transfer data from a PC to the heart rate monitor. (Requires a Windows PC with a sound card and loudspeakers or headphones.)
Polar WebLink/SonicLink to transfer data from the heart rate monitor to Polar's fitness trainer website. (Requires a Windows PC with a sound card and a microphone.)
Wireless heart rate monitor with a coded analogue chest strap transmitter and a wrist watch receiver
Water resistant up to 50m

This is a long list of features. Compared to the preceding model in the same series (Polar F4), the Polar F6 heart rate monitor has got much better capabilities to track and analyse the results of your training through the days and the weeks. It gives you a good picture of the progress you have been making.

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Main differences between Polar F6 and Polar F4

The differences are highlighted in bold in the list above. Here are more details.

OwnZone is an additional fitness-based automatic method of setting your heart rate training zone. You are asked to do a series of short warm up exercises. The watch measures your heart rate resulting from doing these activities. At the end of it you are given your heart rate limits for the current session.
When setting your heart rate limits via either of the two automatic methods, you can choose your exercise intensity depending on your training goal for the session: If you are having an easy session, selecting Light will set the zone to between 60 and 70 % of your maximum heart rate. If you choose to have a hard session, selecting Hard sets it to between 80 and 90 % of your maximum heart rate. Ditto for Moderate (70 to 80 %) and Basic (65 to 85 %).
It can display, out of the calories that you have expended, what percentage of it is due to fat being burned. If very little of your calories burnt are due to fat, and you are trying to lose weight, you should be looking at training at a different intensity.This feature in the Polar F6 heart rate monitor can be quite useful for someone looking to lose weight.
When reviewing excercise sessions, it is now possible to see what the training zone limits were.
The Polar F6 now has memory to save 12 individual session data (12 Daily Files) and 12 summary session data (12 Weekly Files). You can review them to analyse your past performance and check your progress.
It is possible to download data from the Polar F6 heart rate monitor to a Polar web site for further analysis. Note that this is not the same as downloading data to your computer for analysis. Your data is stored, analysed and displayed on the web site, not locally on your PC's hard drive.
The coded analogue transmission now reduces the possibility of cross-talk when other heart rate monitor users are nearby.

Summary

The Polar F6 heart rate monitor is the first monitor in the Polar fitness series to give you the ability to review in detail the past training sessions. The fat percentage of burnt calories feature is very useful for weight manangement. At $119.95, it is $20 higher than the price of Polar F4.

This takes you to Amazon for some of the best selections for this model. Certain selections come with FREE Super Saver Shipping.