Polar S210 Heart Rate Monitor

The main features of the Polar S210 heart rate monitor are:

• Continuous heart rate monitoring
• Aged based maximum heart rate calculation
• Polar Fitness Test: Taking this test yields your OwnIndex (a value comparable to maximal oxygen uptake VO2 max) and can also predict your maximum heart rate. Do the Fitness Test periodically to measure long term changes in your fitness level.
• When you exercise you can record your heart rate in 2 ways: Basic Use or Exercise Set.
• Basic Use: You exercise without any settings i.e. no heart rate zones or timers etc but heart rate information will be recorded.
• Exercise Set: Choose between Basic Set and Interval Training Set. You can preset up to 5 Exercise Sets for use in your exercise and choose one when you start exercising.
• Basic Set: You can manually set up to 3 heart rate training zones and up to 3 consecutive timers to guide your exercise. You can also program a time-based or a heart-rate-based recovery calculation.
• Interval Training Set: This consists of a warm up phase, followed by up to 30 repeating interval phases, and finally by a cool down phase. You can set heart rate limits and timers on the warm up, and cool down phases. You can choose 3 types of interval phases: time-based interval, heart-rate-based interval or manual interval. In addition you can also program a time-based or a heart-rate-based recovery calculation at the end of each interval phase.
• Heart rate zone alarm can be turned on or off.
• OwnCal calorie counter: It measures your calorie expenditure during your exercise.
• Record lap and split time up to a max of 99 laps. Lap time is elapsed time for one lap. Split time is total elapsed time from the start.
• Stop watch
• The following information can be displayed real time: Current heart rate, average heart rate, heart rate as % of Max HR, stop watch, time of day, split and lap times, lap number, calorie count. You can't see them all at the same time, but you can swap the display between them.
• 1 complete file (exercise summary): Date and time of exercise, duration, average heart rate, maximum heart rate, recovery value, limits of target heart rate zones, time in, above, below target heart rate zones, calories burnt, cumulative calories burnt, cumulative exercise time, interval training information, lap information
• Interval training information includes durations and various heart rates of the warm up, interval, recovery and cool down phases.
• Lap information includes best lap time, and for each lap, split time, lap time, lap number, heart rate at end of lap, average and maximum heart rates of the lap.
• 5 summary files (condensed summary): Date and time of exercise, duration, average and maximum heart rate readings of session. When you finish your current exercise, the previous complete file will be condensed and saved as a summary file.
• Basic time keeping: Time, date, alarm, two time zones
• Backlight
• Water resistant up to 50m
• Polar UpLink to transfer data from a PC to the Polar S210 heart rate monitor. This feature requires a Windows PC with a sound card and loudspeakers or headphones.
• Coded analogue wireless transmission from its chest strap. It will help to avoid cross talk with other heart rate monitor users exercising nearby.

Note: The additional S210 features over those of S120/S150 are denoted in bold above. The Polar S210 heart rate monitor does not have the cycling features of the S150.

Summary

The Polar S210 heart rate monitor has a number of enhancements compared to the S120/S150. The main ones include Fitness Test, Interval Training Set, calorie counter, backlight and coded transmission.

The Fitness Test is a simple test that requires you to lie down and relax for a few minutes. It then comes up with OwnIndex which is a measure of your fitness. Do this every now and again to track your fitness over time.

The Interval Training Set allows you to do serious interval training, governed by time or heart rate. Furthermore each interval can also be followed by a recovery period, again governed by time or heart rate. This is an excellent training tool for running or exercising with cardio equipment in the gym.

Useful Information

The next monitor in the Polar S series is the Polar S410 heart rate monitor.

Not sure which heart rate monitor is right for you? Take a look at the Which Heart Rate Monitor page.