This is the high end of sports training.

Let the Forerunner 405CX Sports Watch watch precisely track your heart rate, distance, calorie consumption, pace. The transmission from the wireless heart monitor to the watch is digital, providing fast, accurate data recording that will be sent automatically to your PC as soon as you get in range. Unlike ordinary calorie consumption computations based on pace and distance, the Forerunner 405CX bases the calorie consumption computation on your heart rate, providing a much more accurate calculation.

The Garmin software helps you analyze your workouts over time and even plan your next workout, which is then sent back to the watch for easy access while you work out. Changing the display is extra-easy with the touch-screen that this watch features.

Part of a running club? The 405CX lets you transfer information with other 405CX owners. Compete against your running buddy without even being available to work out at the same time; just transmit your workout stats back and forth to see who did that 3-mile run past the old mill faster.

When rain keeps you inside on the treadmill or the stationary bike and GPS can’t track your distance, add the optional foot pod or bike sensor to get the same great features without setting foot outside. The Forerunner 405CX also includes a second wristband designed for a smaller wrist.

Get the Forerunner 405CX on Amazon

Other Forerunners on Sport-Gadgets.com >>

You get motivated to get fit and then come the rains. Sans workout buddy, it’s just not the same and it gets harder to work out every day. You need the competition. Here it is… in a watch.

The Garmin FR60 Fitness Watch includes a heart rate monitor and foot pod to accurately track heart-rate, pace and distance for walking, running or cycling, indoors or out and a USB ANT stick, which wirelessly connects to the heart rate monitor and foot pod and then connects easily to your computer.

Water-resistant up to 50 meters, the FR60 is tough enough to keep up with your toughest workout and light enough (1.6 ounces for the male model and 1.4 ounces for female model) not to weigh you down.

The Garmin software that works with your FR60 Fitness Watch lets you analyze and plan workouts using data of workout times, heart rate, calories consumed, lap times and averages, and more, in addition to providing a heart rate zone display while you work out.

But the really unique feature of the FR60 Fitness Watch is the Virtual Training Partner. Now you always have a workout partner to race against, rain or shine, indoors or out. Competition can make your workout not only more enjoyable, but a lot more effective.

Get your workout buddy on Amazon.

You’ve committed to working out and you want to do it right. It’s time then for a good pulsometer.

We all know the importance of having a good pulsometer: sustaining your pulse at around 75% of the maximum for your age produces the maximum benefit with the minimum of risk.

So you’re in the market for a pulse-monitoring watch, the most versatile and unobtrusive of the various pulse-monitoring devices.

Let’s face it, most of the pulsometer watches available look like they belong on Lance Armstrong’s wrist. That’s where Beurer’s PM-60 comes in. This one actually looks like a watch! There are a lot of pulsometers more powerful than the Beurer PM-60, but this is the one you can wear for anything.

With this model, you can enjoy the benefits of precise EEG heart-rate monitoring and the look of a designer watch: a squared, brushed-stainless watch component on a simply stylish black band. Combined with the waterproof feature, this is a pulsometer you can work out in and shower in, and it’s also a watch you can wear to the office and even out to dinner. Granted, the analog EEG transmission is not going to be as precise as in the higher-end digital-transmission models, and this may produce a small delay in the calculations, but for ordinary workout standards, that compromise should not present any real difficulty.

Get the Beurer PM 60 HRM Watch on Amazon

Big dreams? Garmin’s Forerunner 310XT GPS-enabled sports watch can keep up with them.

Start by wearing it while you train in the pool. This watch is waterproof up to 50 meters with a water-friendly, comfortable strap, so you can time your laps with it with ease.

Next leg of training on the bike? Pick up the quick release and bike mounts and the Forerunner will not only clip conveniently onto your bike, it will even track your transition time between activities. Biking or running, distance, pace, and more will be recorded on your wrist.

And then? As soon as you get in range of your home computer, the Forerunner wirelessly transmits your workout data to the Garmin software that lets you organize and analyze your workouts. Never mind hooking up cables or adding another device dock to your computer: The data transfer is both wireless and automated. That transmission works both ways as well: Garmin’s software enables you to plan a workout on the computer and transmit it to the watch, which will in turn provide the information you need to stay on track while you train.

Maybe you aren’t the next great triathlete, but Garmin has ensured with the Forerunner 310XT Sports Watch that you can train like one.

Buy the Garmin Forerunner 310XT on Amazon

One of the reasons I don’t use a heart rate monitor often is that I hate the chest belt. To avoid this annoyance, Mark of Fitness has created a finger heart rate monitor, the MF-180.

You can buy the MF-180 on Amazon.

Related post: The Nordic Walkers Heart Rate Monitor

Today, while browsing the Suunto website I’ve come across a curious product: the Suunto T6 Team Pack.

The product page gives the best definition for this product: “Suunto T6 Team Pack is a complete solution for situations where a trainer is managing sports activities involving a group of athletes. With the help of Suunto t6 team pack the trainer can maximize the results of his athletes’ training and monitor their progress. It is also well suited for personal trainers who want to deliver their clients the best possible outcome from their training.”

The Suunto T6 Team Pack consists of the following items:

• 10 Suunto T6 sports watch
• 10 heart rate transmitter belts
• 11 data-snake calbes
• 10 Training Manager software CD, 1 Team Manager CD, 3 training guidebooks and 10 quick-start guides and user’s manuals
  Replacement batteries for all the watches and belts
• Suunto T6 towel

Get the Suunto T6 Team Pack on Amazon.

Related post: Suunto T6 vs. Polar S625X

Related products:

• Suunto T6 Wristop Personal Trainer with Heart Rate Monitor
• Polar S625X Running Speed and Distance Heart Rate Monitor with XS/Small Wearlink Transmitter (Brand New, 2 Year Warranty)

Stuart Tevendale from OTAG Technologies has posted a practical comparison of these two heart rate monitors: the Suunto T6 and the Polar S625X.

Both watches let runners and cyclist measure their performance: heart rate monitoring, speed, distance, and so on, gathering data through sensors on the runner’s shoe (Foot POD) or on the bike’s front wheel (Bike POD). In addition, the T6 can use a GPS POD to track speed and distance via the GPS System.

Other links:

• Suunto T6 product page.
• Polar S625X product page.

Buy at Amazon:

• Suunto T6 Wristop Personal Trainer with Heart Rate Monitor
• Suunto T6 and Foot/Bike POD Duathlon Combo Pack
• Suunto GPS POD Wireless Transmitter
• Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor Watch
• Polar S625x Speed and Distance Heart Rate Monitor with IR (USB) Cadence Kit, and Speed Sensor Kit For Cycling

Remember that Mac Training Center is due next week at MacWorld Expo.

The Training Center software is used to analize and store the data gathered in your workouts (running, cycling or other sports) by the Forerunner or Edge fitness trainers. This is a screenshot of the Windows version:

Garmin has also developed a web application, MotionBased, where you can input your data, and it has some additional benefits like online mapping and route sharing. Mac users have been able to upload data to MotionBased using a Safari plugin since March 2006.

Nordic walking is catching on these days. Maybe that’s why Sigma has come up with this innovative heart rate monitor and watch. The Nordic Watch is especially designed to be used in Nordic sports, as it is fixed on a pole so that you can easily read your workout data.

The Nordic Watch has all these features:

• Automatic scroll-though that provides the relevant features for training.
• Adjustable angle of the display.
• Can also be worn on the included lanyard.
• 100% ECG exact.
• Adjustable training zone.

• Easy to replace batteries.
• Calorie counter, total calories.
• 1 exercise zone.
• Alarm for out of zone heart rate.

Read more information at the Nordic Watch product page.

Links:

• Sigma Sport.
• Nordic Watch product page.
• Nordic Walking at the Wikipedia.