Most Effective Ways to Track and Monitor Your Heart Rate While Traveling

Whether you need to work off last night’s dinner or maintain your fitness program, monitoring your heart rate while traveling can help provide actionable information about your exertion level.

Fitness experts recommend monitoring the heart rate because it reveals the intensity of a workout, which is sometimes defined as the point where you’re burning fat most efficiently. In healthy individuals, raising the heart rate through exercise promotes weight loss and maximum aerobic performance.

Heart rate monitors simplify knowing when you’ve reached your ideal place and how long you need to maintain it for an effective workout. Electronic sensors transfer the heart rate to measuring devices that tell you instantaneously how fast your heart is beating.

If you want to use heart rate monitoring technology during your workouts, look for gyms or fitness centers that offer monitoring devices. If you’d like to have your own wearable monitor, they’re also widely available at sporting goods and online stores.

Use the Gym

Most hotels have exercise rooms with cardio equipment like treadmills, elliptical trainers, stair steppers and exercise bikes. Those that are equipped with pulse sensors on the hand grips measure your pulse and display the rate on the screen.

The pulse rate sensors on gym equipment are usually accurate, but overly dry or moist hands can throw the readings off. If you’re in doubt about whether you’re working out at peak intensity, you may be able to judge it better based on how you feel versus what the machine is telling you.

Some sensors that are Bluetooth or Wi-Fi enabled are compatible with wearable heart rate monitors and will adjust the machine’s programming to give you the optimal workout for fat-burning, the primary purpose for these monitors.

Find a Gym

If the hotel where you’re staying doesn’t have pulse grips on its cardio equipment, consider a Prime Travel Pass to work out at nearby gyms that do. Besides finding equipment with pulse sensors, you’ll be exposed to new workout environments that may renew your enthusiasm for staying in shape.

Choose Your Wearable Heart Rate Monitor

• Wristbands. Wristband monitors are easy to read and often packed with other functions and useful features like breathing rate and elevation sensors. Some let you download the data onto your smart phone or computer so that you can keep a historical record of your performance.
• Chest Straps. If you’re looking for the most accurate heart rate readings, use a chest-strap device. They lie closest to your heart and send a Wi-Fi signal to a wristband so that you know exactly how your heart is performing.

Once you’ve used equipment to monitor your heart rate, you’ll find that it’s one of the most useful ways to pace all your workouts. These devices help you achieve maximum gain without the guesswork of rhythm and pacing.

Do you want to learn more about a fitness program to help you stay in shape while you travel? Learn more about the Prime Travel Pass and give yourself the flexibility to work out at over 10,000 fitness locations across the U.S. for one low cost (either a one-week or two-week pass). You can take group classes and work out with your favorite gym equipment to help you stay in shape and keep variety in your fitness routine.