Get that Heart Pumping by Exercising Safely and Effectively

Back 2 or 3 years ago (after yet another personal declaration to get back into shape) I went out and bought a heart rate monitor. I figured that it would be a good idea to make sure that I was at least exercising safely and effectively.

Actually the idea of the heart rate monitor came from the few times I had visited a Curves Fitness Center. During the workout, they would make you check you heart rate every few minutes or so. (This membership did not last long - I would rather workout on my own)

Anyway, back to the story. Needless to say, I shared this information with my father who had been faithfully working out for a few years. He has heart disease which was caught before he ended up in real danger. He now has a stent and one blocked artery, but his cardiologist advised him to keep up his exercise program. So I went out and bought my dad his very own own heart monitor. He absolutely loved it! He was so proud to be using it everyday while he exercised away on his HealthRider, Gazelle, and treadmill. FYI - My dad is 64 years old and can run circles around me! Sad Huh?

So after about a year, he had burned up that heart monitor from overuse I guess. It just quit working. I honestly don't remember what brand it was, but needless to say I came up with the brilliant idea of letting him have mine for the time being. My generous nature busted me and it was real fun trying to explain why mine was still brand new. I can still hear the lecture about how the heart rate monitor was my idea in the first place and then me trying to justify it by saying "Well Dad, I'm younger. You have heart disease. It's more important for you to use the heart monitor...." Even though I knew better. The truth of it was that I didn't need it because I wasn't exercising AT ALL. Of course, it took Dad all of 10 seconds to figure that one out.

Nowadays, I'm exercising more by power walking to Leslie Sanson's Walk Away the Pounds. It's a start and the 2 mile DVD actually gets me winded quite a bit! So, this past Christmas Dad was teasing me about what a great gift he got me and how much I would love it! Hmm...I was really curious about what it could be. When I opened the gift it was none other than a Polar FS1 Heart Rate Monitor. You could see the excitement in his eyes. Not so much in mine. Well, maybe I was not quite as excited because the novelty had worn off on me the first time I bought one or maybe because I had envisioned another type of gift.

Well, today Dad asked me,"So how do you like the heart monitor I got you for Christmas?" OOPS! I had not even taken it out of the package yet. My bad! I covered by saying that I didn't know how to program it. After all, the first one I owned was not the easiest to use. That excuse didn't work since my Dad also bought the very same Polar FS1 Heart Rate Monitor for himself a few months ago and he said it is very easy to operate.

So, I did as promised this afternoon and made Dad happy by getting the heart rate monitor out of the package, programmed it and now it's all ready to use. Now I'm actually glad I have another one! After reading all the information that came with it, I was glad to have one again. The only thing I didn't like was the instruction book. It intermingles the instructions for the Polar FS1, FS2, and FS3. I was trying to program in features that didn't exist on mine. They should only make the book to reflect the actual product in the packaging.

Now that I'm all set with my own heart rate monitor again, I can be sure I'm exercising safely and effectively. Thanks Dad!