Let me introduce you to three of the best running watches for beginners
Polar FT4
This is my number one choice for the running watches for beginners section. This watch combines top quality with great design. The Polar FT4 is available for men and women – each one in their own color combination. This heart rate monitor includes a comfortable fabric heart strap, which gives you an accurate reading during your workout. It measures your heart rate and displays it as beats per minute or as % of max. heart rate. These running watches for beginners help you reach your goal by letting you train in age based heart rate target zones as well as heart-rate-based target zones. It will alarm you visually and audibly if you train below or above the zone. The watch displays this data conveniently on a graph. This is much easier to follow than just looking at numbers. The Polar FT4 also features a calorie counter that displays your calories burned during your workout and sums them up also over time. You can compare the running watches for beginners model, Polar FT4 with the Polar FT7, which is an intermediate model.
Current price: $ 70.00 USD
Timex T5G971
My second running watches for beginners choice for you is the Times T5G971, which is a unisex heart rate watch. You won’t be able to choose a special color, as it fits both men and women, but for the beginner this is still a very trusted piece of equipment. The Timex T5G971 works with a heart chest strap and records your heart rate, target zones and time spent in zones. The heart rate target zones have to be set up from you, and you will be notified audibly and visually if you are training out of the zones. At the end of your workout you can display the time, average and peak heart rates.
Current price: $ 50.00 USD
Omron HR-100C
My third running watches for beginners choice, is the Omron HR-100C heart rate watch. Omron are very well known for medical heart rate monitors, so you can definitely trust them with that! It includes a chest strap that measures your heart rate and pulse. You need to set your minimum and maximum heart rate training zones and the Omron HR 100C will alarm you if you are training too hard or if you fall below your proper zone. The Omron HR 100C has obviously not as many features as the Polar FT4, but many of you will like the simplicity of this particular running watch.
List price: $ 59.99 USD, Current price: $ 40.00 USD
So why these?
As you all know, there are thousands of running watches on the market from so many different brands like Polar, Suunto, Timex, Nike, Garmin. But how do you know what to choose if you are new to running and especially never before owned a running watch. Essentially a running watch is a piece of equipment that amongst many other things measures your heart rate. This is the most important aspect of choosing a running watch. Your training watch has to show you accurately your heart rate, and running watches for beginners is no exception.
Do Running Watches For Beginners Need A Heart Chest Strap Or No Chest Strap
There are two different ways of measuring your heart rate. The preferred one is with a chest strap that sends data wirelessly to your running watch. There are also training watches that take readings by just being worn on your
wrist. This might sound more comfortable and less hassle for beginners, but is less accurate. The decision is still yours, but my advice to you is to stick to a heart rate watch with a chest strap. Most of the leading running watch manufacturer improve their products all the time, which means that todays chest straps are much more comfortable than ever before. I think you will get used to your heart chest strap quite easily and won’t be noticing it after a few workouts. By the way, nowadays most chest straps are made from durable fabric that can even be washed in your washing machine.
But With So Many Running Watches For Beginners Brands Out There, How Do You Know Which One To Trust?
I think you should stick to a brand that you know. For example Polar designs running watches for many years and runners really trust their products. And Garmin is known for excellent GPS devices, thus you can trust them with their great range of GPS running watches. But don’t worry, as a beginner you won’t need to invest in a GPS running watch – that might be overkill for your wallet, and much more than you will need data wise. I personally would not go for a Nike running watch. They are known and loved for running shoes – that’s what they know to do right. Besides the very well known heart rate watch brands there are a ton of less known companies out there that sell quite cheap watches. Again, I would stay away from those. You never know how accurate they are and how long they will last. Beginners running watches are anyway not over-expensive, so why waste your money on something that is not very well researched.
This concludes the running watches for beginners guide – read more in-depth running watch reviews on our homepage.
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