Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor

The Polar FT40 heart rate monitor is for active exercisers who want clear guidance for training and want to monitor their fitness level and fat burning.

Summary of Features:

EnergyPointer shows when your training is more effective for fat burning or fitness improvement.
Fitness Test measures your current aerobic fitness at rest enabling you to monitor your progress.
OwnCal® displays calories burned with fat percentage.
Comes with a soft, comfortable fabric transmitter and coded heart rate transmission to avoid cross talk.

Polarpersonaltrainer.com allows you to upload your training data for online analysis. You can also create training programs to download to your FT40 heart rate monitor. You will need to purchase the Polar FlowLink® separately.

I highly recommend the Polar FT40 hrm for those who want to monitor their fat burning, but also who want to utilize the Polar OwnIndex (Fitness Test) to track their aerobic fitness. It's a great motivational tool when you see your fitness level improving. Take a moment to view the short video below about the FT40 hrm.

Polar FT40 Heart Rate Monitor Specifics

Body measurement features

Average and maximum heart rate of training

Heart rate – bpm / %

Heart rate is the measurement of the work your heart does. Heart rate can be expressed as the number of beats per minute (bpm) or as a percentage (%) of your maximum heart rate.

HR-based target zones with visual and audible alarm

You can define your target zones for a training session based on heart rate to help define the right intensity. When you are out of the preset zones, the training computer will give a visual and audible alarm.

HRmax (user set)

Manual target zone – bpm (upper limit)

This feature enables you to define the upper limit for your target zone. You can set the upper limit for your training as beats per minute (bpm).

Polar EnergyPointer

EnergyPointer is an easy-to-use feature which tells you during a training session if the main effect of your training is fat burning or fitness improvement. EnergyPointer visually indicates the center point between these two training effects, so when you are below that point, you are improving fat burning, and above that point, you are improving your aerobic fitness.

Polar EnergyPointer Video

Polar Fitness Test

Polar Fitness Test measures your aerobic fitness at rest in just five minutes. The result, Polar OwnIndex, evaluates your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). With the Polar Fitness Test you can measure your aerobic fitness by yourself, automatically and without any exertion. All you need is your training computer. The Polar Fitness Test is as accurate in predicting the VO2max as any sub maximal fitness test. The test is based on heart rate and heart rate variability at rest and personal information.

Polar OwnIndex (Fitness Test) Video

Polar OwnCal® – calorie expenditure with fat percentage

Polar OwnCal calculates the number of calories burned during training. This feature allows you to track the calories burned during one training session and cumulative calories burned during several training sessions. This feature also estimates the fat-burning percentage (fat% on display), that is, calories burned from fat during a workout which is expressed as a percentage of the total calories burned.

Polar OwnCal® Video

Polar OwnCode® (5kHz) – coded transmission

Coded heart rate transmission automatically locks in a code to transmit your heart rate to the Polar FT40 heart rate monitor training computer. The training computer picks up your heart rate from your transmitter only. Coding prevents interference from other training computers.

Training load – available via polarpersonaltrainer.com

This feature is available in Polar software. When you transfer training results from your training computer to polarpersonaltrainer.com, you can follow your training load and recovery in the training diary. Continuous monitoring of training load and recovery will help you recognize personal limits, avoid over- or undertraining, and adjust training intensity and duration according to your daily and weekly targets.

Data transfer

Compatible with Mac (Intel-based) – opt. with Polar FlowLink:
Compatible with polarpersonaltrainer.com – opt. with Polar FlowLink

PolarPersonalTrainer.com Video

Recording features

Totals

Totals includes your training data starting from the last reset enabling you to follow your long-term training.
Training files (with summaries) – 50

Weekly history

Weekly history gathers your weekly training data. By selecting a week, you can review your training data for the week.

Training features

Graphical target zone indicator

This feature points out graphically on the display the zone you are in during a training session helping you to stay on the desired intensity zone.

HeartTouch – button-free operation of wrist unit

When HeartTouch is on, different training information during training can be accessed without pressing buttons, for instance, when gloves make pressing buttons difficult, by bringing your training computer close to your transmitter.

ZoneLock

ZoneLock feature helps you to accumulate certain intensity. You can either lock a zone before a training session or during it by pressing a button when you are on the desired zone.

ZonePointer

ZonePointer is a visible and moving symbol on the training computer display indicating whether you are inside the pre-set target zone. This feature helps you to reach the desired intensity/pace/speed/cadence targets.

Watch features

Backlight

Date and weekday indicator

Display text in English, German, Spanish, and Italian

Dual time zone

KeyLock