REVIEW: Mio Alpha - a handy wrist heart rate monitor

If you watch your health and is actively engaged in sports, then you are likely to follow the frequency of your heart rate. Consider the heart rate manually for a long time and is not always effective, and chest heart rate monitors often make us feel uncomfortable. These problems can easily cope Mio Alpha - wrist heart rate monitor, which we will cover in this article.

When I picked up the heart rate monitor Mio Alpha, immediately I remembered a pair of physical education at the university, where we passed the test Cooper. Let me remind you that the Cooper test - is a 12-minute run without interruption. Usually precedes a warm-up run for 5–7 minutes. After a warm-up run and before the upcoming 12-minute races, we as a group of teacher team, which included a stop watch 15 seconds, his pulse was measured: groping pulsating radiation or carotid artery, pulse rate was considered, then the resulting number was multiplied on four. After that, all reported to get the number of beats per minute, and occasionally those whose significance goes beyond the norm, and sent to rest on the bench or in the clinic.

In the current situation, due to the fact that most people are occupied predominantly sedentary work, sport has become a necessity for everyone who cares about their health and want to keep yourself in good form. If you continuously monitor your heart rate during exercise, it will help make your workout more effective, as well as a good preventive cardiovascular diseases.

Now there is a wide variety of modern devices that help a person without any inconvenience to constantly monitor your heart rate. Today I want to tell you about one of these devices - the wrist heart rate monitor Mio Alpha.

Contents of delivery

Mio Alpha comes here in a compact box in which there is nothing superfluous: actually, the heart rate monitor, USB-charger, user manual and warranty card.

Appearance

Despite the fact that the heart rate monitor Mio Alpha is quite large and has a fairly wide strap, even on a female hand, he does not look great and awkward.

The display, unfortunately there is no backlight function. If you use Mio Alpha day, then you will not have any inconvenience, but if you lover suit, you have yourself a workout late at night to illuminate the display, or mobile flashlight.

On the reverse side of the heart rate is a connector for the charger, lasers and sensors.

How does the Mio Alpha

According to the manufacturer, Mio Alpha is based on a technology that is used in medical equipment: a few sources projected onto the human skin light rays that allow a special sensor to "see" as pulsating blood vessels under the skin person. With this technology, Mio Alpha able to accurately determine your heart rate even when the running speed of 19 km / h.

Mio Alpha is easy to use: it has only two buttons - Set / Toogle (left) and Timer + HR (right). Even though that is not supplied instruction in Russian, you will not leave a lot of time to deal with the heart rate monitor.

Before use fasten Mio Alpha wrist so that the sensors on the inner side of the device abut against the skin. But do not overdo it if you too would chip strap, you may leave traces.

Hold the button and wait HR beep - so we go into training mode (it notifies the icon will appear with the running man) and will be able to find your own pulse. Inscription Find appears, it means that the device measures the heart rate; this it takes time (about 15 seconds). After that, you will hear a familiar sound to you, and you can see your pulse.

If you hear a few short beeps and you will see an icon on the display "- -", it means that the device lost your pulse. Perhaps you are not too tight tightened strap. If you remove the Mio Alpha c wrists, not coming out of training mode, will be a similar picture.

Charging

Mio Alpha keeps charging long enough: in the training mode, it can work out a little more than a week without recharging. And if you use Mio Alpha in clock mode, the device will last without charging a month, maybe more.

Mio Alpha Opportunities

As we have seen above, Mio Alpha can accurately measure your heart rate. Apart from that, the heart rate monitor has a few useful features:

• Mio Alpha can be used as a wristwatch or stopwatch.
• In the heart rate is a function as "Zone heart rate." With its help, you can set the lower and upper thresholds of your heart rate. This may be necessary in order to protect themselves from perenagruzok or, conversely, to motivate themselves a great deal, if you feel that apply the insufficient efforts. Upper and lower boundaries of the pulse depends on the sex, age, state of your body. On the Internet you can find a variety of techniques that allow to calculate those limits. Here's how it will look on your Mio Alpha:
  
  The green light indicates that everything is normal; blue - that your heart rate slows down; red - that your heart rate is higher than normal.
• Mio Alpha can be used under water: it is waterproof. So you can keep track of your heart rate even in the pool. However, clicking on buttons underwater device manufacturers are not advised.

Wireless synchronization with a smartphone Mio Alpha

Mio Alpha can transmit data about your heart rate on your smartphone through Bluetooth 4.0 technology. Mio Alpha synchronization with a smartphone - a convenient and great, but does not necessarily function.

If you are the lucky winner of the iPhone, the difficulties in the integration of Mio Alpha c You have not arise. But if the operating system of your smartphone - Android, it is necessary to look at the version: to run some of it must not be lower than applications than 4.3 Jelly Bean, as well as your phone must support Bluetooth 4.0.

I will give examples of applications with which you can synchronize Mio Alpha.

DownloadQR-Code

Runkeeper - jogging with GPS

Developer: FitnessKeeper, Inc.

Price: Free

DownloadQR-Code

RunKeeper: GPS running walking

Developer: ASICS Digital, Inc.

Price: Free

DownloadQR-Code

Endomondo Sports Tracker

Developer: Endomondo.com

Price: Free

DownloadQR-Code

Endomondo Running Walking Cycling

Developer: Endomondo.com

Price: Free

DownloadQR-Code

Map My Run by Under Armour

Developer: Under Armour, Inc.

Price: Free

DownloadQR-Code

Run around with MapMyRun

Developer: MapMyFitness, Inc.

Price: Free

These are not all the applications that you can synchronize your Mio Alpha, the example shows the most common.

Summarizing

Once again I want to remind you to check the compatibility of Mio Alpha with your smartphone before will gain a heart rate monitor.

Very often there are disputes about whether it is better and more efficient: wrist heart rate monitor or a wireless pulse belts. To make it easier for you to understand that you like better, suggest you read this fast.

For Mio Alpha very quickly get used to the sixth or seventh day of training you will not even feel it on the wrist, even though in the early days of possible discomfort: I personally felt that I measure pressure.

Remember that you can not completely cut down Alpha Mio: normal state of the heart rate - clock mode.

In general, the heart rate monitor Mio Alpha - a worthy, stylish and modern alternative to breast heart rate monitor.

Heart rate monitor Mio Alpha It was provided for review by Madrobots.