Suunto M5 Men's Heart Rate Monitor

Product Description

Suunto M5 Mens Heart Rate M Itor , Sportline 1060 Unisex Duo Speed , New Balance N4 Heart Rate M Itor , Polar Ft80 Heart Rate M Itor , Dev Medical Pc60e Adult Fingertippediatric Probe Pulse Oximeter , New Balance N8 Trainer , Omr Portable Ecg Ekg Handheld Hcg 801 M Itor , Suunto Com T Coded Heart Rate M Itor Belt Black , Deals Sportline Solo 960 Heart Rate M Itor Watch, N In Yx 2 9550 Digital Finger Pulse Oximeter , A large, crisp, easy-to-read face displays detailed training information. The Suunto M5 women's heart rate monitor and fitness training watch provides versatile guidance with optional speed and distance information for a wide range of sports. Set your goals, and the m5 provides an ideal daily workout schedule to help you achieve them, including telling you when it's time to rest. Simply enter your personal data once, choose your target�fitness improvement, weight management, or free training�and the m5 does the rest, providing:

• A personal exercise program
• Suggested workout for the day
• Real-time guidance during your workout
• Workout achievement summaries

The m5 is optimized for any aerobic activity. The optional Foot POD, Bike POD, and GPS PODs send real-time data to your heart rate monitor on your wrist. So when you go jogging or cycling, you'll see your speed and distance covered. An optional Suunto Movestick can wirelessly transfers your m5 training data to Movescount , and download any program from Movescount to you m5.
Key Features

• Three personal targets to choose from�improving fitness, weight management or free training
• Daily exercise instructions with ideal duration and intensity
• Automatically adapting exercise program for the next seven days
• Real-time intensity guidance during workout
• Recovery time recommendation after exercise
• Motivational feedback messages
• Suunto Dual Comfort Belt, compatible with most gym cardio equipment and Suunto Fitness Solution
• Upload exercise data to Movescount with optional Suunto Movestick (sold separately)
• Download any training program from Movescount with optional Suunto Movestick (sold separately)
• Track speed and distance with optional Suunto Foot POD, Bike POD, and GPS POD (sold separately)
• Supports nine (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, and Finnish)

Warranty Suunto products include a limited manufacturer's warranty against defects in materials and workmanship of two years for sports instruments and heart rate monitors, and one year for accessories such as heart rate monitors, chargeable batteries, chargers, docking stations, straps, cables, and hoses.
About Suunto Suunto is a leading designer and manufacturer of sports precision instruments for diving, training, mountaineering, hiking, skiing, sailing, and golf. Known for intuitive design, accuracy, and dependability, the company's precision instruments combine the aesthetics and functionality of watches with sport-specific computers that help athletes at all levels analyze and improve their performance.
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This review is from: Suunto M5 Men's Heart Rate Monitor and Fitness Training Watch (Black) (Sports)
First, do not get the black face. It's completely illegible except in direct bright overhead light. Even the white faced version is hard to read without direct lighting.

Second, if you've been wowed by Suunto's high tech EPOC, Training Effect, yada yada yada, don't get excited to buy this watch because the M5 doesn't take advantage of any of those high-tech features. The M5 is really a very basic heart rate monitor with some additional features which you may not even use.

Of the additional features, I'm thinking about these:

1. Has PC connectivity with the additional Movestick, which adds $40-$70 to your overall price. Also, the web site really is just so so. Not that Polar offers much better.
2. Has POD connectivity. The most useful one might be the GPS pod, but those don't really do much more than track your speed. Your smart phone will do better.
3. Has built in reminders about when to train, when to rest, etc.


One thing I found particularly disappointing with the Suunto is that it's fitness test is the Rockport walking test. You walk a mile as fast as you can, measure the results. Despite all of the technology Suunto has at it's disposal, and for close to $200, the M5 does not have anything more convenient than this. So, about every two weeks you should retest in order to ensure that the M5 program is setting the right intensities for you, which in winter without access to a treadmill could be difficult.

Lastly, to properly use this watch you will absolutely have to download the manual from their web site. The little folded paper manual is sometimes just wrong, and the rest you can figure out for yourself.

For about the same the Polar F11 watches can measure V02max at rest, allowing you to take it every day if you want to with little effort and studies show it's as good as the Rockport test in estimating V02max plus you only need a good microphone to connect to the polar online web site. If you only want the fitness test and heart monitoring the Polar M52 is an even better deal.