Polar H9 Review: Get the most out of your workouts

There are a bunch of benefits that come with wearing a heart rate monitor. You can improve your health by finding and maintaining the right exercise intensity to achieve your goals. You can track your progress. But most importantly (in my opinion), you can measure your work rate and get the most accurate stats when it comes to calorie burn. I tried the Polar H9 Heart Rate Sensor (opens in new tab) and its affiliated Polar Beat app and found them to be extremely accurate and helpful when tracking my workouts and my calories burned.

I'd recommend the Polar H9 heart rate sensor to anyone looking to get the most out of their training sessions. Paired with the affiliated Polar Beat app, it offers high-quality heart rate monitoring and tracks calories burned, distance traveled, speed (where applicable), and the duration of your training sessions. If you create an online profile, it will record and store these training sessions over time so you can track your progress and reach your goals.

Accuracy What I love

Wearing a device that monitors your heart rate enables you to effectively monitor your work output and therefore, effectively track the number of calories you burn. When it comes to working out, the stat that I typically pay the most attention to is calorie burn. I like to set calorie burn goals for each training session and in my experience, wearing a heart rate monitor is by far the most accurate way to track those numbers and the Polar H9 does it flawlessly.

Polar Beat

Polar Beat is the affiliated app that works with your Polar H9 heart rate monitor to track and store each and every workout. It's easy and straightforward to use and I had no issues with connectivity when synching my heart rate sensor with the app.

The app itself is free and offers over 100 workout profiles and tracks stats like workout routes, distance traveled, calories burned, and the duration of your workout. You can create an online profile with Polar Beat and track and store all of your stats over time so you can really see your progress and reach your goals. Most apps require you to sign over your rights to use and share your info and Polar Beat is not an exception to this rule. In order to create a profile, you do have to agree to share your data which I'm never a fan of, but cest la vie.

The app also offers a blog where you can read articles like "6 Ideas for Your Home Workout," "Try A Virtual Workout," "5 Hip Mobility Exercises," and "Low-Key Trail Running with Ultrarunner David Kilgore". This is a fun way to make the most out of your Polar H9 purchase and take advantage of everything Polar Beat has to offer. You can also subscribe to upgrades at an additional cost and get access to things like personalized training advice, fitness tests, and finding your running index.

Easy to use and care for

The Polar H9 is battery operated so there's no charging involved, which I am a huge fan of. They recommend that you detach the connector (heart rate sensor) from the strap after every use and wipe it dry with a soft towel to preserve battery life. When your battery does die, they include easy instructions as to how to change it. It runs off of CR2025 batteries.

To use this heart rate monitor, you wet the rubber (back) part of the band and fasten the band snugly around your chest. You then snap in the heart rate sensor, pair it with the Polar Beat app, and you're ready to rock.

Design What could be better

I wasn't wild about having to moisten the band every time I wanted to use this heart rate sensor. I found it kind of annoying and time consuming to go to the bathroom, get the band wet, strap it on under my workout top, and then pair it with the app before I could start my training session.

I also wasn't crazy about the placement of this heart rate monitor. I feel that they designed it to be worn around the chest for accuracy, but I'd rather wear it around my wrist or my arm so I don't have to practically remove my top every time I want to use it.

Polar Beat voice notifications

When I paired my Polar H9 with the Polar Beat app and was actively working out, it talked at me a lot. It frequently interrupted the playlist I was jamming to, to tell me things like, "you're burning fat," or to "keep going," which I found annoying. I'm sure there's a way to silence these voice notifications, I just couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it at the time. These voice interruptions were far too frequent in my opinion and were more irritating than inspirational or helpful.

Bottom line

I think the pros far outweigh the cons and I would recommend this heart rate monitor to anyone looking to get the most out of their training sessions. It's a great value and offers high-quality heart rate monitoring and very accurate stats. Paired with the Polar Beat app, you can access over 100 workout profiles, track your routes, track your distance, your calories burned, and the length of each training session. You can store and compare these stats over time to track your progress and attain your workout goals.

The Polar H9 heart rate sensor is a high quality heart rate monitor that enables you to track your workout stats accurately and effectively.