Best Fitness Tracker For Swimming- Stay in Your Lane & Own It
Are you an avid swimmer or triathlete looking for the best way to track your training or take it to the next level? The Polar V800 waterproof sports watch is a serious piece of kit for expert athletes that want to improve fitness results.
The Polar device offers intelligent coaching that is specific to your body and training level so that you always perform at your best. You can seamlessly sync your data to the Polar Flow app to delve deeper into your stats, analyze them, and also become a part of the bustling Polar training community.
The Polar activity tracker is equipped with GPS and is waterproof to a depth of 30 meters (3 ATM). Use it to track the following:
- Swimming stroke rate (SWOLF) and stroke style.
- Step count, distance and speed.
- Heart Rate (BPM) with the chest strap.
- Total activity time and intensity levels achieved.
- The number of calories burned.
- Temperature.
- Sleep analysis.
Although the Polar V800 is for serious swimmers it can be used for additional sporting activities such as running and cycling, it’s the perfect accessory for triathletes. The Polar watch is nothing short of impressive and it tracks everything under the sun.
Swimming with the Polar V800
The Waterproof Polar V800 watch can track your heart underwater whilst swimming with the use of a sensor (chest strap) that can measure your pulse underwater. I would recommend buying the version that includes the Polar H7 belt to track heart rate. It is suitable for open-water and pool swimming. If open-water swimming is your thing, the watch will track your progress and distance using the built-in GPS.
During lane swimming, the V800 will observe your swimming technique and measure this using the pool length or your stroke rate. In addition to this, the watch employs a SWOLF score (sum of time and strokes per pool length) for an overall precise measurement of your strength and swimming style.
The Polar V800 can distinguish 4 different swimming strokes including Breaststroke, Backstroke, Front Crawl and Butterfly. You can customize different training profiles depending on your exercise requirements.
Polar V800 Feature Summary
- V800 is one of the leading sports watches for any level of fitness training from beginner to advanced athletes that are looking to step up to the next level. Integrated GPS ensures that your distance, routes and speeds are calculated accurately.
- Set up different profiles for various training activities and specific metrics depending on the sport or exercise.
- The Polar V800 combines sports watch functionality with fitness tracker features. It will provide all-day activity monitoring and sync your data to the Polar Flow app.
- The watch comes with the Polar H7 heart rate monitor (chest strap) for the most accurate BPM readings during exercise and whilst swimming.
- Train for your upcoming triathlon with the Polar V800, it can link to running and cycling sensors via Bluetooth to give a detailed analysis of your training.
Polar V800 GPS Sports Watch Review
It’s hard to find something that the Polar V800 can’t do. This is a fitness device with a huge set of features that are best mastered using the step-by-step guides provided so you can get the most out of it. It’s important to input your details i.e. age, weight, height, etc for a more personalized experience. You can also change the different settings to view specific metrics for each sport mode e.g. your weekly mountain run could include altitude readings.
Each sport mode has a list of settings that can be recorded and paused automatically. You can choose settings such as cadence speed, average cadence speed, top cadence speed, barometric pressure, altitude sensor climb and descent. The chest strap will enable heart rate readings including your top HR, average HR and sustained training HR.
The Polar watch can be configured to deliver notifications, you can sync the fitness device with your Google calendar for reminders and to set up exercise alerts that will sync with Polar Flow. There are more apps that can be synced within Polar Flow.
The initial set up with your smartphone is quite simple. Just be sure that your phone is close enough to the watch so that data can be synced without interruptions. Some users have complained about losing sync communication between their phone and watch but this is mainly because the proximity between the two is far.
The Polar V800 is a superior sports watch in every respect, it trumps other Polar devices for reliability, advanced features, battery life and display. It is Polar’s best fitness device yet and it’s compact, comfortable and lighter than its predecessors.
Whilst swimming, I alternated my strokes after each length and the V800 picked up all the data and was able to tell me the number of lengths I did for each stroke along with my best and worst performance.
The battery life will last up to 13 hours with constant training and standard GPS & heart rate enabled.
There is a power-saving mode with low energy GPS and heart rate that stretches the battery to last up to 50 hours. The Polar V800 can last up to 30 days in time mode with daily activity monitoring.
Polar V800 Product Rating
The Polar V800 is a feature-rich fitness tracker and sports watch that will provide all the stats you could possibly need. It is the perfect swimming companion to measure your SWOLF score (sum of time and strokes per pool length) and can also be used to train for triathlons.
The device is suitable for advanced training and sporting professionals. It is a popular tracker for underwater heart rate monitoring.
Product Rating: 8/10
Where Can You Buy The Polar V800?
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Conclusion
Is the Polar V800 the best fitness tracker for swimming? Yes, this is an advanced device with robust functionality. If your aim is to improve your training and view accurate stats of your swimming performance, I would highly recommend V800.
There’s the added bonus of the H7 heart rate sensor that’s included for underwater BPM monitoring. The stride sensor will unleash a deeper analysis of your running and cycling stats should you wish to extend your training to those areas. Naturally, it will take some time to truly learn the watch’s capabilities and the extent to which you can train with it.
The Polar V800 is a serious piece of kit and a worthy purchase for expert fitness tracking. Are you considering buying the Polar V800 or do you already own one? Please leave your comments in the section below. I’d love to see your opinions.
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