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Aqua Beat
 Heart Rate Monitors Make a Splash!
Part Four
By Joanne Maybeck

 This is the last of four articles about using this hot new fitness tool in aquatic exercise classes and personal training. 

In Part One (in the February/March issue), we learned the basics about heart rate monitors, and where to get one. In Part Two (April/May), we learned how to calculate an aquatic target heart rate and why aquatic heart rates are lower than comparable land-based exercise. In Part Three (June/July) we explored using  heart rate monitors to “tailor” workouts, and useful features of monitors on the market

 Is there anything else I need to know about monitors, to begin using them in my class or with my clients?

 Here are some practical tips:

 Keep 3 feet of space between participants to avoid monitor “cross-talk” in which one person’s monitor picks up another person’s heart rate.

 Do not push buttons on full-featured monitors while in the water. This may affect water-tightness.

 Underwire in women’s swimsuits may cause absent or erroneous readings. Women can wear a non-underwire suit with a jog bra underneath if needed for support and to hold the monitor in place. 

If the chest strap slips on male participants, they can tie a string around the chest strap to their neck to hold the strap in place.

 Do not use monitors in salt water.

 How can I start a Heart Zone Training program for my class/clients?

 Follow this five step plan:

1. You or the facility where you work kick off  the program by purchasing monitors for your class/clients inexpensively. To order heart rate monitors at an AEA discount, www.heartmonitors.com on the Internet or call toll free 1-800-700-0306.  Monitors are also available from many fitness supply companies and catalogs, and in sporting goods stores.  Quantity discounts and fitness professional discounts/commission programs are available.

2. Start a loaner monitor program, by charging a nominal fee for a participant or client to “rent” a monitor to wear during a class or training session.  The monitors may quickly pay for themselves, this way. 

3.  Establish a control system with “security deposits” for the “rent-a-monitor” program. One simple system is to use an over-the-closet-door type shoe bag.  Store a monitor in each shoe pocket. When a monitor is rented, collect the participant’s driver’s license or credit card as a security deposit and store it in the pocket until the monitor is returned.

 4.  Conduct regularly scheduled introductions to the use of heart zone monitors and Heart Zone Training at your facility or with your personal training clients, so that they see the benefits of using a monitor.

 5.  Publicize, publicize, publicize.  One great way is for instructors/trainers to wear monitors, to create interest.  Also, consider selling monitors in your pro shop if you have one.  Monitor “renters” may wish to purchase a monitor, after their “test drive”! 

Joanne Maybeck is a fitness instructor and personal trainer in New York City.  She is certified by ACSM, ACE, AEA, and AAAI/ISMA.  Joanne presents the CEC workshop Aquatic Heart Zone Training and will soon offer on-line heart monitor education. She believes in training with heart!  For more about Joanne, please visit her Internet web site or email her at FitNYC@aol.com