Originally Posted by chicamahomico
HR monitors on most treadmills are OK but not the most accurate measurement. If you measure your HR at several points over, say, an hour of treadmill walking you will first see a spike from starting the activity, then a fairly gradual increase up to your THR. How fast HR rises will depend entirely on the intensity and your current cardio fitness level. If you take a measurement too early it will mislead you big time. If you plan on doing cardio and watching your THR then the $40-100 is well worth the investment in a heartrate monitor IMO.