Most heart-rate monitors聽capture just聽some聽of your heart beats,聽then create an average to provide workout data. That system聽works just fine for training, but Qardio wants to make it even more accurate with its new聽,聽which captures every single beat,聽plus your respiration rate (how fast you breathe in and out),聽giving users a much more robust way to measure how their heart responds to exercise.
It's so good that聽the聽chest strap has pending* FDA approval:聽which means the data could聽be used by doctors to give wearers medical advice. It's the first step toward bringing high-level heart-rate monitoring聽to people outside of a lab setting.聽鈥淲e see how your heart is responding to the workload at a lab-quality level,鈥 says Alexis Zervoglos, Qardio鈥檚 chief business officer.
Theoretically, all this additional information will help amateur聽athletes build better workouts. For example, with the ability to track聽every heartbeat and their聽respiration rates, users聽can measure their聽V02 max聽much more accurately. Users can also watch聽how quickly聽their heart rate returns聽to normal after exercise鈥攌ey in determining proper聽recovery.聽What's not clear yet is whether Qardio's companion app will be robust enough to help users聽parse all this info聽without the help of a trainer.聽
In addition to heart-rate, the Core聽uses an accelerometer and gyro聽to watch聽running form (are you slouching?) and measure聽cadence. The same sensors also monitor oscillation聽(to optimize stride length), and respiration and stress聽levels.聽There鈥檚 onboard memory, too,聽so you can exercise without bringing your phone along, and the battery's good for up to two days.
Price still hasn't been announced, but our guess is that it will be competitive聽with the highest-end trackers from companies like聽Polar,聽Garmin, and聽Suunto. At 7.3聽inches wide,聽3.4聽inches high, and a half-inch thick, it's bigger than most heart-rate chest straps. But when I tried it on at聽CES this week, I聽found it surprisingly comfortable.聽
Bottom line: This much data is likely overkill unless you're training hard. But if you are looking to fine-tune a fitness plan, it would聽be a very valuable tool.聽
*This story has been updated to reflect a change about FDA approval.