11/20/10 Update: Now with tested Video Sales Copy. Strategic diet & exercise program combining 1,000 Calorie Workouts with 1,000 Calorie Diet days for rapid fat loss. With high converting 1click upsells. http://www.1000CalorieChallenge.com/aff.html
The other issue I found is that the reception range is not very good, so the unit won't work well mounted on a bicycle.
Finally, Polar has decided to arbitrarily remove the % fat burn function from some of its watches. This watch does not have it, so keep in mind you will not know what % of your calorie burn was fat.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you?After a couple more workouts and a few hours of trying to figure out this product... well, their user documentation is horrible, which means you must spend hours discovering almost everything on your own.
I like the RS300X for its ability to track and store training data. (But, finding the data is a hassle thanks to poor documentation with no examples. Ultimately, I will have to spend time creating a navigation chart myself.)
I like the chest band with its detachable transmitter and easy-to-replace battery.
I don't like the molded one-piece watch-band that forces you to wear the watch atop the wrist. I prefer to wear the watch on the side of my wrist where I can glance down to read, rather than having to raise my entire arm to read.
I still don't like the display because of its obnoxious glare and requirement of perfect up-close vision to read it.
Based on my experience with the RS300X and other Polar products, I would now raise my 2-star rating to 4-stars (if I could). Without excellent and useful documentation - that SAVES MY TIME & FRUSTRATION - I can't give it 5-stars.
All my other Polar products have been reliable and of high quality construction. I assume the RS300X will be the same or better.
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Sunday, September 6, 2009 11:25AM
I received my new Polar RS300X a couple days ago. I shoulda shopped around...
I've been using Polar Heart Rate monitors since 1986. and have been pleased with them all... Until now.
I bought this RS300X because I loathe the hassle of sending the equipment in for new batteries.
While the RS300X electronics seem to offer many features, the smaller display is utterly crappy - a significant obstruction to my workouts!
You must try to read the tiny display info through TWO glaring reflections off the clear plastic lens (glare NOT SHOWN in the photos). What good is the real-time feedback info if you can't read it while running?!?!
I assumed I would love this new product.
Unfortunately, after only two uses, I hate this RS300X. If I change my mind after more usage, I'll change this review.
Mike
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? |
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The DVD Workouts
Each of the 12 highly diverse and intense DVD workouts focuses on either a specific set of muscle groups or a unique training technique.
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P90X Fitness Guide
This is your road map and your plan of attack for using P90X. Learn guidelines for getting started and essential tips for how to make the most of the program. The fitness guide provides you tips to reduce your chance of injury; a fit test; recommended supplements and equipment; detailed instructions for stretching, warming up, and performing exercises; and guidelines to help you select which P90X phase to complete, whether Classic, Doubles, or Lean.
The Nutrition Plan
Following the P90X nutrition plan is just as vital to your overall success as any of the extreme workouts in this program. Specifically designed to work in tandem with the P90X workout routines, this three-phase eating plan recommends the perfect combination of foods to satisfy your body's energy needs every step of the way. P90X is not about quick fixes or miracle diets. It's about selecting the healthy foods that you want to eat, and determining the portion amounts that will provide your body with the right amount of fuel to excel during exercise. The P90X nutrition plan offers three phases. Phase 1 is the Fat Shredder, a high-protein-based diet designed to help you strengthen your muscles while simultaneously and rapidly shedding fat from your body. Phase 2 is the Energy Booster, a balanced mix of carbohydrates and proteins with a lower amount of fat to achieve additional energy for performance. And Phase 3 is the Endurance Maximizer, an athletic diet of complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and lower fat, with the emphasis on more carbohydrates. You'll need this combination of foods as fuel to get the most out of your final few weeks and truly be in the best shape of your life.
Tools to Keep You Motivated
What's in the Box?
12 DVD workouts, nutrition plan, fitness guide How to Bring It DVD, a calendar to track your progress
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Price: $7.00
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The DVD Workouts
Each of the 12 highly diverse and intense DVD workouts focuses on either a specific set of muscle groups or a unique training technique.
|
P90X Fitness Guide
This is your road map and your plan of attack for using P90X. Learn guidelines for getting started and essential tips for how to make the most of the program. The fitness guide provides you tips to reduce your chance of injury; a fit test; recommended supplements and equipment; detailed instructions for stretching, warming up, and performing exercises; and guidelines to help you select which P90X phase to complete, whether Classic, Doubles, or Lean.
The Nutrition Plan
Following the P90X nutrition plan is just as vital to your overall success as any of the extreme workouts in this program. Specifically designed to work in tandem with the P90X workout routines, this three-phase eating plan recommends the perfect combination of foods to satisfy your body's energy needs every step of the way. P90X is not about quick fixes or miracle diets. It's about selecting the healthy foods that you want to eat, and determining the portion amounts that will provide your body with the right amount of fuel to excel during exercise. The P90X nutrition plan offers three phases. Phase 1 is the Fat Shredder, a high-protein-based diet designed to help you strengthen your muscles while simultaneously and rapidly shedding fat from your body. Phase 2 is the Energy Booster, a balanced mix of carbohydrates and proteins with a lower amount of fat to achieve additional energy for performance. And Phase 3 is the Endurance Maximizer, an athletic diet of complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and lower fat, with the emphasis on more carbohydrates. You'll need this combination of foods as fuel to get the most out of your final few weeks and truly be in the best shape of your life.
Tools to Keep You Motivated
What's in the Box?
12 DVD workouts, nutrition plan, fitness guide How to Bring It DVD, a calendar to track your progress
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Price: $150.00
Features Forecast icons display 12-24 hour weather forecast Automatically sets itself to the U.S. Atomic Clock never needs adjusting for Daylight Saving Time Displays indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity Barometric pressure reading 3 levels of pressure & temperature indicators: Rising, Steady or Falling Moon phase indicator Comfort Level and Heat Index indicators High/Low Temp. & Humidity Alarm Heat Index reading Ice Alert Crescendo alarm with snooze function Wireless sensor LCD displays humidity & temperature Three-channel temperature & humidity channel capabilities (additional sensors required) Outdoor sensor temperature range: -22F to 140F (with lithium batteries) Add the Ambient Weather SRS100 Pagoda Temperature and Humidity Radiation Shield for improved accuracyPrice: $49.95
#1 Doctor Recommended Price: $129.99
Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.
With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Question: Born to Run explores the life and running habits of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, arguably the greatest distance runners in the world. What are some of the secrets you learned from them?
Christopher McDougall: The key secret hit me like a thunderbolt. It was so simple, yet such a jolt. It was this: everything I’d been taught about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirth—it’s going to hurt, and requires special exercises and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with quickly with minimal damage.
Then I meet the Tarahumara, and they’re having a blast. They remember what it’s like to love running, and it lets them blaze through the canyons like dolphins rocketing through waves. For them, running isn’t work. It isn’t a punishment for eating. It’s fine art, like it was for our ancestors. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle—behold, the Running Man.
The Tarahumara have a saying: “Children run before they can walk.” Watch any four-year-old—they do everything at full speed, and it’s all about fun. That’s the most important thing I picked up from my time in the Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. But all of that begins with your feet. Strange as it sounds, the Tarahumara taught me to change my relationship with the ground. Instead of hammering down on my heels, the way I’d been taught all my life, I learned to run lightly and gently on the balls of my feet. The day I mastered it was the last day I was ever injured.
Q: You trained for your first ultramarathon—a race organized by the mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some of America’s top ultrarunners—while researching and writing this book. What was your training like?
CM: It really started as kind of a dare. Just by chance, I’d met an adventure-sports coach from Jackson Hole, Wyoming named Eric Orton. Eric’s specialty is tearing endurance sports down to their basic components and looking for transferable skills. He studies rock climbing to find shoulder techniques for kayakers, and applies Nordic skiing’s smooth propulsion to mountain biking. What he’s looking for are basic engineering principles, because he’s convinced that the next big leap forward in fitness won’t come from strength or technology, but plain, simple durability. With some 70% of all runners getting hurt every year, the athlete who can stay healthy and avoid injury will leave the competition behind.
So naturally, Eric idolized the Tarahumara. Any tribe that has 90-year-old men running across mountaintops obviously has a few training tips up its sleeve. But since Eric had never actually met the Tarahumara, he had to deduce their methods by pure reasoning. His starting point was uncertainty; he assumed that the Tarahumara step into the unknown every time they leave their caves, because they never know how fast they’ll have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if they’re caught in a storm. They never even know how long a race will be until they step up to the starting line—the distance is only determined in a last-minute bout of negotiating and could stretch anywhere from 50 miles to 200-plus.
Eric figured shock and awe was the best way for me to build durability and mimic Tarahumara-style running. He’d throw something new at me every day—hopping drills, lunges, mile intervals—and lots and lots of hills. There was no such thing, really, as long, slow distance—he’d have me mix lots of hill repeats and short bursts of speed into every mega-long run.
I didn’t think I could do it without breaking down, and I told Eric that from the start. I basically defied him to turn me into a runner. And by the end of nine months, I was cranking out four hour runs without a problem.
Q: You’re a six-foot four-inches tall, 200-plus pound guy—not anyone’s typical vision of a distance runner, yet you’ve completed ultra marathons and are training for more. Is there a body type for running, as many of us assume, or are all humans built to run?
CM: Yeah, I’m a big’un. But isn’t it sad that’s even a reasonable question? I bought into that bull for a loooong time. Why wouldn’t I? I was constantly being told by people who should know better that “some bodies aren’t designed for running.” One of the best sports medicine physicians in the country told me exactly that—that the reason I was constantly getting hurt is because I was too big to handle the impact shock from my feet hitting the ground. Just recently, I interviewed a nationally-known sports podiatrist who said, “You know, we didn’t ALL evolve to run away from saber-toothed tigers.” Meaning, what? That anyone who isn’t sleek as a Kenyan marathoner should be extinct? It’s such illogical blather—all kinds of body types exist today, so obviously they DID evolve to move quickly on their feet. It’s really awful that so many doctors are reinforcing this learned helplessness, this idea that you have to be some kind of elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement.
Q: If humans are born to run, as you argue, what’s your advice for a runner who is looking to make the leap from shorter road races to marathons, or marathons to ultramarathons? Is running really for everyone?
CM: I think ultrarunning is America’s hope for the future. Honestly. The ultrarunners have got a hold of some powerful wisdom. You can see it at the starting line of any ultra race. I showed up at the Leadville Trail 100 expecting to see a bunch of hollow-eyed Skeletors, and instead it was, “Whoah! Get a load of the hotties!” Ultra runners tend to be amazingly healthy, youthful and—believe it or not—good looking. I couldn’t figure out why, until one runner explained that throughout history, the four basic ingredients for optimal health have been clean air, good food, fresh water and low stress. And that, to a T, describes the daily life of an ultrarunner. They’re out in the woods for hours at a time, breathing pine-scented breezes, eating small bursts of digestible food, downing water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with the miles. But here’s the real key to that kingdom: you have to relax and enjoy the run. No one cares how fast you run 50 miles, so ultrarunners don’t really stress about times. They’re out to enjoy the run and finish strong, not shave a few inconsequential seconds off a personal best. And that’s the best way to transition up to big mileage races: as coach Eric told me, “If it feels like work, you’re working too hard.”
Q: You write that distance running is the great equalizer of age and gender. Can you explain?
CM: Okay, I’ll answer that question with a question: Starting at age nineteen, runners get faster every year until they hit their peak at twenty-seven. After twenty-seven, they start to decline. So if it takes you eight years to reach your peak, how many years does it take for you to regress back to the same speed you were running at nineteen?
Go ahead, guess all you want. No one I’ve asked has ever come close. It’s in the book, so I won’t give it away, but I guarantee when you hear the answer, you’ll say, “No way. THAT old?” Now, factor in this: ultra races are the only sport in the world in which women can go toe-to-toe with men and hand them their heads. Ann Trason and Krissy Moehl often beat every man in the field in some ultraraces, while Emily Baer recently finished in the Top 10 at the Hardrock 100 while stopping to breastfeed her baby at the water stations.
So how’s that possible? According to a new body of research, it’s because humans are the greatest distance runners on earth. We may not be fast, but we’re born with such remarkable natural endurance that humans are fully capable of outrunning horses, cheetahs and antelopes. That’s because we once hunted in packs and on foot; all of us, men and women alike, young and old together.
Q: One of the fascinating parts of Born to Run is your report on how the ultrarunners eat—salad for breakfast, wraps with hummus mid-run, or pizza and beer the night before a run. As a runner with a lot of miles behind him, what are your thoughts on nutrition for running?
CM: Live every day like you’re on the lam. If you’ve got to be ready to pick up and haul butt at a moment’s notice, you’re not going to be loading up on gut-busting meals. I thought I’d have to go on some kind of prison-camp diet to get ready for an ultra, but the best advice I got came from coach Eric, who told me to just worry about the running and the eating would take care of itself. And he was right, sort of. I instinctively began eating smaller, more digestible meals as my miles increased, but then I went behind his back and consulted with the great Dr. Ruth Heidrich, an Ironman triathlete who lives on a vegan diet. She’s the one who gave me the idea of having salad for breakfast, and it’s a fantastic tip. The truth is, many of the greatest endurance athletes of all time lived on fruits and vegetables. You can get away with garbage for a while, but you pay for it in the long haul. In the book, I describe how Jenn Shelton and Billy “Bonehead” Barnett like to chow pizza and Mountain Dew in the middle of 100-mile races, but Jenn is also a vegetarian who most days lives on veggie burgers and grapes.
Q: In this difficult financial time, we’re experiencing yet another surge in the popularity of running. Can you explain this?
CM: When things look worst, we run the most. Three times, America has seen distance-running skyrocket and it’s always in the midst of a national crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression; the next was in the ‘70s, when we were struggling to recover from a recession, race riots, assassinations, a criminal President and an awful war. And the third boom? One year after the Sept. 11 attacks, trailrunning suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country. I think there’s a trigger in the human psyche that activates our first and greatest survival skill whenever we see the shadow of approaching raptors.
(Photo © James Rexroad)
From the depths of Mexico’s Copper Canyon to the heights of the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon in Colorado, from the centuries-old running techniques of Mexico’s Tarahumara tribe to a research lab at the University of Utah, author McDougall celebrates, in this engaging and picaresque account, humankind’s innate love of running. There are rogues aplenty here, such the deadly narco-traffickers who roam Copper Canyon, but there are many more who inspire, such as the Tarahumara runners, who show the rest of the world the false limitations we place on human endurance. McDougall has served as an Associated Press war correspondent, is a contributing editor to Men’s Health, and runs at his home in rural Pennsylvania, and he brings all of these experiences to bear in this slyly important, highly readable account. --Alan MooresOther than that, the watch does what it is supposed to do. I still find it pretty expensive for what it is but there are not a lot of options if you want to have a HR monitor with all these features. I use the watch for swimming, bicycling and running. So far, so good. I have used it for about 50 hours now.
Good luck
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you?There are so many things this computer can do for your training from beginner to advance that I couldn't possibly comment on them all, so I'll just go over my personal favorites. But first, and extremely brief introduction of myself so you may know if you are receiving usable information for yourself. I am 35 years old, about 50 lbs overweight, having gradually gaining weight over the last 10 years or so from a very healthy frame. I'm no stranger to exercise, except maybe the last several years. I have a gym membership I never use(d) and a perfect 10 mile running trail right outside my office door I never use(d). I am fairly tech-savvy and I lie to play with electronics, but I have no degree in the stuff. I have been trying to get on a running/jogging routine for almost a year now with no success at persistence. Until now...
This watch changed everything. The first thing it when I got it was hook myself up to it and head out the door, turn it on, then stood at the end of my driveway for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to use it. I went back inside with a heart beat of about 150 BPM nopt from exercise, but from frustration. What did I just get myself into? I just want to exercise I don't want a mess of electronics to fight... back inside to read the manual.
I spent an hour reading up on the basics, enough to go back out and get a workout in. I figured I could keep schooling myself with the long but well written manuals for the watch and software while I workout for a couple of days. Then later when I figured it all out I could find/create a workout and load it onto the software and the watch, and follow the workout. And that is exactly what I did, and I recommend it to you to do so as well.
The first thing I realized, on my very first walk after getting a training plan onto the watch, was that I have no need whatsoever to run; at least not now, and probably not for a while. The watch tells you to keep your heart rate within certain predetermined zones for a given amount of time. Going over would be over training and over time a major cause of de-motivation. Going under would be, well, not working out at all.
So the watch starts beeping at me and I see it wants me to get my heart rate (HR) up to zone 3, which for me is around between 121 and 135 beats per minute (BPM). I start to jog lightly, just like I always had when starting a routing in the past. After less than a minute the watch starts beeping at me and I see that I have exceeded 150 BPM which is zone 4, an anaerobic zone for serious athletes, NOT fat guys on Dec 26th with a belly full of leftovers bouncing along a sidewalk in his neighborhood and a $250 fancy watch. Geez no wonder I never stuck to my program!
I've been at it for about a few weeks now, and I can tell that I was over training in the past, just by how I feel before, during, and after I work out. I have a great source of knowledge and motivation in my corner; I work with several marathon runners at my office. They agree unanimously that my routine is spot-on. Except for the rare heavy workout every few weeks coming up in my exercise plan, I should feel an energizing from my workouts; before, during, and after. I've begun to feel this great state of euphoria when I near the end of my workout, which is also normal (as long as you don't see a tunnel and a light, and if you do, you probably pushed it a little to hard and the watch will no longer be of use to you).
So there's the exercise routing part of the watch. If you don't even plan on going that far, and you just want to know what your heart rate is, there are cheaper computers out there. Get one of those. The exercise plan is just the beginning of what this watch can do for you.
When you exercise regularly, your body adapts by strengthening your body (and mind) in so many ways. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, your body will adapt completely. You'll no longer be doing anything more than getting fresh air. Its kind of like if you went out and had a slow walk for 5 minutes on your sidewalk. You've already adapted to that and probably won't get much other than reversing the sag you have going on in your vital signs. To the inverse, if you try to get results by exercising too hard, you'll over train. Some over training every few weeks is good. Being in a STATE of over training is BAD. Very bad.
It's my belief that over training is what gets inactive people like myself to quit an exercise plan. It hurts all over, however, you think its working because it hurts, and the short-term feeling of self accomplishment keeps you going but for only a short while.
The RS400 has a test within itself called "OwnOptimiser" which is a simple test involving lying down for 3 minutes then standing up and holding still for another 3 minutes. All the while the watch is checking your pulse BPM and variations, which it compares to your previous tests (you do this a few times a week) to determine how hard you've been at it and whether or not you should push harder, back off a bit, back off a lot, or keep doing what your doing. This keeps you improving at the most efficient level of activity possible.
The "OwnOptimiser" feature, along with the ability to transfer exercise data to and from the watch and software, including a training plan, make this watch worth every penny in my opinion.
It is my first heart rate monitor (HRM) so I can't compare it to others. But now I will do the best I can do be critical of the device...
#1 The buttons get pushed accidentally very easily, particularly when not exercising. That problem, combined with it's giant ugly red button make it unusable for anything other than exercise, so the $250 watch sits in my gym bag when I'm not exercising. I would like to use my $250 all day long as my casual watch if I were given the realistic option.
#2 There's a bunch of push within the owner's manual for the watch and software to use the online version of the software. It's a great site, with great info and great training plans that are INCOMPATIBLE with the RS400!!! Polar, why are you suggesting I use training programs I cannot load onto my watch? That is very foolish on your part. You should have a compatible version of every training program you have on that website for every data transferring HRM you have in your portfolio, and I shouldn't have to suggest that.
In the end, I am very happy with the watch and the software it came with. I am more energetic, even after a few short weeks, and more excited about exercising than I have been in years. The watch is becoming second-nature to use. I'm not really analyzing my workouts yet.. I'm just walking on the sidewalk for cryin' out loud. But I will step it up, as my HRM tells me its time to, and it'll get more useful. With the level of knowledge this HRM provides me, I plan to stay on track with exercise longer than I ever have in the past. And the twiggy marathon runners I'm surrounded by agree 100%.
fin.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you?
"Forerunner 305, Garmin Training Center CD-ROM, heart rate monitor, docking cradle, expander strap, A/C charger, USB cable, owner's manual, quick start guide. "Price: $29.95
features a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 250 GB hard drive, and 4 GB of installed RAM.
