Mio Drive Heart Rate Monitor Watch

Designed for fitness enthusiasts who want to maximize their workouts with on-demand, accurate ECG heart rate readings without a chest strap, the Mio Drive heart rate monitor watch is an ideal workout companion, tracking such information as your personalized heart rate, percentage of maximum heart rate, and total calories burned. Specific features include five exercise timers (count up, count down, count down with warmup, walk/run, and repeat), Mio’s 3,500 Calorie Countdown program, and a user-accessible battery hatch. As a bonus, the watch comes with the MioSense Guide for Healthy Living, a booklet that includes information on health, nutrition, diet, fitness, and exercise, along with carb and calorie tables at the back for easy reference.

The Drive offers ECG accurate heart rate monitoring without a chest strap.

Key Features:

• On demand, ECG accurate heart rate monitoring without a chest strap
• Calculates calories burned during exercise
• Visual indicator of exertion level
• Percentage of maximum heart rate
• Get results faster with the MIO 3500 Calorie Club program
• Five exercise timers: Count up, Count down, Count up with warm-up, Walk/Run and Repeat
• User accessible battery hatch

About Mio
The story of Mio began in 1999 when it was created by entrepreneur and mother of three, Liz Dickinson. Like many of us, Liz balances family and career, leaving little time for fitness. After several unsuccessful attempts to achieve her fitness goals and shed the pregnancy weight-gain of her third child, Liz turned to a personal trainer for advice. While working with a trainer, Liz realized the key to getting in shape and staying in shape is to practice smart eating habits, monitoring calorie intake, and using a heart rate monitor to ensure that she exercises at the right level. Liz realized there wasn’t a product available on the market that would easily help her follow her trainer’s advice.

Liz didn’t have time to read labels and carry a calorie journal in her purse, nor did she have much patience for the uncomfortable chest strap she had to wear to get her heart rate. She knew there had to be a better way, so Liz used her technology and marketing savvy to create Mio, the world’s first heart rate monitor to work without a chest strap. And, it didn’t stop with just heart rate, as Mio also has a patented calorie management system that offers a straightforward approach to managing your diet. With the help of Mio and a balanced diet, Liz was able to shed those unwanted pounds and gain the benefits that come with improved fitness: more energy, more vitality, and less stress, and help many others do the same with the creation of Mio’s products.

Features

• Sleek heart rate monitor watch designed for fitness enthusiasts
• Provides on-demand, accurate ECG heart rate readings without chest strap
• Tracks personalized heart rate, percent of max heart rate, and total calories
• Five exercise timers: count up, count down, warmup, walk/run, and repeat
• Integrates Mio's 3,500 Calorie Countdown program. 1-year warranty

User Reviews

Had I paid more for this I probably would have been disappointed. But since I got it $10-$20 cheaper than most places I have been pretty pleased with it. HRM can be slow to read sometimes, but for the most part it's quick. I've tested accuracy against the treadmill and other gym equipment HRMs and it they seem to be on target maybe a couple of points difference, but nothing significant. -- Found at a Good Price

I bought the Drive because I wanted a means of tracking heart rate but more importantly, to me, to track calorie burn while working out in the gym. I have a Garmin Edge 305 with heart monitor strap; this is excellent for outdoor workouts. In fact, the data collection and analysis for workouts provided by the Garmin Training Center can't be beat, as far as I am concerned. But it provides only heart rate on equipment; and because it's made to be mounted on a bicycle, it is significantly bulky enough to be annoying to carry around by hand.

The Drive does everything that is claimed by the manufacturer. It is easy to set up and use. In fact, I've had "sport watches" that provided less functionality but were more complicated to configure and use. The Drive comes with a 2-page manual that provides all the information you need to set it up and use it.

The problem with the Drive (as has been demonstrated by many reviewers) is that using it requires that you change your process of working out. When you start your workout, you start the Drive timer and set your baseline heart rate by pressing the buttons on the watch face. The Drive computes your calorie burn and rate percentage based on this rate. During your workout, you should periodically reset the heart rate by pressing the buttons again. Each time you set a new heart rate, the current status is displayed (current rate, percentage, calorie burn).

You only need to reset the heart rate when you know or believe that your rate has changed. This is a bit of an art and requires you to pay attention to how your body is feeling. You might start out and do it every five minutes. After a workout or two, you should be more aware of how your heart rate is changing over the course of a workout, and you can change the pattern -- maybe only reset every ten minutes.

It's important to remember that the Drive is a tool to make you more aware of how your body is performing during a workout. The heart rate is a performance indicator; you are monitoring it for a reason. What is that reason? If you don't have a concrete reason for monitoring, then you don't understand what the tool is telling you and you probably aren't going to like using it. Indeed, the extra effort required to incorporate it into the workout is going to seem like wasted effort.

For example, if your trainer tells you that you should work on the crosstrainer for 30 minutes and maintain a heart rate of 65% of your Maximum Heart Rate, you would compute this heart rate and then monitor your actual rate with the Drive. You would adjust the intensity of your workout accordingly. As I mentioned earlier, after a couple of initial workouts with frequent rate checks, you will probably find that testing heart rate is a verification of what you already know and you can do it once or twice during the workout.

Assuming you have a proper understanding of incorporating the Drive into your workout, the question of how to set the heart rate is critical. Many people have complained about having to press the buttons on the face of the watch in order to set the rate. You press and hold the two buttons with forefinger and middle finger for 4 to 7 seconds, during which time the monitor should read and display your current heart rate. I found this most challenging during running, as I tend to bob around a lot when running. In all cases, I found that by stabilizing my wrist by either gripping an equipment arm or handle, or pulling my wrist against my body, I was able to get an accurate reading quickly. Honestly, as a bike rider for decades, I can't see how anyone could have a problem checking the rate on a bike. Your upper body is completely stable in this case.

I have two caveats about this unit. One is that it is designed to be worn on the left wrist, but as a left-hander I've been wearing watches on my right wrist for my whole life. Due to the button configuration, the Drive just doesn't work well on the "wrong" wrist. Secondly, there's no "history" or lap recording functionality. Each workout overwrites the previous one. The only exception is for "total calories burned" -- there's a running total that is maintained until you manually reset it. If you want to save the other data, you will have to copy it out manually into a spreadsheet or other tool after your workout is finished.

To get the most satisfaction from the Drive, think about how you are going to use your heart rate information before you buy it. If you clearly understand its nature as a tool, and your expectation in using it, incorporating it into your workout will be successful. You will have to change your workout process to use it. If you don't want to make that change, then either forgo the tool, or spend more money and get a unit with a strap. -- Performs As Advertised

I like the looks and also the functions. The only setback is getting a pulse rate when you are exercising, it sometimes takes multiple attempts. Overall, for the price, it's great. -- I love this heart rate watch

Many good features, sleek, and fairly priced.
I haven't yet used all the functions, but I'm very pleased so far. No more uncomfortable body strap. Hoooohaaaa. Now I can wear the monitor more often. -- Good choice for heart rate monitor

I am starting a workout program and decided to purchase this watch to help me keep track mostly of my heart rate while working and also when resting, nice that it wil also measure calories burned. If you take your pulse several times during workouts it will also show you how many calories you have burned based on your level of activity. The setup was very easy out of the box (do read the instructions first). Unlike other reviewers I have not had any problems taking my heart rate while working out, it's very easy and so nice not to have to wear a chest strap which I did NOT want to have to do. I also feel it is much more accurate than the so/so readings I am able to get from the heart rate monitor on my treadmill. The only reason for the 4 rating is that it is rather large for a woman although that doesn't particularly bother me because I like to wear larger mens watches, and I wish you could get it in other colors - not crazy about the red color. -- Love my MIO

Last Update: 3 hours ago

Tagged with: calorie-intake • calorie-tables • countdown-program • diet-fitness • fitness-enthusiasts • fitness-goals • health-nutrition • nutrition-diet • rate-percentage • third-child • unsuccessful-attempts • visual-indicator

Filed under: Heart Rate Monitors

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!