Where there’s a WILL… [workout + review]

The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Under Armour.

THERE’S A WAY!

I’m sure you were all completing that phrase in your heads as you were reading the title. But isn’t it so true? Will power and the sheer drive to finish something, give it our all, and be our best is so innate within us as humans! I know for me especially, I’m pretty competitive, with myself and others, so drumming up motivation to do things is usually not too hard. That’s not to say we don’t all have our days when we feel less than stellar and like we’re dragging our butts with even the simplest of tasks. It’s days like that where even things like working out (which I usually rather enjoy!) can feel like they take an excruciating amount of effort!

Well on a day earlier last week, I was in one of those blah moods and felt as if I’d been pretty unproductive the whole day….I saw it as the perfect opportunity to try out one of the latest fitness gadgets I received as a part of my ambassadorship with FitFluential! Introducing the Under Armour 39 heart rate monitor!

Look at that beauty! It’s the newest performance monitor from Under Armour and was created to take the guesswork out determining how hard you’re working or have worked during your sweat session. Being able to see this information in the moment, while you’re actually working is life changing! Talk about a kick in the butt when you think you’re working a lot harder than you actually are!

The 39 is designed to be used by any athlete, any exerciser, and any person! It’s totally versatile in the different activities it can track and has a bunch of innovative features that no other heart rate monitors on the market currently possess. But I’ll get to all that good stuff in a bit.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I wear a heart rate monitor during all of my workouts to gage my intensity level and to make sure I am fueling properly afterwards. I used to wear a polar model and then switched exclusively to my Garmin when I bought it earlier this year. Even switching between those two devices I noticed differences in my results leading me to question the accuracy of heart rate monitors in general. I love my Garmin of course because of its awesome distance and pace tracking for my runs, but I tend to take the heart rate monitor results at face value because it’s really only designed for running. So when I’m doing other activities, I don’t really know if the results are calibrated, for say, a strength workout or a cross training session.

This is where the Under Armour 39 comes in! The 39 is designed and calibrated to adapt to any type of activity, movement, and even, BODY POSITION that you use it in. Instead of averaging your heart rate like most other heart rate devices, the 39 tracks every beat of your heart throughout every workout. It also tracks workout duration, heart rate, calories burned, and new to me…Real-time intensity and WILLPOWER<—something that is totally exclusive to Under Armour 39’s technology!

Now let me go into a little bit of detail about those last two… Frankly, I think they are what makes this performance monitor stand out from any I’ve ever seen before!

Real time intensity of your workout is a measurement of how hard you’re working at any given time during your workout is calculated through comparison of your current heart rate  with your max heart rate. Being able to see this at a moments notice is definitely helpful with drumming up motivation and a drive to up the intensity if you see that you’re not working as hard as you could be. On the flip side, it’s also good to note whether you are working too hard and are possibly on track to injure yourself or move out of a safe heart rate range.

What I consider to be the coolest feature of the monitor, Under Amour 39 allows for the user to test their WILL POWER during a workout on a scale from 1-10. Based on your personal profile (the data you enter when you first set up the app or the watch), your body position, the workout duration, and key heart rate measures, a score is given to you that reflects the overall difficulty of the workout. This is so key! It is essential for athletes who have strict training regiments and need to know their intensity on a hard workout day versus a light workout day, but also very useful for the everyday fitness enthusiast (like me!) who is looking to learn more details about their workouts and push themselves a bit more when they’re dragging! It’s also perfect for exercisers who are goal oriented and motivated by reaching targets because you can set a certain level of WILL POWER to achieve in your daily workout!

So how does it work? The unit comes with a lightweight, long wear chest strap that is a lot thinner less noticeable on the skin than other models I’ve used. It also comes with the monitor module that sticks right in the front of the chest strap. From there  you have two options for use…you can pair the unit with an Under Armour watch or with Under Armour 39’s  exclusive FREE mobile app! I opted for the second option!

The set up and pairing of the device was super straight forward and I was happy to see that the app asked for a lot of information about me as an exerciser so it could calculate the most accurate results for my workouts.

The app and the monitor communicate with one another through Bluetooth technology and can wirelessly transmit information back and forth. When you’re out of range of your smart phone, the monitor itself is able to store your workout data for up to 16 hours…so no need to worry about losing all your hard-earned info! Cause as we all know, if you don’t have the info to share one ALL your social media outlets it didn’t happen….*wink wink*.

While I will definitely continue you using my Garmin for running, I am so excited that I have a state of the art heart rate monitor to use for all of my other fitness needs!

To wrap up I thought I’d share a workout with you all that I did the first day I tried out the 39! It combines awesome strength and cardio moves with a time challenge!

Let me know if you try it out!

Do you wear a heart rate monitor for your workouts?

Do you use tracking apps or websites like Daily Mile or Garmin Connect?

What’s your trick for building up your motivation when you’re just not feeling in the mood for anything? (<—Always good to keep in mind that feeling that way isn’t a bad thing! We all DO NEED a little rest from everything now and again!)

Kaila

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