Full Review Of The New Polar A360 Watch
December 30, 2015 -
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Happy (almost) New Year everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed your Holiday’s as I know I definitely did. I took some time just to step back a bit from blogging & really focus on seeing my loved ones. I’ve got some cool things coming up in the near future so taking some family time is always a good thing.
I’ll do a full recap of the Holiday’s as well as sharing my news with you in an upcoming post — but until then, I wanted to share with you an awesome new tool that I think would be a great way to bring in the New Year and help track your training called the Polar A360.
Polar is in the middle of their #DiscoverYourFirsts campaign where I shared my story of my first year being a Soccer Coach while also launching their new product, the A360.
With nearly 40 years of innovation in wearable sports technology, Polar is setting a new standard for heart rate monitors with the introduction of the A360.
Thanks to my friends at FitFluential & Polar, I was sent their new model to play with, test out, & review.
In the past, I used to “abuse” heart rate monitors by becoming too worried about calorie burn. After I went through my BODYpeace journey over the years – I am truly at a much better place with my training. I now embrace what my body can do & love to test my physical ability while having in “inside” look at my heart rate throughout my training.
In college as a Physical Education major, we utilized heart rate monitors in many of our classes. I remember using Polar monitors in our aquatics class while training for our timed 500m swim as well as in our Personal Fitness class where we would track our heart rates during different activities like running, walking, & sprinting to note the difference.
Many schools across the country and friends of mine that our now Teachers, continue to use Polar heart rate monitors with their students and in their Physical Education classes which I think is awesome! A tool like this can be so useful if you’re looking to really get an in-depth look into your training as well as just an inside look in general to your every day activity.
Plus, it’s super sleek & comfortable to wear and syncs up to the Flow App which is Polar’s activity tracking log you can use on your smartphone.
Flow App
The Polar watch syncs with the Flow mobile app which allows you to transfer activity and exercise data via Bluetooth® Smart to your mobile device for on the go analysis.
You can analyze your activity from the day including the total number of steps, calories, active time and the quantity and quality of sleep.
Here are a few examples of my training:
Here is the day after Christmas where I did some leg training & a spin class.
You can set your daily goals so the watch will let you know how close you are to your activity goal & when you’ve hit it.
During the week of Christmas I took a few days off of training & really listened to my body so when I did get to the gym I was hitting some strength & conditioning in the same day.
You can keep track of your days in one log which is pretty cool in case you forget what you were training & wanted to go back while planning your next week.
On my “cycling” day I totally forgot to switch off my “training” mode on the watch so I promise I didn’t bike for 2 & a half hours ;]
To start tracking your activity, you just simply press a button the watch and choose which activity you are doing. Once you are done, you simple hit an off button & the watch continues to track you as long as you’re wearing it.
Another cool feature is the “inactivity” alert which vibrates if you’ve been sedentary for over an hour.
That day I was sitting & doing computer work so my band buzzed to let me know I had been sitting but I’m not going to lie — on rest days I didn’t put the watch on because I find a good balance with tracking my activity & then also just letting my body rest without being reminded to get up.
When my body said couch — I gave it the couch for a day.
I think it’s important to use a tool like this in a way that’s not an extreme. I personally think it’s awesome to be “aware” of your body & your activity, but keeping in mind the “why” behind wearing the band as a way to promote a healthy relationship with activity tracking.
This is a great tool to track training, heart rate, learn more about your body, & also for those who may want to lead a more active lifestyle.
This would also be great if you’re an Athlete and you’re looking to really take your training to the next level.
With anything – finding a balance is key.
POLAR A360 PROS
Waterproof & Comfortable To Wear
Optical Heart Rate
• Continuous, accurate heart rate without a chest strap
Activity Tracking
• Steps, calories, activity goal and sleep
Color Touch Screen
• High resolution, touch screen navigation
2 Week Memory
• 14 days of memory with 24/7 activity tracking and 1 hour daily heart rate session
Mobile Connectivity
• Seamless communication via Bluetooth Smart to Polar Flow app on mobile devices
Vibration Alert
• Be alerted for periods of inactivity and smart notifications
Smart Notifications
• Get notifications of incoming calls, messages and calendar Key Benefits
POLAR A360 CONS
- Honestly, the only issue I had with the watch was in the beginning whenever I was trying to get it to “sync” with the Flow App.
- Every time I would go to sync my watch with my phone (which is really as simple as just pushing the button on the watch while having it in range of your phone) it would say “sync failed”.
- I called the Polar Help Line and they were super nice with helping me figure out that all you need to do is go to your Bluetooth Settings on your iPhone & whenever you see the Polar A360 as one of the devices in range – you need to click on it and choose “forget this device” as this will help it not interfere with your Flow App syncing with the band.
- This is super important for anyone having trouble syncing your band to the app because the Flow App will do the connecting for you — you do not need to sync the band with your actual bluetooth on your iPhone.
My friends at Polar are offering a discount code “POLARFITBLOG” which provides 20% off of any Polar Heart Rate Monitor or activity tracker, [EXCEPT FOR THE POLAR A360].
*There is no quantity limit. The code is good only online at Polar.com. The code is only good in the US & it expires on 12/31/15.
Thank you Polar & FitFluential!
Be true to you,
xo Kasey
This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Polar.