Author: Rusty Squire

In the not-too-distant past many endurance athletes and their coaches held a widespread belief that endurance athletes, like cyclists and distance runners, should not participate in weight training. Several decades of sports medicine later and we find that many endurance athletes are finding benefits from days spent in the gym with respect to strength gains, but, as we will discuss below, for more highly conditioned athletes this does not necessarily translate into sport specific performance gains. Developing increased strength, especially in the off-season is a good way to gain strength and will hold more immediate benefits for those who are…

If you are a cyclist, marathoner, a competitive swimmer, or an athlete in any event that requires refined aerobic fitness then it follows that realizing how to apply pacing information is both crucial to the perfection of your pace and performance. A GPS heart rate monitor watch in combination with other measurement devices, like power meters and cadence sensors for bicyclists, or foot pods for runners, provide you an ample variety of metrics to take advantage of. At the end of the day it is all about locating your lactic acid limit in relation to cadence, distance, and time. Churn…

At the Heart Rate Watch Company we have been testing numerous heart rate monitors for several years now, yet on almost a daily basis a customer will ask us, “Should I get a strapless heart rate monitor?” A growing number of people in the fitness community like to use heart rate data but they don’t like the chest strap. As serious athletes know, especially in endurance sports, that continual feedback is important for zone training, especially if you plan on using audible, or vibratory, alarms to alert you to zone compliance. Staying in a relatively narrow range of beats per…

For a bike computer, Polar’s CS600X with power is some serious team issue kit that is GPS capable, indicates pulse, tempo, distance and even watts output. You will spot the CS600X a top many bikes in events such as the Paris-Roubaix since it is the type of equipment that the pros use. This bike computer is quite simple to get attached, customized and prepared to ride with the exclusion of the watts output meter, because it is a tad peculiar and requires a little adjustment. It is different from nearly all other watts output devices, which look at watts output…

As a GPs watch and heart rate monitor the Foreunner 405CX is a terrific selection in a GPs monitor for individuals that enjoy very precise distance and tempo feedback, but it can function in many more ways. Parallel in looks to the Forerunner 405, the 405CX offers a very intricate heart rate based calorie calculation, and it comes equipped with a second quick-release watch band that is tremendous for triathlon, although it is a tad difficult to change out. Garmin has some first-rate instructions on installation and a video on Garmin.com that helps reduce the watch band exchange time. The…

What is absolutely crazy with respect to Garmin’s hottest GPs watch, the Forerunner 310XT, is that this watch operates like a running watch, a bicycle computer, a swimming watch, a watts meter, a quite precise tempo and distance metrics device plus, the 310XT allows you to adjust vibration or chiming alarms for lots of assorted metrics. The 310XT is unparalleled as a cross-training watch, a point that won’t spark much debate among existing users. The minor point of objection would maybe be the dimensions of the watch face (it is over-sized) however it seems no different while worn than a…

Something about the Holiday Season creates an irrepressible guilt that seems to predictably surface the day after New Year’s. Maybe we ate too much, exercised too little, are feeling a little overweight and out of shape. So, we buy a gym membership on January 2nd, enlist the services of a personal trainer, buy a heart rate monitor and away we go off toward our new-found destiny with health, fitness, and improved self-image. It has been this way for decades in my observations, as a regular health club member who has always dreaded the “January Rush”, mostly because I have to…

I get dozens of calls every month from triathletes, runners, cyclists, trainers and general fitness buffs that want to be able to continuously monitor heart rate but they don’t want to wear a chest strap. NEWSFLASH: The days of the chest strap are over! Thanks to some wonderful technology now supplied by companies like Numetrex and Polar you don’t have to wear a chest strap anymore to get that ever-so-important continuous heart rate on your heart rate monitor. It’s not often that I get excited about a new technology. Last year the Garmin 310XT was a really nice breakthrough product…

A long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth – actually it wasn’t that long ago, it was 1976 – I competed in a 7 day International cycling Tour. We had a really good team and eventually ended up with Steve Pyle as the General Classification winner. Following day number 6 of this stage race I was pretty tired, as we had been racing long distances for 6 consecutive days. Our team director, Stan Swain, approached me that night and told me to drop my pants so he could give me a vitamin B12 shot. Now I hate shots but…

Rusty Squire is the founder of the Heart Rate Watch Company and was the first skier in history to ski more than 300,000 vertical feet in one day when he set a world record at Big Sky, Montana in 1998 making 220 runs by helicopter to raise money for kids with cancer. Rusty is also a former member of the US Ski Team, a three-time NCAA All-American, and a former national caliber cyclist and triathlete. Rusty also finished second with legendary extreme skier Doug Coombs in the 1994 ESPN “24 Hours of Aspen” and finished 2nd in the World Iron…