LifeTrack’s new wearable keeps tabs on your heart rate variability
LifeTrak announced this week the launch of ZoomHRV, a wearable designed to move past heart rate monitoring to more sophisticated heart-beat analysis.
The company ran a Kickstart project to fund development back in 2015, but ultimately closed the campaign in favor of outside funding. The wearable is finally ready for retail launch and can be purchased for $139.99 on the manufacturer’s website.
In addition to continuous heart rate monitoring on land and under water, ZoomHRV tracks heart rate variability (HRV). Unlike other wearables, you can wear it on your wrist, forearm, upper-arm, and ankle at any training intensity.
HRV is measured as the time gap between your heart beats that varies as you breathe in and out. Research evidence increasingly links high readings to good health and a high level of fitness, whilst low readings are linked to stress, fatigue and burnout. In the past, HRV required sophisticated medical equipment, cumbersome chest belts or slow and inconsistent finger-touch readings.
Wearables that are able to read HRV are few and far between. The recently launched Fitbit Charge 2‘s new Relax feature is based on measured HRV, but it doesn’t go beyond that and you are unable to access the raw data. ZoomHRV is the first commercial monitor built with HRV in mind.
“While other brands are treating heart rate like an add-on feature to simple activity trackers, LifeTrak technology is far more mature with specialized sensors that not only measure beats-per-minute but also analyze precise time intervals between heart beats that reveal real-time recovery status,” said Mike Hosey, president of LifeTrak.
“ZoomHRV is a true game-changer not only for elite athletes but also for those training at any level.”
ZoomHRV automatically detects HRV during periods of deep sleep to provide an ongoing highly personal wellness assessment. This data is combined with sleep analysis, streaming heart rate feedback and activity measurements to create a single, comprehensive fitness grade.
You can also measure HRV at any time at the press of a button to provide an immediate HRV assessment. This is recorded over time to provide you with a timeline of your physical and emotional wellness.
In terms of the other features, ZoomHRV has the basics covered. The wearable monitors all physical movements, auto-detects sleep, calculates calories burned based on heart rate intensity and manages ambient light exposure.
The tracker is designed for multi-sport athletes. For example, when worn on the ankle, the device measures cycling cadence and heart rate simultaneously and streams the combined data to leading cycle computers. When swimming, it will monitor your heart beat and count laps in the pool.
ZoomHRV is water-resistant down to 50 Meters and provides continuous biofeedback on a single charge for up to 5 days.
For more information, check out the video below.
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