The world of fitness tech is vast; watches, trackers, apps on your phone. They can be useful and fun, but the key question is this: do they help change your workouts for the better? At MIT Recreation, we have teamed up with Myzone® to offer heart-rate monitors that you can incorporate into your training. If you are in our facility working out, you can also view data from your MyZone in real-time in certain group exercise classes or instructional programs.

For more insight on how MyZone has enhanced workouts for some of our members, we asked three who have been using the belt and app for a while, to share their feedback and review. Here is what they say!

Navid Abedzadeh, Graduate Student

How long have you been using the Myzone Belt? 5 months.

What type of workouts do you do while wearing it? Indoor cycle, Ellipticals, HIIT, Boot Camp.

What has changed about the way you workout since adding Myzone into your routine? The biggest change has been in the intensity of my workout. The brain has this amazing ability to make you believe that you are working near your physical limit while in reality, you may not be. Before using Myzone, I had no way of knowing for sure if I were working as hard as I liked to. Ever since I started using Myzone, I have learned my physical limits and I have an objective way, based on my heart rate and zone color, of knowing whether I am close to or better yet exceeded my previously set maximum effort.

What about the belt (or app, etc) do you like? I like how when I am using Myzone along with my phone on the elliptical machine or other compatible machines, my heart rate shows up on the machine’s screen so that I don’t have to leave my phone screen on.

Is there anything you wish it did/didn’t do, or did differently? Myzone app was updated recently to exclude less-than-50%-effort periods from calorie calculations. Although that has been an improvement, I still believe some improvements to their calorie counting algorithm is necessary.

Andrew Dykhuis, Graduate Student

How long have you been using the Myzone Belt? About 4 months.

What type of workouts do you do while wearing it? Everything – strength training, spinning, treadmill workouts, rowing, running outside. I enjoy doing intervals on the treadmill as well as tempo runs outside (if it’s nice out). I wear it for everything I do at the gym.

What has changed about the way you workout since adding Myzone into your routine? I monitor my HR in real time more than I used to. I have a Garmin GPS watch so I can check my HR when I’m running outside too. I am more conscious of my HR during workouts – if I’m doing an easy run and my heart rate is creeping up, I might back off a bit. I can also check to see how recovered I am if I’m doing intervals or repeats, in addition to how recovered I feel.

What about the belt (or app, etc) do you like? Real time intensity feedback.

Is there anything you wish it did/didn’t do, or did differently? The app is a bit clunky sometimes. I wish I could see a plot of my HR over time, rather than the minute interval bar graph. I can do this with my watch, but having it in the app would be nice.

Peter Tilke, Alumni

How long have you been using the Myzone Belt? 3.5 months.

What type of workouts do you do while wearing it? Treadmill, stationary bike (Expresso), outdoor run, and keep it on while doing weights circuit.

What has changed about the way you workout since adding Myzone into your routine? Greater discipline with my cardio workout.

What about the belt (or app, etc.) do you like? It just works! When doing say a mountain workout on the treadmill, I will know when to adjust the speed, incline because my heart rate is too high. On the treadmill I don’t have to hold the handlebars to obtain a heart rate. Also, the monitor is very accurate: appears more accurate than my apple watch. The app also works with my apple watch, so I know for example to keep my heart rate in yellow if I’m going for a long run.

Is there anything you wish it did/didn’t do, or did differently? It’s a very good heart rate monitor, with seamless integration to the newer treadmills. I like the way it automatically synchronizes with the cloud. The iPhone app is pretty good. I didn’t find an option to receive audio cues. For example, when I run, I get into the red zone pretty quickly and can stay there. It would be good to get info occasionally that I should lower my pace to stay in a lower zone for example. When running I use Lumo run as well which monitors my cadence, and I get audio feedback telling me what to correct. I also have a metronome app to maintain my pace/cadence which gives me audio info. The Myzone app could also do something like that or integrate with another app (maybe it does, but I haven’t found the feature).