Physical activity is an essential part of a healthy and vital lifestyle. Walking can help you lose weight or maintain healthy body weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lower your risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, reduce stress and improve your overall mental outlook. Besides, walking is enjoyable, and people of all ages do it every day with very little fear of injury.
The best way to reap the health and fitness benefits of walking is to make it a part of your daily life and to make sure that the intensity of your walks matches your goals.
Monitoring your activity helps you to develop a greater understanding of the ‘health beneficial’ activities and to improve your personal health and fitness management.
If you enjoy being outdoors and are interested in well-being, but do not want to follow a structured training plan and workout regularly in a dedicated session, Polar AW200 Activity Watch is the ideal companion for all of your walking type of activities.
Polar AW200 is easy to use: just wear the watch, press start and go. You do not need to attach a transmitter belt or separate sensors.
Polar AW200 activity watch helps you to know the level of your activity by showing
- the total time for session and active time
- the time you spent at the five Polar activity zones
- the amount of active steps
- cumulative calories (kcal) and energy expenditure rate (kcal/h)
- ascent, descent and maximum altitude during activity.
During action you will see an activity indicator showing the speed you are walking or running. In Polar activity monitoring the source of information is your body activity, including the body movements. An accelerometer in the AW200 converts the body movement into electrical pulses which are filtered and combined with the information about you (your height, weight, age, gender) and the environment (ascent, descent, time).
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Active time - Cumulative time of health beneficial body movement. Compare the active time with the total time and find out how long you have been moving on a health beneficial intensity level. Basic recommendation: aim for 30 minutes or more a day. Active time means the duration of truly active body movement since you started recording activity with AW200 Activity Watch. Active time excludes the time you have spent on stops and breaks during your walk.
You can compare the active time with the total exercise time and find out how long you have been moving on different activity zones.
To improve your health the minimum recommendation is to carry out 30 minutes continuous daily activity (minimum length per session is 10 min). To improve fitness, walk or run 3-4 times a week, minimum of 30 minutes at least at moderate intensity.
For health benefits the most important thing is being physically active every day. The duration (minutes) and the amount (kilocalories) of activity are key factors. For fitness improvement fewer sessions per week will do, but the intensity (activity zone) becomes more important. Right intensity depends on your current fitness level. The better your fitness, the higher the intensity can be. Regular runners can exercise at the highest zone at times to improve performance.
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Active steps - Body movement which is comparable to steps taken during active time, with right intensity to improve fitness. Quantifying the level of health beneficial activity in steps allows for very simple targeting of daily activity. Basic recommendation: aim for 7000 steps or more a day. Polar active steps are based on continuous motion of your whole body. Single steps at place are not active steps. Polar AW200 Activity Watch starts calculating the active steps during walking type of activity when the movement has lasted minimum of 30 seconds.
Keeping track of your active steps allows a simple targeting of your daily action. Recommendation is that you accumulate minimum of 7000 active steps a day during your activity sessions.
Steps taken while walking on varying terrain are fitness wise more valuable than the ones taken on level terrain since fewer steps are required to achieve the same effects. Also steps taken at higher activity zones are more valuable than steps taken at lower activity zones.
In general, to walk more effectively, pay attention to your posture and technique. Keep your body erect, your head up and your neck and shoulders relaxed. Try to keep your back straight.
Walk with a comfortable stride length and pace. Make sure you walk heel-to-toe, pushing off with the toes at the end of each step. Take shorter, rather than longer, steps. More frequent short steps will give you a better workout and are easier on your joints.
Let your arms swing naturally with each step. Swinging your arms properly will give you a better aerobic workout, burn more calories, and engage more muscles throughout your torso. Also, you will be able to move faster if you let the arms move with you.
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Activity zones and Zone pointer - 5 zones (speed levels) showing the effort of your activity. Motivates and inspires the user to increase activity effort at different levels and benefit from varying effects on health and fitness. Basic recommendation: aim to increase the active time spent in higher zones. Based on walking and running speeds, Polar divides activity into five zones. The following chart displays the zones and their effects on your health and fitness:
Regular walking can improve fitness depending on your current fitness level. For example, if a less fit person walks daily for 30 minutes or more at comfortable pace, fitness improves. For more experienced walker brisk walking will improve fitness. A good recommendation is to walk briskly at least 30 minutes 3-5 times a week. This recommendation applies also to running.
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Cumulative calories (kcal) and calorie expenditure rate (kcal/h) - Measures energy consumption (in kcal and kcal/h). Basic recommendation: burn 150 kcal more than your daily norm. In general, calorie (cal) is a measure of the energy value in e.g. food and physical activity. 1000 cal=1 kilocalorie (kca
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Altitude with graphical trend - Current altitude and air pressure reading with graphical trend.
Discover the surroundings and how much elevation gained by tracking the route profile. Observe and predict upcoming weather changes - enables better preparation for outdoor activities.
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Cumulative ascent and descent
Altitude difference - Shows your current altitude reading with graphical trend curve and your vertical progress.
Altitude is measured by using an air pressure sensor. Air pressure changes constantly due to varying weather conditions. Therefore, measured altitudes in the same position may vary. Pressure variations due to weather conditions, or indoor air-conditioning, may affect altitude readings. Calibrate your Altimeter at regular intervals to make sure it remains accurate.
Since the Altimeter and Barometer both use barometric pressure, only one of these features can be activated at a time. Therefore, you will have to activate the Altimeter separately for use. When the Altimeter is activated, all changes in barometric pressure are interpreted as changes in altitude.
The Altimeter allows you to identify your current altitude and to determine altitude-related conditions. It will also aid in pinpointing your position on a map and help you select an appropriate route. Using the Altimeter, you will learn how much you can ascend or descend per day, and how fast you can ascend or descend in current weather conditions.
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Sea level pressure with graphical trend
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Temperature
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Number of exercise files (with summaries) 9 - The number of exercise files stored in your heart rate monitor. An exercise file includes total exercise time, time in target zone and average heart rate.
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Exercise file info page with date and time - A function in Polar Weight Management Products; when you wear your transmitter belt during an exercise session, the wrist unit automatically calculates the number of calories you have burned. After the session, check the number of calories you have burned from File and compare it to your weekly target.
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Exercise time (total) - The time you have exercised with the stopwatch running. The Total Exercise Time feature keeps track of your cumulative exercise time since last resetting the counter. This feature gives you yet another way to set daily or weekly exercise goals for yourself
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Calorie expenditure (Exercise/Total/Fat%) - The feature in Polar Heart Rate Monitors calculating the number of kilocalories expended during exercise is called OwnCal. This function allows you to follow the kilocalories expended during one exercise session (exercise on display) and cumulative kilocalories expended during several exercise sessions (total on display). The fat-burning percentage (fat% on display) estimat kilocalories expended from fat during a workout and is expressed as a percentage of the total kilocalories burned.
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Water resistant 50m
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Backlight
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KeyLock
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Time of day (12/24h) with alarm
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Dual time zone - A feature that allows you to choose between two time zones.
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Date and weekday indicator
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Alarm with snooze
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Low battery indicator
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User replaceable battery |
