We all know it’s not easy thinking of a gift to give Dad, especially since you want to make it a special one for the man who’s been there for you, every step of the way that you took on your own. Even if you may not have caught him checking on you, or your progress through out your life. But he’s always been there for you and now its time to say a big Thank You to Dad on this Father’s Day!

But what to get him? If your lucky, your dad has taken on the responsibility of keeping himself in good shape, both physically and mentally. A good tip may be to help him stay in shape, and if he’s not, then now is a good time to offer a little “nudge” in the right direction so he gets off the couch, putting down that bag of buttery popcorn, along with that sugar soda beverage.

Whichever type of father you have, athletic, couch potato, or one who wants to test himself by taking on a triathlon event, there are plenty of gift possibilities out there, you just need to decide which one is the best fit for YOUR Dad!

No matter what condition your father is in, a good way to help him get in better shape, or add a couple of miles onto his run is a good smartwatch! One that ranks right up there with the best is the Garmin Forerunner 245 GPS Running Smartwatch  Your dad can run, walk or jog safely with the Garmin Forerunner 245, because of its advanced safety and tracking features, including incident detection, which can send your real-time location to emergency contacts through your paired compatible smartphone!

And while your dad is out there, putting himself through the paces he can track his progress, the 245 Smartwatch evaluates his/yours current training status to indicate if he’s undertraining or overdoing it. And he won’t feel like he’s doing it alone either, because he can get free adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach, or create your own custom workouts on our Garmin Connect™ online fitness community. While providing advanced running dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio and more (When used with Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Run™or HRM-Tri™monitors (sold separately).

And not to have him feeling daunted, this smartwatch is easy to use and can provide him with all the stats he’s ever going to need to up his game as far as fitness goes. All he needs to do is put one foot in front of the other and rely on the Garmin Forerunner 245 to keep him on track with his distance, pace and calories he’s burning!

This makes it even a great incentive for your father to get moving, even if he’s never taken his health and fitness seriously! It’s a great easy to use a smartwatch, even for a beginner to fitness. But it’s just the kind you want if you want him to take his fitness seriously and its all he’s going to need as he progresses and gets the fitness bug and wants to test himself again and again!

So what are you waiting for, after all, Father’s day is just about here, so why not click on the link below to go to HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com and order one today!

With their Free Shipping on a purchase like this, you can put a smile on your Father’s face knowing that he’s getting what he really wants, and not just another tie!

So, Will You be Wearing An Oversized “T” This Summer At The Beach, Or Slapping On The 30-SPF?

Those of us that care, know that being comfortable with the body your wearing takes work. And consistent work. That can mean regular hours at the gym, early before work, or after you already have put in a 10-hour day at your workstation. But as we work out, we know that one thing that needs to be done is setting goals and measuring our progress on how well we’re doing on our road to attaining them. To do this, serious fitness orientated people, like you and me, use an activity monitoring device to provide the data we need in order to stay the course and make sure we not only reach our goals but surpass them.

One such “Smartwatch” is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch With the 735XT, you can now let your fitness routine be more than just a routine. With the advanced technology and cutting-edge features, you can create your activity profiles of cycling, running, swimming, skiing, paddling, strength training, and hiking. The auto multisport features allow you to switch between different sports activities with a single press and will also give you customized workouts. With free Garmin Connect, you can easily review your past efforts and share it with the online fitness community.

Since we are, or should I say, we want to be active, we do juggle multiple work responsibilities each day, and possibly also juggle multiple workout sessions as well. After all, nothing helps relieve the stress of the day better than working up a sweat, pushing your body, knowing everything you’re doing in the gym, out on the road pounding the pavements or doing multiple laps in the pool is helping you to not only get out from under that stress level but also conditioning your body so it performs and looks the way you want it to.

So, let's delve into the functionality of the Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS Running Multisport Watch a little deeper so that you can get a good idea of what it can do for you so you can do for yourself!

Even though the Garmin 735's been around for a bit, it's still one of the best all-purpose activity trackers in the Garmin footlocker!

At the Forefront of the deliverables, the 3 gives you are:
It's lightweight and designed for both training and racing.
Great Batter Life for everyday use and delivers when your exercising.
Tracks regular steps and how well your sleeping
Offers a wide range of data, which you and your friends (if you wish) can be viewed via Garmin Connect
Offers Strava Integration
Comes in an assortment of colors

Activities
The 735 is a great overall activity tracker, while it's optimized mainly for running, biking and swimming it definitely lives up to its "Multisport" capabilities. Apart from triathlon sports, the 735 also has cross country skiing, hiking, rowing, strength training, (which is a must for anyone who does a lot of running so they get the cross-training benefits), even paddle boarding and just plain general cardio. Straight out of the box!
As you can see, this covers a wide range of sports!

Basic Features:
The 735 offers the standard features found on most running and sport watches. It tracks distance, pace and lap times on all supported activities. You can see this data on the watch screen while it's running. These data fields can also be changed in the settings like on most other models of Garmin. This information is also stored in the watch and on any accounts that you have previously set up via the synced function.

Heart Rate:
The watch features an optical heart rate sensor, which requires no additional strap or equipment. Thus, making it streamlined and not having to fuss with a chest strap is a big plus! Your heart rate data is visible during your exercise routines and also in various graph forms afterward on Garmin Connect.

The watches other feature is that it is truly multifunctional. When in multisport mode, the watch will enter the next sport when you push the lap button, though you can also configure it to enter transition periods when the lap button is pushed. This is a great feature when you’re running or training for triathlons in particular.

The 735 additionally offers integration with a huge range of running services and products. Strava, Garmin Connect, ANT+, are some services that are supported. Phone syncing, and phone notification display is also possible.

Accuracy:
Accuracy tends to be pretty good in most of the sensors of the Garmin 735. The GPS is precise and works well even in areas with tall buildings and trees, giving accurate routes, and overall distance traveled. This holds true while biking, running, or swimming. The heart rate sensor is a solid reporting factor of this watch. The optical heart rate sensors are generally less accurate than straps and this holds true here as well.

Connectivity:
The 735 offers standard connectivity that most athletic watches have. Primarily, it can connect to a smartphone or other device via Bluetooth and sync data across apps that way. Syncing is pretty quick, and the data does not take very long to transfer. Additionally, the 735 can be synced via its charging strap, which is another pretty standard feature of the Garmin Smart Watches.

Durability:
The Garmin Forerunner 735 is solid! Its face is pretty resistant to abrasions and scratches and can definitely handle most average drops or bumps that can occur as life happens. Naturally, excessive force or pressure, like dropping the watch from a multistory building or something similar can cause issues., but that is to be expected, regardless of what you see on "Infomercials"
The band itself is also pretty durable, and there have not been many complaints about the band wearing out or tearing with use. And emersion in water should not have adverse effects on the watch considering it is literally designed to be used within bodies of water like a pool. You’re paying for both durability and functionality and the Garmin 735 delivers!

Ease of Use:
The 735 is pretty straightforward to use. For those who plan on using it as a basic activity watch, (but why would you since all those extra tracking and monitoring features are available?) it functions like many others for running, biking and swimming.

The watch has a mode to record the information during your activities, a lap function, and a pause and finish function, all of which are fairly simple to use. The quick start guides provided are pretty self-explanatory and do a good job of walking you through the process. For users who have experience doing things like uploading workouts and using them or syncing multiple devices to the watch, it probably won't be much of a challenge to use. For those not used to doing this, there will be a learning curve but it probably won't be hard for the average user to get the hang of using.

And like most things today, there are multiple sources of how to sights to use, especially Garmin's YouTube channel. Overall, the 735 has well designed and easy to use interfaces.

Battery Life and Charging it up!
The Garmin 735 charges via a charging clip that comes with the watch, which can be plugged into a USB or wall outlet, which is especially nice when you’re traveling without taking your laptop. The watch offers about 14 hours of GPS usage. This is a good stretch of time for everyday use but for a triathlon, it will only be enough for shorter to mid-distance races. But again, its main function is at the training level to get you in the right shape in order for you to be able to tackle those triathlons. Overall, the battery life is adequate for the average athlete.

The overall "Skinny" on this smartwatch is that it’s a pretty solid multisport watch. It has a large range of tracking features that will provide you with all the data you need to train and modify your training accordingly to what it acquires from monitoring your stats.

So, how about it, do you think the Garmin 735 can help you get, and maintain that kind of body that will turn heads this summer at the beach…. For all the right reasons? We think it will. Go get yours today at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com  

Before someone kicks sand in your face at the beach!

Sunshine And Warmer Weather Are Finally Making There Presence Felt.  And Like most of us, this past winter season, for that matter this past year has been one that has given us more in-door, stay at home days then outdoor ones. The weather just hasn’t been cooperative. But hopefully, this year is starting off a bit better with more sunshine filled days that coax us to get outdoors and be active. Whether its getting that yard cleaned up after last years fall and winter seasons made a mess with fallen tree branches, not to mention the leftover fallen leaves that have gone un-raked because of just plain, wet weather!

But now the sun is finally shining and beckoning to us to get outside and get some much-needed exercise, which for many of us means running, power-walking or jogging along our favorite paths, country roads or mountain trails. Just getting outside provides the necessary incentive to move!

Now, because we are going to put that sunshine to good use, we wanted to use an activity tracker that’s made for being active outdoors and the one we chose is the Garmin Fenix 5 GPS Multi-Sport Watch . Just for a few attention getters, the Fenix 5 has a bright, high-resolution, full-color Garmin Chroma Display. And so you can keep track on just how well you’re doing health-wise, it has the functionality of using the new Elevate wrist-based heart rate technology that lets you monitor your heart rate without the need to wear a chest strap!

And it's not just for running, but it’s also a Multiple Sports Activity watch as well. It has "Preloaded" activity profiles for all of your sports and adventures. You can get key stats at your fingertips with the performance widget that shows your training status, training load and more.

Befitting a watch meant for the outdoors, the Garmin Fenix 5 has a rugged exterior that looks like it could take some abuse. Five screws hold a beveled, black bezel in place, while five circular buttons (three on the left, two on the right) ring the 1.2-inch display. There's an inner bezel around the screen, along with an outer bezel; together, they measure nearly half an inch, though that's mitigated visually by the design. When you get right down to it, it's tough to find an activity that the Fenix 5  can’t track! What’s also an asset is its overall size and weight. Wearing the Fenix 5 it never feels weighty on your wrist, and with its good-looking design, you can wear it as an everyday watch and its right there with you when you lace up your sneaks for a run!

Display
The Fenix 5 has an always-on color display (a plus) with a transflective surface that uses sunlight to make the screen brighter. I never had a problem reading the display, even in direct sunlight.
The Fenix 5  also gives you a VO2 max score (a measure of your overall fitness level), the intensity of your training over the past week and a race predictor, which lists how fast the watch thinks you'll complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon.

For each run that you do, you get a training effect, which gives you a score for both aerobic and anaerobic activity. A Training Status screen shows how productive your exercises have been and gives you a general sense if your fitness level is improving, holding steady or decreasing.

The Fenix 5's optical heart rate monitor proved accurate, but it did not respond to changes as quickly as a chest strap would. But for just a few points off, it dosesn't really make it a game changer. It’s very accurate based on being worn on the wrist.

The home screen (also known as the Snapshot screen), which has a black background, has two large circles toward the top that show how many steps you've taken and how much sleep you've had. Below that are small blocks for Active Calories, Activities, MyFitnessPal, Intensity Minutes and Floors Climbed.  Great data that you need in one place.

Swiping left or right shows you more information about various activities (steps, sleep, running, swimming, etc.). You can customize how many of these pages show up, as well as their order, by pressing an icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

Battery Life
One of the reasons I prefer wearing Garmin's watches over smartwatches is that I rarely have to worry about recharging. If you're not using GPS or the heart rate monitor, the Fenix 5 will last up to two weeks. That means if you forget to bring the charger on a trip lasting more than a day, you won't have a useless hunk of metal on your wrist. If you are using GPS, the battery is rated to last up to 24 hours, which is more than twice what the TomTom Adventurer (11 hours) offers. If you turn on UltraTrac mode (where the watch pings the satellite only once every minute, rather than every second), the Fenix 5 should last for up to 60 hours. I also like that Garmin has continued to shrink the size of its charging cables. Rather than using a bulky wireless charger like so many smartwatches do, the Fenix 5 has a small USB cable that snaps into a port on the back of the watch.

Bottom Line
The Garmin Fenix 5 has everything you need to keep you honest and provide you with enough data to make sure you’re not only reaching your goals but what you need to do in order to surpass them! This GPS watch is made for the outdoor adventurer who needs or wants to capture everything they do. It provides detailed stats on a multitude of activities, has an accurate heart rate monitor, doesn't weigh your wrist down too much and lasts a long time on a charge. All in All its a keeper and once you have it strapped on your wrist, you won't soon be taking it off.

So, go ahead, enjoy that warm sunshine we spoke about earlier and get yourself out there and get moving!

If you’re like me, this weather that’s finally arrived has me itching to get out and do something. Whether its lacing up a pair of running shoes and hitting the trails or a running path throughout the neighborhood or getting my bike down from its hangers and taking it out for a spin on the open road or mountain bike trails. All I know is winter seems to be finally behind us and I want to get out and enjoy the sunshine and feel nature hitting me in the face!

If it was a long winter for you and you’re seeking some new ways to exercise outside, why not do so with your significant other? It’s long been known that there are some serious benefits to getting healthy with your partner, including a better maintaining that urge to be active outside by being able to support each other's individual fitness and diet goals. Not to mention that couples that are active together have been shown to be 90% more likely to stick to a routine than if they were going it alone. So, use that enthusiasm that's got you itching to get outside and be more active by encouraging your partner along with you for that ride, jog, even rock-climbing, but do it together and you’re going to increase that feeling of wellbeing two-fold!

Besides, it's a known fact that some outside activities also build strength and stamina, the more you do them and to the greater length that you push your bodies to increase the duration that you're participating together to meet your pre-set goals. 

Endurance: Endurance activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Building endurance makes it easier to carry out many of your everyday activities.

Brisk walking or jogging: Getting those running shoes on is always a good feeling. After all, going for a good run is a great way to get your heart pumping and getting the kinks out after being cooped up in your home during the winter months. But as always, you need to work up to last years pace and distance and knowing just how well your doing is important in order to set realistic goals for yourself.

A good way to do this is by monitoring your progress with a good, accurate smartwatch. One equipped with a GPS and heart rate monitor to let you know just how far you’re going and how well your body is reacting to the stress you're putting on it. One good all-around monitor is the Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS Watch  It’s a great all-around activity monitor that’s simple and easy to use. It has a built-in GPS function that tracks your distance and allows you to plot your course for repeat runs, or walks. This activity monitor also doubles as a heart rate monitor as well and it’s doing this right on your wrist, no more chest straps are needed. Using Garmin's Elevate wrist heart rate technology. It can keep track of your heart rate when you’re really moving and even at rest, so you know the kind of stress you're putting on yourself. And it has an "All-day” activity tracking capability that counts your steps, calories and intensity minutes and reminds you when to move. And if you desire, it automatically uploads your data to Garmin Connect, where you can see how you’re doing against your friends if you choose to allow them to view your progress.

Yard work (mowing, raking, digging) is another form of outdoor activity that can get your blood pumping while getting your place in order. After all, your yard probably needs a lot of attention if you’ve been stuck inside all winter. Now is the perfect time to get those fall leaves off of the grass, and pick up the fallen branches and sticks and give the yard a rake before you try starting that lawnmower of yours. And if it’s a pull crank, you may just be looking for a little help in yanking on that cord to get it started after its been hibernating like you this past winter season!

No matter what you're looking at doing this spring to get outside and be more active, you also need to remember to provide the fuel your body’s engine is going to need to make all of these things happen. One good form of energy to have on hand is GU Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel.  This smooth, great-tasting gel snack that not only tastes good but also gives you a kick of energy! The perfect fuel for those looking for a snack that can also be a benefit to not only their workouts but provides a boost for those that are working their muscles outside doing routine clean up chores that require hours of work to get the jobs done.

So, you can bet you’re not going to be alone this spring as the sun begins to climb higher in the sky every day, and sets a little bit later each day. Taking advantage of the springtime warmth to get back to being outdoors and active is going to be on everyone’s agenda. The key is to keep your activities in moderation as you build up your body’s stamina and in time you're going to be back up to speed to where you were when the leaves started to drop last fall.  

The sun is rising a bit earlier now, and staying light long past 7pm. With the sun getting up higher in the sky each day, a lot of us are getting the itch to see just what kind of work we need to do in order to get the winter kinks out of our golf swing. Yes, spring is the season when true golf addicts are heading out to their local golf-clubs to see if the snow has departed enough to allow them to work on their game.

Before shaking off the cobwebs, here are 10 things to keep in mind before your first round of golf in 2019:

It's colder than it feels
Let's call this the "Weather Relativity" rule. In September, coming off a sun-scorched summer, a cloudy, 50-degree day feels like you're visiting upper Maine. But after three months of winter, those same conditions translate to a trip to the beach.

Remember, your golf swing uses a unique muscle combination and memory, one that's hard to replicate in the workout room. Making your first swing of the year on the tee box is a recipe for a disaster. Golf Digest fitness editor Ron Kaspriske says it's important to "prime your muscles before an athletic activity," so prior to heading to the first hole, make sure to swing and stretch on the range. Go ahead and warm up by hitting a bucket of balls to get the kinks out of those shoulder and leg muscles, which can help you in the long run by not getting any cramping or over-extended, stretched muscles!

One good mantra is “Slow and simple, stupid”!
Not only at the range, but throughout your inaugural round, the tempo should be your primary focus. Chances are your swing is going to be rusty. Trying to smash your new driver or taking a hard whack from the rough will only aggravate any kinks. According to teachers Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson, establishing tempo means giving 70 percent of full effort on a swing. This will help you keep your swing under control.

Stretch out on the driving range:
Like football's mini-camps or baseball's spring training, you don't see players going 110 percent in their first foray of the season. It's about returning to a rhythm. Getting the feel of gripping that club again and feel the muscles relax after you've gone through the follow through after your release.

Now one thing you can do in order to help you work on cutting down your stroke count is to make use of some available technology. I’m speaking of using a little golfer’s helper, a golf watch. After all, without having accurate distances on the course it becomes a guessing game trying to figure out what club to hit. Often times you may come up short or worse end up in a hazard.
You can really feel lost if you do not have the correct distance.
That’s right, having yardage to each hole, straight from your wrist can really make a difference.
One of the most popular golf watches with GPS right now is the Garmin Approach S10 golf watch which comes preloaded with more than 41,000 courses worldwide. It includes all these courses and with no monthly subscription.

And its overall price is a bonus compared to some other golfer's helpers out there and you can get it from a company known for developing innovative GPS functionality that has been around and used by our military for its accuracy for years. I'm talking about the Garmin Approach S10 Golf Watch!  It provides yardages to the front, back, and middle of the green--as well as hazards and doglegs--on thousands of preloaded courses worldwide. From Garmin.

Starting off with a 9-hole round is a great way to get the kinks out and walking that course will help your leg muscles realize that it’s that time of year again where they need to perform in order to maintain your playing gait. Now, remember, your first, second, even third trip out to the links are going to keep you humble. You're not going to score well; your game is going to be off and the course won't be aesthetically pleasing. Why even bother, you might ask.

Why? Because, in spite of the less-than-ideal environment, it's still going to be a damn good time. Spring golf may not be the game at its best. But first rounds, in any walk of life, rarely are; they pave the way for better things to come.

So, go on, grab your clubs, put on that visor-golf-hat, tee up, and go have some Springtime fun.