Getting on Track with the Sportline 965 Pedometer-Heartrate Monitor Watch (updated)

I have found it hard over the past few months to stay active.  I haven’t been to the gym in eons, and frankly, I really don’t like going at all.  This is why I decided to go with a 10,000 step-a-day challenge for the new year.  I have plenty of work to get done around here, both online and around the house, so this is much more practical, and hopefully less boring for me.

I’m using a Sportline 965 pedometer-heart rate watch, to track my steps.  I started wearing it a few days before the new year, to get a baseline idea of how many steps I typically did before starting the challenge, check out the efficiency of the watch and get accustomed to wearing it (I’m not much of a watch person).

In the three days before the challenge, two of them netted me between 4-5 thousand steps.  The other day, it snowed.  I had a whole lot of shoveling to do, so the numbers tallied up quickly.  That evening, I realized the counter seemed to have stopped.  I was disappointed and decided it must be glitchy.  I later realized that was not what was going on.  Once the pedometer hits 10,000, it rolls over steps are no longer reported, but mileage still goes up. then reported in a different format. Hundreds of stops are reported in bold numbers and the small seconds counter numbers are used to tally 1-99. Of course by that point, most people are measuring in miles rather than steps anyway.

The Sportline 965 does have it’s quirks.  No fitness tracker can give perfect results.  The variations in design just make what they tend to either over or under estimate different.  In a basic walking situation, the tracker is quite efficient.  I was surprised by a few results though.

• it manages to discern jarring from motor vehicle movement and not count that, very effectively
• brushing my daughter’s hair added quite a few steps
• pushing a grocery cart won’t add steps, unless you let the arm with the watch dangle
• but carrying items while walking doesn’t seem to have much effect on counts

I check my heart rate once in awhile, but that is not what I’m focusing on at this point.  I do think it is a nice feature to have built in, and it will compare your average resting heart rate to your rate when you check with a maximum heart rate percentage.  This is handy data to have.

You can also set an alarm, check distance in miles, average pace, activity level, calories burned (I don’t see how this could be accurate, since it doesn’t collect enough data), stop watch timer, FitTrac number (not so sure how that works) and of course, it tells time.

Verdict: If you don’t care about linking to fitness software, and want a pedometer device that also measures heart rate in the under $100 price category, this may be a good choice for you.  The watch is simple in appearance, not screaming sport watch.  It will also not get forgotten attached to clothing and end out getting washed (Yes, I’ve done that before).

The Sportline 965 is available in both men’s and women’s versions.  The watch retails for $99.99

Media sample provided. All experiences and opinions presented here are my own.