What is armour 39

The first step in getting your new fitness-tracking system up and running is to use the guided-assessment tool. The minute program for which you'll need a treadmill or a track is hosted by Todd Durkin, the owner of Fitness Quest 10, a high-end gym in San Diego where a number of professional athletes train, including Cy Young award-winner Jake Peavy and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. The way it works is quite simple: you start cold then slowly ramp up the intensity of your run to get a measure of your resting and maximum heart rate, while the app monitors how quickly it climbs.

Then, at the end, you're directed to come to a complete stop while a final set of measurements determines how quickly you recover from high levels of exertion. This data, along with some other general information about you, helps the app generate a profile that will be used to measure your WILLpower.

Your heart rate and the duration of your workout both influence your score, but so too does the position of your body. WILLpower is awarded on a scale of zero to 10, with it becoming increasingly harder to rack up points as you climb higher. So, you'll hit 3. Literally, you're probably going to be in pain if you push hard enough to be awarded nine WILLpower points.

There's not much else to the app, however. You take the assessment, then start working out. You can set a WILLpower target, but that's about it as far as advanced features go.

At the end of your session you're presented with a workout summary that gives you not just a WILLpower score, but also your average and peak heart rate, your average intensity, duration of your workout and the number of calories burned.

Additional tabs break down your heart rate and intensity over time in bar graph form. The data is great for number nerds, but there isn't much you can do with it.

Armour39 has no social aspects and, despite your workouts being synced online, there is no robust web app for digging deeper into your results. In fact, you can't even just use the app to quickly check your resting heart rate or delete a workout. You've got to connect the bug and initiate a workout before the app will spit any data out at you.

At times, I barely noticed it was on, but it's not something that you'll want to wear for hours on end. Yellow curvy lines flank the front of the black stretchable strap bracket, which acts as a center circular dock for the removable yellow "bug" and is boldly emblazoned with the Under Armour logo.

The bug itself is about the size of a cent piece and sports an indicator light that routinely blinks red, letting me know that its Bluetooth connection is working. I do find the splashes of yellow as well as the large Armour39 logo on the side of the gadget a bit garish. Still, it's really a moot point since the device is meant to be worn under your clothes.

Rather than a rechargeable battery, Under Armour opted to put in a regular watch battery in the bug. One benefit is that you never have to worry about recharging the device.

But you will eventually have to replace the battery. The company told me that the battery is expected to last more than a year if you work out an hour three to four times a week. That you have to actually put on the Armour39 prior to working out sets it apart from other more casual fitness trackers, which are typically worn throughout the day and track overall activity more than a specific workout.

That probably won't be an issue for the devoted workout set, but I don't want to have to remember one more thing to bring to the gym. I mean, it's hard enough to get me there in the first place.

Features The core metrics of Armour39 are heart rate, intensity, and calories burned. But like what Nike has done with the FuelBand and NikeFuel points, Under Armour has echoed via something called WillPower, its own proprietary measurement of how hard you worked. Also akin to NikeFuel, WillPower is only effective if you buy into it.

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Sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly recommendations about seasonal and trending products. This is a great feature for people like me in my opinion. If the price tag is a bit shocking, you do not need the watch to reap the benefits from the Armour39 strap and in fact, you cannot use the watch and app at the same time.

I prefer just the app to be honest which is free. This was my overall burn seen above! The chest strap is also a little bigger than other straps I have worn but did not chafe at all. I love tracking my heart rate. If you want to track a run, just go ahead and use RunKeeper in the background to track miles, speed and elevation. I like to compare the heart rates against each other — nerdy I know.

I also had Songza streaming though. The Armour39 is a great option. So, you have to be back in range within 90 minutes in order for the data to transfer? Approximately what is the range? I have a gift card to under armour and I might just have to use this!

Agree with this review! I love mine!!