The strap normally goes just below the chest rather than on, so if the issue is due to movement, then that should minimise it.
Water or saliva can also aid electrical contact of the strap with your skin, if you're not already doing that.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)
Running
2639 readers
3 users here now
A place for runners.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The strap sits in the right place, just below the breast crease. The issue is that the strap itself can't be moved far enough away from that area to avoid breast movement
On really long races with a backpack, my HRM strap has often got nudged down so it's practically round my abdomen, and it still worked fine. Why don't you give it a go much lower and see what happens? That might help settle the breast question?
So, it didn't really seem to make a great deal of difference, but I'm not sure if I was able to get the band low enough. I had it right at the bottom of my sternum, but couldn't go lower without it being weird and uncomfortable. And when it was still on my sternum, it was still partly under my bra, so there was likely still movement impacting it...
I'm sure I saw a video recently that talked about women-specific HRMs which attach onto the bottom of a sports bra rather than being on a strap. But I couldn't find it again just now when I searched and I didn't pay super close attention the first time, because I (a cis man) am not the target demographic. So I dunno if this specifically is what they're supposed to solve, but it seems reasonable to think it might be.
Here's a YouTube video for a women's-specific HRM from the manufacturer.
I don't think it's the answer as such, but I think the answer is on the page for that product, which is to say my existing bras probably aren't supportive enough. That product only works with high support bras, which mine aren't...
Can't hurt to try I guess! I'll give it a go
They are just using electrical contact with the skin. In this X-Ray the electrical connections are made at the little tab at the top and bottom of the circuit.
This is not a MEMS based sensor or anything mechanical that can be changed by impacts. My understanding is that the electrical may have some drop out from signal pairing not being well matched.
In the early days of Garmin cycling computers. Bike mounted units that came packaged with a heart rate strap worked flawlessly. However, adding a new strap to pair with an old unit only worked around 2/3rds of the time and often resulted in returns comparatively speaking. It was one of the things I dealt with in the bike shops.
It's not my heart rate measurement that has the issue. The device has an accelerometer in it to that measures running movement metrics, so it can determine things like stride length, vertical movement with each stride, ground contact time, and the ratio of time spent on each foot. What I think is happening is that because of the positioning of the strap, just below the breast crease, incidental breast movement is moving the strap and sensor enough to impact the accelerometers measurements.