Peloton Heart Rate Band is a heart rate monitor that lives on the arm

Peloton has launched a new heart rate monitor for its Peloton Bike, Tread treadmill and home workout app.

The simply named Heart Rate Band is up for grabs on the Peloton website, and sits on the forearm (rather than the chest or wrist) for more accurate tracking.

It uses optical sensor technology, similar to the likes of Polar, Scosche and Wahoo's heart rate monitoring armbands.

Positioning on the forearm can offer more reliable data than wrist-based HR sensors by reducing the amount of movement, signal noise and the flexing of skin that can make tracking difficult.

Essential reading: Best heart rate monitors to buy right now

It features an array of LED lights to indicate your current heart rate zone, battery status and whether the device is successfully connected to the Peloton kit via Bluetooth.

There's also support for Peloton's Strive Score metric to help better determine how long you've spent in those tougher heart rate zones.

Like most heart rate monitors, it will work with third party apps via Bluetooth and ANT+, so you're not restricted to just using it with Peloton's gear.

On the battery front, it's a rechargeable setup, and it will get you around 10 hours from a single charge. To put that into context with other heart rate monitoring armbands, Polar's Verity Sense manages up to 20 hours on a single charge, so it's certainly not class leading on the battery front.

The arrival of the HR armband hasn't come as a huge surprise. Back in June 2021, it was reported that Peloton was working on a new heart rate monitor that would sync with Peloton bikes and treadmills.

This followed the news that Peloton had acquired Atlas Wearables, a startup we know well who'd built several generations of a gym tracker wearable, which also offered wrist-based heart rate monitoring.

The armband was also shown off in images teasing Peloton's Guide connected strength hardware in 2021, which is expected to land at some point in 2022.

We know from our experiences with Polar, Scosche and Wahoo's armbands that measuring from the forearm or higher up the arm can generate reliable optical-based heart rate readings. Especially during exercise and particularly high intensity workouts, compared to measuring from the wrist.

So while the Peloton Heart Rate Band isn't groundbreaking, it will be attractive to users of the company's gear.

The Heart Rate Band is available now from the Peloton website priced at $90/£80, if you fancy pairing one up to your current Peloton setup.

Via: The Verge