The following post is sponsored by FitFluential, LLC on behalf of Polar. As always, all opinions are my own. Stay tuned for a giveaway at the bottom of this post where you have a chance to win a Polar Loop of your own!
Polar Loop Review
Having a goal motivates me. It doesn’t have to be a big, lofty goal. Small goals add up to some pretty amazing accomplishments, right?
When I received the opportunity to try out the Polar Loop, an activity tracker that notices every jump, step and run, I was very intrigued and immediately agreed! I had a feeling it would motivate me to move more throughout the day and I was absolutely right. That is my favorite thing about the Polar Loop: It’s motivating!
I see so many people at my gym wearing fitness trackers and I’ve heard more than a few of my clients rave about them, so I couldn’t wait to set up my Loop and get moving when it arrived in the mail.
Set Up + Battery Life
A little tip: When fitting the Polar Loop to your wrist, check out the instructional How To video online.
Though directions are included, I found it much easier to watch someone go through the steps of fitting the Polar Loop to their wrist than figuring it out with the illustrations.
Once I had the Polar Loop fit to my wrist, I charged it using the USB cord that came with the Loop and set up an account on Polar.com. An important side note: The Polar Loop has great battery life and charges quickly! I figured I would need to charge it at the end of each day, but it lasts several day without needing a charge.
When I created an account on the Polar Loop site, I loved checking out the map of the world to see what people around me were doing! I zoomed in on Florida and enjoyed looking at the activities my fellow Floridians were completing.
You can also set your profile to private (which is what I did) if you’d like so no one can see what you’re doing and you can be oh-so-sneaky. Or, you can allow only certain people to see your profile by adding them as “followers” which I think is a great way to sync up with friends and family members to motivate each other to move more throughout the day.
Once the Polar Loop is set up, you can press the button on the front of the tracker to view the LED display that flips between showing you the time of day, calories burned, total steps and your daily activity goal.
Polar Flow App + Inactivity Alerts
The Polar Loop can also connect to the Polar Flow (free) app and give you real-time updates about your movement and activity levels for the day.
Here’s an example of the breakdown:
One thing I really liked about the Loop was the inactivity alerts! If you’ve been sitting for too long, an alert will let you know and that was a big motivator for me to get off my butt and walk around or move even if it was for only five minutes or so.
Adding Your Heart Rate Into The Equation
The Polar Loop does not come with a heart rate monitor so this is an added cost if you want it, but it’s a great way to get accurate data about your overall calories burned and how hard you are working at certain times during the day. The Polar Loop retails for $109.95 and the heart rate monitor is an additional fee, but even without the heart rate monitor the Loop can tell the difference between activities like sleeping, walking, running and more. It’s also safe to use in the pool!
What Trends Did I Notice?
Some days it was really easy for me to hit my activity goals. On Saturdays, Ryan and I often work out and then take Sadie for a long hike after breakfast, so meeting my activity goals on Saturdays is rather easy. (And if I incorporate running into my workouts, it’s much easier to hit my goals!) On other days when I am working from home or even days when I am personal training, it’s a little harder because I am often sitting or standing around and only walking from one place in the gym to the next.
Since my hometown is not very walkable, the best way I found for me to hit my activity goals was to increase the distance of Sadie’s walks!
So, I think it’s safe to say Sadie is the Polar Loop’s number one fan.
On days when I might be more inclined to play fetch with Sadie in the backyard, if I was under my goals on the Loop, I’d leash her up for a walk instead so she wasn’t the only one getting exercise.
Polar Loop Giveaway
Now here is your chance to win a Polar Loop of your own!
To enter this giveaway, please comment on this post and tell me what feature of the Polar Loop intrigues you most. Are you most excited to see your overall activity for the day tracked? Are you interested in your sleep data? Do the inactivity alerts intrigue you? Let me know!
I will randomly select a winner on Friday.
Good luck!
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I have had my eye on one of these, I love your review of it! I think I would benefit most from seeing the activity tracker each day :]
I would love the inactivity alerts.
I would love to use this for my half marathon training! It’s my first and I bet this could help me improve tons!
I’m definitely intrigued by the inactivity alerts—I forget to get up from my cubicle some days!
I would love the inactivity alerts! I work in a lab all day and sometimes I forget that I have been sitting for hours and need to move around for a bit.
I would love to have a better idea of how I need to be fueling my body on days when I have different activity levels, and I think this would help!
I am really interested in my activity thought the day of my teaching day and sleep patterns.
Being a college student, it’s hard to stay motivated to keep active with all the schoolwork. I’d love this for motivation!
Activity log for sure!
I would like to see my activity throughout the day.
I’m most interested in the sleeping tracker! I’m a nurse and am always rotating between day and night shifts. I’d love to see the tracker figure that one out 😉
I went from being a nanny and a fitness instructor to going back to graduate school… I’m very concerned about sitting all day so I’d love inactivity alerts!
I would love to see the trends of activity throughout my days. I’m a super competitive person especially with myself, so I would love to try to reach and exceed my goals everyday.
I LOVE the inactivity alert feature on the Polar Loop! I am a student who often sits for long periods of time studying and I think this alert would remind me to get up and walk around every now and then and take a much needed study break!! 😉
My biggest complaint about my job is how much time I sit at my desk, the inactivity alerts would really help me keep track of my sit time and motivate me to get up and do some laps around the office more!
This looks amazing! What’s the diff between this and the Fitbit or the Polar Heart Rate Monitor?
I would love all of it, honestly! Since I had a baby, I feel like I’m sitting down a lot more than I used to and would love to know my daily steps!
I recently started working as a sales rep and my activity level has DROPPED it’s insane! I’m always in the car or in front the computer it’s killing me! I’d love to put the inactivity alerts to good use 🙂
I would love this! As a student and working full time, I would love to see what my activity level is when combining both my workouts and everyday movement! Such an awesome tool!
Sleep! That’s the area I struggle with most during training!
I would love love love to win this! I have the polar heart rate monitor but I have been wanting to get an activity/sleep tracker since I bought one for my families chirstmas gift exchange! I have been looking at many different types but this one sounds awesome! I would be most interested in the inactivity alerts as I have a job where I sit all day long and it has caused hamstring and hipflexor tightness so if I could have a reminder to move around, perhaps this will help me out with tight muscles! Plus its good to get up and move!
I am fascinated by the inactivity alerts. I feel like I am a fairly active person and I’m curious how often it would go off.
I work in an office and really need the reminders to get out and walk around. I work in a cute downtown so it’d be nice to have a reminder to get out there!
I have a Polar HR monitor that I love, BUT I’m definitely dying to try the Loop! I love how much information the app provides–I feel like seeing my activity (or inactivity) displayed like that would really get me motivated!
So cool!! I’ve never heard of this before but I would love it. I am like you; I need a goal to motivate myself! The inactivity alerts is a very cool feature!
I would love to track my daily activity, including, and especially, my sleep activity! I think this would be great for tracking habits, which could help form new ones. Great giveaway!
I would love the inactivity alerts – -this would be great to have while working, since I spend a lot of time sitting!
I would love a Polar Loop because as a teacher I am so often intrigued to find out how many steps I actually take! It would also motivate me to get in my runs after school on days I am feeling sluggish :).
I think the inactivity alerts would be great!
The inactivity alerts sound so awesome. I love the idea of a device that will let you know when you’ve been inactive too long! I definitely need that with my full-time desk job.
The inactivity alert sounds like a great feature!
I love how it keeps the steps. that would motivate me more.
I would love to be able to track my activity level throughout the day and challenge myself to keep increasing my activity! It’d be a great motivator be active all throughout my day!
I would love to see my daily activity and sleep activity. Sounds really interesting!
I’d love the inactivity alerts!
Intriguing. I love the heart rate monitor capabilities.
I love that it gives you activity alerts. Sometime at work I don’t know I’ve been sitting so long. This will remind me to get up and take ‘a lap’ every now and then!
I’m a terrible sleeper so I think the pop could actually help me!! 🙂
loooop!!!
I’m currently looking for work and feel like I’ve been spending a whole lot of time on my butt lately so I would LOVE the inactivity alerts to remind me to get up and do something throughout the day! This seems like such a great gadget.
I would love the activity tracker to keep me motivated to keep moving throughout the day.
The inactivity alerts seem cool – it’s so easy for me to sit down at the computer/TV and not realize just how long I sit there.
Everything! Inactivity alerts, sleep data and tracking all of the different activities. So cool!
I love how you can connect it to a heart rate monitor! If I have a polar watch would it work with that heart rate monitor? This would be great to motivate me to move more every day!
The inactivity alerts would be so good for me! I’ve been sitting around a lot lately, but I think those alerts would really be motivating and keep me accountable.
I have never tracked my heart rate before while running, I think this would be a great way to get a better idea of how my body is doing while training.
I am a very goal-orientated person so I would LOVE to track my daily activity and try to better my activity levels every day. As a woman with a desk job, it would be FANTASTIC to utilize the inactivity alerts that would remind me to take a short walk and do a bit of a stretch during my work days! And lastly, I would love to compare my workout activity output with my day-to-day activities! : )
I’ve been looking at the Fitbit Force and the Jawbone Up. Now I am interested in considering the Polar Loop too. Thanks for the review!
I need this! My last activity monitor died in November died and I haven’t replaced it yet. I miss the data!
I would love to check out the inactivity alerts! I work a desk job so this would be a great way to alert me to get moving again! Also, just the overall accountability of the polar loop would be great and remotivate me to workout!
This is right up my alley! I love fitness stats, for some reason. Wearing this would be a huge motivator to get up and take walking breaks throughout the day!