Polar Fitness Test

[Haydn]

Does anybody know the accuracy of these things, i read that there is a correlation coefficiant of 0.97 between predicted values and clinically tested Vo2max values but im inclined to not believe a statistic this high. I scored 74 and im a little scepticle of my Vo2max being this high.

 

[frenchyge]

That value is very dependent on the long-term exercise level that you enter into the HRM. For example, when I first got mine, I set the HRM at a moderate long-term exercise level and achieved an OwnIndex value of 42. 3-4 Months of training later my resting HR has dropped to 48bpm, and my OwnIndex has shot up to a whopping......44.

Last year my test values were still in the 42-43 range, so I started looking at the instructions again. Since I'd been training with the HRM for the past year, I decided to change my long-term exercise level setting to 'high.' Immediately re-did the test and, voilla, my OwnIndex is now 55! Now that's what I call improvement!

Anyhoo... with the test being so dependent on what you preset as a fitness level, I have a hard time believing that the results correlate to the degree you've read. There's only 3 long-term exercise levels to choose from (low, moderate, high) so I'm not too confident that those test results can correlate to any absolute parameter (like VO2 Max) for a large sample group. It may still be useful as a relative fitness indicator for an individual, but I've stopped using it at all.

 

[Haydn]

pretty much what i thought, oh well, back to doing Vo2 max intervals so that i can eventually get real level this high.