Sports bra monitors heart rate with built-in heart monitor

We’ve written a lot about heart monitoring and the advances in monitoring technologies over the last few years, reporting on Adidas’ Project Fusion, the BodyBugg, Garmin’s system for cyclists, Dual Sports combined heart rate monitor and MP3 player and Polar’s RS200sd Running Computer. With the exception of the first two, all of these monitors require the wearing of a chest strap and while this is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable enough for men, it creates much more of a problem for women. Now there’s an answer from heaven - a heart sensing sports bra.

The NuMetrex bra has the electronic sensing technology integrated into the fabric and will offer a new level of comfort to women wishing to monitor their heart rate while they exercise. Designed to work with the Polar WearLink transmitter that snaps directly into a special compartment in the bra, NuMetrex eliminates the need for a separate heart rate monitoring chest strap and all the headaches that go with it. The comfort of the innovative NuMetrex sports bra will give women a new way to wear a heart rate monitor.

The way the system works is simple. The sensors in the fabric pick up the wearer’s heart beat and relay it to the Wear Link transmitter in the front of the bra. The transmitter captures the heart rate information and sends it to the heart rate monitoring watch, which displays it instantaneously. In addition, the transmitter can communicate with some fitness machines like treadmills and elliptical trainers that have integrated monitoring devices.

Active women will appreciate the convenience and comfort of the NuMetrex bra, which frees them from the constraints of the heart monitoring strap. Consumer wear testing was completed this past spring and showed an overwhelming preference for the comfort of the bra verses the incumbent strap, which tends to feel tight and binding and slips down during workouts. The bra comes in white and blue, and the heart rate transmitter is easily transferable between NuMetrex bras. The bra uses an advanced seamless construction for second skin comfort and is made with quick drying nylon and LYCRA for superior performance.

The NuMetrex bra is available by itself or with a choice of transmitter and watches. The offering ranges in price from US$45.00 for the bra on its own to $155 for a complete system including bra, transmitter and watch with an added calorie counter feature.

All items are available exclusively through the NuMetrex website

The bra was created by Textronics, which is a developer and producer of electro-textiles or “e-textiles,” which are fabric systems that can conduct, warm, illuminate or sense. The company’s technology portfolio uses the stretch and recovery properties of elastomeric materials to interact with electronic systems. Current product technology includes conductive elastic Textro yarns, variable resistive Textro polymer, flexible elastic Textro interconnects and Textro monitoring textile physiological sensor and garments.

Electro-textiles are used in the apparel, automotive, industrial, home interior, healthcare, and communications business sectors to deliver enhanced safety, comfort, health, communications, entertainment and aesthetic solutions. The company, located in Wilmington, Delaware, is a spin-off from INVISTA S.a.r.l., which was formerly DuPont Textiles and Interiors.