MSNBC published an article on Tuesday by Samuel Greengard about the increasing number of fitness gadgets that amateur athletes can use to measure their fitness and motivate themselves. The article talks about Fitlinxx, an integrated health club-based circuit training system, as well as a few heart rate monitor-based training systems, including the Nike Triax Elite runner's training system and the Timex Bodylink System with GPS support, and a non-HRM device, the Fitsense FS-1 Speedometer for running.

All of these products can be used as a mechanism for measuring personal fitness levels. Some of them can be used to track fitness improvement over time. But, articles like this do little to help you understand why an individual personal fitness device might be a good addition to your life.

I have used a Polar S720i for cycling, running, and ice hockey fitness training over a period of more than a year. I chose the a Polar S-Series Heart Monitor because I do a lot of cycling, and I wanted to include distance ridden, speed, and cadence data in my training log. I'm going to try to talk about each of these products in separate articles here on Operation Gadget so that you can understand how to choose the right gadget for your training needs.