NuMetrex inventor says “NO WAY!” to heart rate monitor chest straps

Aug 24, 2007 | View all August 2007 articles

As a marathon runner and triathlete, Claudia Shultze had selfish reasons for inventing the NuMetrex Heart Rate Sensing Sports Bra: There was NO WAY she was going to strap on one of those awful heart rate monitor belts that her friends wore when they were training! “That belt is not made for the female physique. Women always complain about how uncomfortable it is. I didn’t want to wear it,” she recalls.

She trained without a heart rate monitor for several marathons and four Ironman triathlons, including the world championship in Hawaii. But she knew that a heart rate monitor would be a great training tool, if only there was a better alternative.

When her work as a chemical engineer moved into the new arena of textile electronics, Shultze took the opportunity to create a comfortable garment that could monitor her heart rate while she exercised. “I actually took one of my sports bras and cut holes in it and sewed in the textile electrodes we were developing. Even that prototype worked great,” she says.

Shultze soon got into the habit of wearing a heart rate monitor and it became an integral part of her training. “With heart rate monitor training you can’t cheat yourself. You can’t say, “Oh, I’m working hard” when you really aren’t. To do sustained training you have to keep your heart rate at a certain level, so you need a heart rate monitor,” she says.

Today, Shultze is busy pursuing a new career in the legal field, but continues to wear her NuMetrex Sports Bra or the Heart Sensing Racer Tank whenever she’s running or cycling. “Even if I’m out for an easy half-hour jog and don’t want to use the heart rate monitor, I still wear the bra. It’s really comfortable.”

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