Moov HR review: Everyone should wear heart rate monitors on their heads

We're all used to heart rate monitoring chest straps and wristbands, but Moov has just introduced a fitness tracker that goes inside a headband. The new $99 Moov HR monitor is a small module that captures your pulse via the blood that rushes through your head. While most companies favor the wrist or the chest for pulse-tracking sensors, the temple is a good pressure point that is under-utilized in the fitness tracker world.

Paired with the Moov mobile app and its motion sensor, the Moov Now, the company's new heart rate monitor completes the trifecta of fitness coaching that it has been developing for the past few years. However, the challenge for Moov HR is that it needs to be good enough and easy enough to use that people will get over the weirdness of working out with a sensor resting on their foreheads.

Design: Tiny sensors are taking over

Moov HR is a button-like sensor just like its counterpart, Moov Now. But Moov HR is only a heart rate monitor, as you'll be able to tell by the flashing green light on one of its sides. It might seem inefficient to make a standalone heart rate monitor when Moov could combine its two devices to make a motion- and pulse-monitoring device, but there is some logic to the separation. Moov HR is designed to be tucked into a tiny pocket in either a headband or a swim cap. I tested the Moov HR Sweat headband pack that comes with one black headband and one Moov HR. When the company first announced the product last year, it also debuted a swim-cap bundle that comes with a swim cap and a Moov HR. That pack isn't listed on Moov's website yet, but I've reached out to the company to learn when that will be available.

The inside of the headband has a small circular pocket that holds the Moov HR module between the headband and your head. In addition to making use of the temple position, Moov wanted the placement of Moov HR to be different from other heart rate monitoring trackers to break up the monotony of all the wrist-based devices. You're supposed to wear the headband so the module sits against your temple where there's good blood perfusion, or blood flow, which ensures a strong, accurate heart rate reading during the course of a workout. Placement is crucial, but the headband isn't adjustable, unfortunately. It's just a regular piece of nylon-like elastic that grips your head to stay in place. If you have a smaller head, the band might not fit snugly enough for the Moov HR to sit unmoving at the side of your forehead.

I wear headbands like this regularly when I work out, so I had no problem with the fit. The Moov HR module fits into its glove-like pocket and doesn't bulge out much when you're wearing it. I was worried I would feel a hard push against my temple from the module, but that wasn't the case. Also, because the headband fit me perfectly, the Moov HR neither fell out of its pocket nor bounced around when I ran or did other cardio workouts.

Moov HR is designed to work alone, but you can also connect a Moov Now to the mobile app and track both heart rate and movement during a workout. This is where Moov HR's design might annoy people—you'll need to buy a Moov Now to actually record cadence, pace, or any other movement statistics, since Moov HR is only a pulse tracker. That means you'll spend $99 on the heart rate sensor and $69 on the Moov Now, putting the combination in the same price range as Fitbit's $150 Charge 2. Some might be annoyed spending money on two separate items, but I actually liked having separate sensors. Focusing on my heart rate zone training in certain workouts became easier for me, as did focusing on form and movement in others.

Since the Moov HR only has to measure your pulse, its battery life beats devices that try to do it all. Moov estimates about six hours on a single charge, and I got that and more out of it. The device was only down to about 63 percent after about 2.5 hours of exercise over a two-day period. Standby time barely drains battery life, so you can use the Moov HR for a week's worth of exercises without charging it. Despite its size, the HR doesn't use a coin cell battery. Instead, it recharges via a disc-like charger that attaches to the HR's magnetic nodes.

Features: All heart rate... most of the time

Like Moov Now, Moov HR is simple—it monitors heart rate during a workout when you record it on the Moov mobile app. It's only meant to be worn during exercise and isn't a continuous heart rate monitor that you wear throughout the day. Moov's mobile app has a number of prefab workouts to choose from, including HIIT cardio and strength-training circuits. But you can also choose "Open Training" to follow your own cardio workout plan.

Moov HR is not constantly connected to your smartphone, which is a blessing. Instead of always using Bluetooth power, it only connects when you're about to record a workout. In Moov HR's case, you just have to tap the module for it to wake up and be detected by the mobile app (Moov Now's surface is an actual button that instigates Bluetooth pairing). The Moov app is designed to have more than one Moov module connected at once; most of my workouts were recorded using one Moov Now module on my wrist and one Moov HR on my head.

Before you start recording a workout, the Moov HR broadcasts your heart rate in real time to the app. You'll need to wait until it has a signal before you can even start the workout clock, but it doesn't take too long to read your heart rate. However, placement is key: the app will tell you whether the heart rate measurement is strong, weak, or unusable. Unless it's strong, you should adjust the headband and the placement of the Moov HR against your temple. This was the most frustrating thing about the device—I never got the placement exactly right on the first try, and my long hair kept getting in the way (the heart rate monitor needs to be on undisrupted skin). But once the HR had a strong signal, the device didn't lose it through an entire workout.

Moov wasn't kidding about the head being a good place to capture heart rate. The Moov HR was always within 5 BPM of the Apple Watch Series 2's heart rate monitor. More often, its measurements were within 2 BPM of Apple's device. I'm also not surprised it did not lose signal during a workout (even the Apple Watch does that on occasion) because there's nowhere for the module to move while it's underneath a tight headband. Wrist-bound heart rate monitors move around a lot, and that can cause inaccuracy, which is why wearing them tightly to minimize movement is so important. So while there's more guesswork involved when placing the Moov HR module properly on your head, you won't have to readjust it after it's in position.

Moov's defining feature is its coaching approach to fitness. With the Moov HR, you can now incorporate heart rate statistics into that training. Among the coachable workouts are running, walking, cycling, boxing, swimming, and circuit training. The Moov HR can be used in any of them as well as the Moov Now or other device from the company. Most of the activities are motion-based, so you'll need to connect the Moov Now to track them, and the Moov HR is an optional sensor you can also connect. But for the few heart rate-based workouts, you'll only need the Moov HR.

I wish Moov would open up the freeform workout settings, such as Open Training for running and walking, so you could just monitor a cardio workout based on your heart rate. Open Training is meant to be the setting you choose when you don't want to be too heavily coached—basically you just run or walk and the voice coach chimes in every few minutes to tell you your current pace (when the Moov Now is connected). I wish I could have that same experience with only the Moov HR while the voice coach updates me on my current pulse.