People want to spend less time looking at screens, and health tech companies are taking notice with screenless wearables, including Whoop, Polar, Luna and, most recently, Google with its Fitbit Air, all of which use wrist-based sensors to monitor your health.
We haven’t yet seen a health-tracking device that integrates a second sensor location until the Helio Strap Pro from wearables brand Amazfit.
The $200 Helio Strap Pro was released on Monday and builds on Amazfit’s Helio Strap wrist-based fitness tracker, which launched last June.
Designed for hybrid athletes and those taking part in a Hyrox competition, the Helio Strap Pro includes both a clip-on waist motion sensor to track stability and movement and an upper-arm heart rate sensor. Hyrox is a global fitness race in which participants run 1 kilometer, then complete one of eight workout stations, repeating the cycle until all stations have been visited.
How the Helio Strap Pro system works
The company states in its press release that the upper-arm sensor can capture more reliable heart rate data than a wrist-based sensor because it’s closer to the heart and less likely to be affected by wrist movement or contact with fitness equipment.
The system was created to work with Amazfit’s Balance 3 ($370) or Balance Ultra ($600) smartwatches, launched last month as part of the company’s Hybrid Training System, which combines performance data tracking and guidance via the Zepp app. Amazfit is owned by Zepp Health, a health tech and wearable company. Both smartwatches provide wrist-based data and Hyrox Race and Hyrox Simulation modes.
Along with recovery, nutrition, daily habits and performance trends, those training for a Hyrox competition can view their performance for each of the eight Hyrox stations, including sled pull and push, farmer’s carry, burpee broad jump and rowing. The waist sensor can only be used for these eight movements, while the arm sensor also works with over 50 sports modes available in the Zepp app.
Altogether, the entire Helio Strap Pro system monitors your cardio effort, muscle load, movement quality and stability.
Hyrox athletes can view their performance for each of the competition’s eight movements using the Helio Strap Pro and Zepp app.
A potentially pricey downside
While the Helio Strap Pro’s tracking will continue without a Balance smartwatch, giving you a screen-free experience, the smartwatch is required to take full advantage of the Helio Strap Pro system’s waist, wrist and arm sensors. However, the smartwatches are sold separately. This brings the total cost of the system to $570 with the Balance 3 or $800 with the Balance Ultra. As a result, the Helio Strap Pro may be most appealing to those who already own these smartwatches.
In the future, Amazfit plans to add support for its other smartwatches, the company said in a statement.
From a cost perspective, what may make the Helio Strap Pro enticing is that, unlike other wearables, no monthly subscription is required to use it. By comparison, the Whoop screenless wearable requires a membership costing between $199 and $359 per year.
Between the arm, waist and wrist sensors, you can monitor your movement, cardio effort, stability and muscle load.
The sensor specs
The Helio Core Motion HR sensor for your upper arm offers up to 11 days of battery life, while the Helio Core Motion Waist sensor offers up to 40 days. The charging time for both is up to 2 hours.
The entire system is compatible with iOS 17 and later and Android 8.0 and later.
Along with the upper-arm and waist sensors, your purchase comes with a waist clip, armband, wristband and magnetic charging head. The wristband is included in case you’d like to wear the heart rate sensor in daily life outside of training and would prefer it not on your upper arm.
The Helio Strap Pro is HSA- and FSA-eligible.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
