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The Helio Strap Pro was designed for Hyrox and hybrid athletes who want in-depth insights into their training.
Anna Gragert Senior Editor, Health and Home
Anna Gragert (she/hers) was previously lifestyle editor at HelloGiggles, associate editor at So Yummy, and senior lifestyle editor at Hunker. Over the past 12 years, Anna has also written for the LA Times, Elle, Bust Magazine, Dazed, Apartment Therapy, Well+Good and more. At CNET, she is a senior editor on the Healthy Home team and her coverage includes health, wellness tech, meal kits, and home and kitchen tech, with a focus on technology that aims to help us live our healthiest, happiest lives.
Skill Health and wellness technology, meal kits, home and kitchen technology, nutrition, mental health
People want to spend less time looking at screensand health tech companies are taking note with screenless wearables, including Cry, Polar, Moon and, more recently, Google with its FitbitAirall of which use wrist sensors to monitor your health.
We have yet to see a health tracking device that incorporates a second sensor location until the Helio Strap Pro from the clothing brand Amazfit.
The $200 Helio Strap Pro launched Monday and builds on Amazfit’s one. Helio strap wrist fitness tracker, launched last June.
Designed for hybrid athletes and those competing in Hyrox competition, the Helio Strap Pro includes both a clip-on waist motion sensor to track stability and movement and a heart rate sensor on the upper arm. Hyrox is a global fitness race in which participants run 1 kilometer and then complete one of eight training 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 sensor because it is closer to the heart and less likely to be affected by wrist movements or contact with fitness equipment.
The system was created to work with Amazfit Balance 3 ($370) or Ultra Balance ($600) smartwatches, launched last month as part of the company’s hybrid training system, which combines performance data tracking and guidance through the Zepp app. Amazfit is owned by Zepp Health, a health technology and wearable company. Both smartwatches deliver data to the wrist and Hyrox Race and Hyrox Simulation modes.
In addition to recovery, nutrition, daily habits and performance trends, people training for a Hyrox competition can view their performance for each of the eight Hyrox stations, including the sled pull and push, farmer’s carry, burpee long 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.
In total, the entire Helio Strap Pro system monitors your cardio effort, your muscle load, the quality of your movements and your stability.
Hyrox athletes can view their performance for each of the competition’s eight movements using the Helio Strap Pro and Zepp app.
AmazonA potentially costly inconvenience
Although Helio Strap Pro tracking continues 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, smart watches are sold separately. This brings the total system cost to $570 with the Balance 3 or $800 with the Balance Ultra. As a result, the Helio Strap Pro might be more 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 attractive is that, unlike other wearables, no monthly subscription is required to use it. In comparison, the Whoop screenless laptop requires a subscription costing between $199 and $359 per year.
Between the arm, waist and wrist sensors, you can monitor your movements, cardio effort, stability and muscle load.
AmazonSensor specifications
The Helio Core Motion HR sensor for your upper arm provides up to 11 days of battery life, while the Helio Core Motion Waist sensor provides up to 40 days. Charging time for both is up to 2 hours.
The whole system is compatible with iOS 17 and above and Android 8.0 and above.
In addition to 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 want to wear the heart rate sensor on a daily basis outside of training and prefer it not to be on your upper arm.
The Helio Strap Pro is HSA and FSA eligible.
Senior Editor, Health and Home
Anna Gragert (she/hers) was previously lifestyle editor at HelloGiggles, associate editor at So Yummy, and senior lifestyle editor at Hunker. Over the past 12 years, Anna has also written for the LA Times, Elle, Bust Magazine, Dazed, Apartment Therapy, Well+Good and more. At CNET, she is a senior editor on the Healthy Home team and her coverage includes health, wellness tech, meal kits, and home and kitchen tech, with a focus on technology that aims to help us live our healthiest, happiest lives. See full bio
