Whoah. Hold your horses. I have used all brands and can give you some good advice. All you need is a Polar A-1. It will give you reliable heart rates, and is the only unit that will pick weak or irregular beats. Most gym machines use Polar receivers, so you just wear your transmitter belt. The best $50 I ever spent was for the little Polar. I upgraded to a cs200cad just to have a dedicated unit on the bike. I keep my A-1 by the bed for morning resting rates, and taking to the gym. You will learn your personal zone numbers very quickly. During training just having a big easy to read digital number is all I think you need. If you like gadgets and data then go for it. Spend some time at the Polar site, you can learn a lot. My monitor literally keeps me alive.