Reviews for Pear Training Intelligence Personal Training System

I'd been using a pretty decent Polar Heart Rate Monitor for a couple of years, but it had been getting a bit spotty, not reading properly, losing signal. It probably needed a new battery for the HRM strap. But I wasn't entirely happy with it. Plus it felt ridiculous to use one thing for my P90X workouts, then have to add another device for my runs (my Garmin).

This is where a trip to the Apple Store comes in.

I noticed the Pear Mobile Heart Rate Monitor and was immediately intrigued.
In the box is a Heart Rate Monitor and a set of Pear Stride Headphones (which are GREAT) plus a little storage bag. That's it.
From there, you download the Pear iPhone App, and you're off and running - the HRM communicates with your iPhone 4s or 5 via Bluetooth and gives you live feedback on the go.

Once you're set up, the App will walk you through a calibration run so that it can get a read on your personal heart rate zones, which will in turn help when you pick a training plan to follow. That's right, the App has a BUNCH of training programs to choose from including plans fro Matt Fitzgerald and Jenny Hadfield. Some are included, free of charge, and others are available at a fee.

So that's some of the nitty-gritty. How's it working, I hear you ask.

I love it. I really do. I like that I can use it for my P90X workouts (it has an open workout setting for non-running workouts, which is exactly what I needed) and then just plug my earphones in, pop it into my arm band and use it for a run as well - using my own music through the App.

I like the interface as well. Pear is very friendly, when you open it up it greets you with a cheery message.

Once you decide what kind of workout you'll be doing, it's off to the races. You can add Training Plans from the Plan Store to your schedule here, as well. Since they're all distance based (more on that later) I always go for the Free Format Workout, whether I'm running or not.
There are also plans for Spinning, Treadmill, Core & Strength, Power Walking and Stretching. Something for everyone.


In the workout itself.
While you're working out, you can get feedback on your time, distance, heart rate, pace, current heart rate zone, target heart rate zone and your calorie burn - and you're able to customize which, if any, of these stats you want to hear regularly and on demand.

Once you're done your workout, you just hit "Done", turn your phone sideways and you're met with a graph showing your heartrate throughout your workout.

So not only do you know exactly how many calories you've burned, but you can also see where you were working hard and where you were dogging it.

Plus, Pear keeps everything in a nice, orderly history for you, so if you can't remember how you did last time you trotted out KenpoX, you can just go back and look.

Overall, as I said, I've been very happy with my Pear Heart Rate Monitor system. I think the only things I might change about it may not be things that are possible to change - like, I would add an accelerometer to the App so that people who work out on treadmills (I have no choice) can have the benefit of pace and distance included in their reading. At present, I'm still using my Garmin/footpod combo to figure that out, then just add the Pear into the mix for Heart Rate, calories and music. It's really no big deal, and at least it's not adding another thing to wear or use since I'd be using my iPhone for music anyway.
I'd also add an edit function, so you could title your work-outs, plus add distance if you're doing a Treadmill run.

I should also mention, I have received excellent customer service directly from Pear when I had questions, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

As a personal trainer I often don't push myself nearly as much as I would push my clients. PEAR allows me to have my own personal coach with me every step of the way, pushing me when I need to go faster and coaching me to slow down when I am too fast. I love the huge variety of workouts and training plans, the ease of using the PEAR and I think everyone would benefit from training with one, from beginner exercisers to well seasoned athletes, and everyone in between.

I’ve been an avid runner for years; high school track team etc. and became more serious later in college and since then like everyone I’ve stayed athletic and run my daily 5k and weekend 5-10k.

I would consider myself in top athletic form.

I started using workout coaches and trainers and more recently purchased various units available out there.

Most failed me in quality or in understanding my needs and purpose and became useless in no time; many failed in product quality, broken parts, failed interface or slow response time and interrupted my training.

The Pear is by far the best I’ve purchased; if the goal of a product is to make your life better well this one does it for me.

The people behind this product should definitely be proud of the ease of use, comprehension, the quick response and clarity, the program flexibility and depth, the very well designed user interface seems to be in tune with athletes like me and beginners alike and let’s not forget the cool design.

I purchased one for my brother recently and he is not a runner, he recently started to run more and the Pear seems to also handle beginners incredibly well, he loves it.

I’ve purchased Pears for friends and colleagues for birthday or other occasions as gifts and recently as a Christmas gift our company purchased one for each employee with the purpose of promoting health and a lifestyle change and it worked, people love it.

As a bonus the company noticed that this little product promoted employee interaction beyond the workspace. As we have 7 offices around the world it was recently decided that we would follow the same model as our LA office and purchase one for each employee in our offices around the globe.

Pros - Almost everything about it.
Cons - I wish they had one in my favorite color, orange.

The Pear is fantastic. A great design in both style and system.
Having the personalized coaching to this degree is invaluable, when aligned with the latest, quickest approaches to fitness (intensity variance!).
I can't even wear the stock issue Apple ear-buds at my desk, let alone while working out, and these Pear styley earbuds stay comfortably put, eliminating that annoyance altogether. Well-done and Bravo!

My husband bought this for me for xmas, and I absolutely love it! It is very easy to set up and to calibrate. There are so many training plans to choose from. I am starting with the 10K plan, but am looking forward to trying the many non-running plans for strength training and cross training. I am only two weeks into it, but I love how it has kept me accountable. Its also nice that my "trainer" gives form check tips and other running tips throughout my run. Also, because I run on trails, its nice that the GPS can track the length of my run. I've already recommended this to several friends and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to take their training to the next level!

I have an extremely busy life and wanted to get in shape. Using the PEAR app on my iPhone has been just the ticket. in8 weeks I have gone from running for 30 seconds and walking for three minutes to running for 8 minutes and walking for 2. I can now cover a Little over two miles in 35 minutes. When I started it was 1 mile in that time. Being coached individually and monitoring my heart rate has proven to be invaluable. My next goal is todo the half marathon trainer and run a half in my home town in May!! Thanks PEAR.

Pear Training Intelligence is fantastic. The workout plans are great and very motivational. I found that when I was worried that I might be worried about being able to complete the workout, my "coach" was right there and got me through. The history and sharing feature of my performance has been very helpful as well as I can see the results of my workouts immediately and now, for the first time, really understand what my HR based training is all about. Thanks Pear for a great experience and product. Well done.

I love the trainers they have on the Pear - the workouts are inspiring and it makes me want to run... Also - I followed the half marathon training plan and took 10+ minutes off my time!!!

My friend and I (both women) have this training app. I use it for triathlon training and she uses it for half marathon and 10K race training. It has been exceptional for both of us. Very easy to use, clear and concise coaching/instruction. I opted for a training plan - it is amazing - you don't have to think - it is all laid out for you - when to do the strength training, when to do the hill repeats run, long run, rest day etc, it's like having a personal coach each day.

My friend now has personal bests for each race she has done - and no injuries - thanks to the coaching from the Pear App - remarkable.

It's about time this Pear App came along - lets face it - the paper training plans and trying to effectively use heart rate based training on your watch is sole destroying.

I would recommend this to runners and triathletes alike, if you really want to improve.

From the very first Pear workout, the hear rate assessment workout, I was sold! I had never trained with a coach, so this was a very new experience for me and it has paid off over the past few months.

I have been an avid runner for years and always wondered why my long distance pace could never dip lower than 8:50 min/mile, but when I started training with Pear, I could tell what I was doing wrong - burning all my energy way too soon, going out fast and then finishing with a feeling of defeat and exhaustion (not in a good I just rocked a fast pace and I'm getting better kind of way). With the real-time Pear coaching throughout my workouts, the coach tells me what to do, when to speed up or slow down, and he even gives me some words of encouragement when I’m feeling like walking and stopping at the nearest frozen yogurt shop.

My favorite runs are the fat burn runs in the Pear half marathon plan and the informational & entertaining tips about what it takes to train effectively and burn more fat. Who doesn't love that?! Makes the frozen yogurt stops much more rewarding.

Thanks to Pear, I’m on track to run a 1:45 half marathon in a couple months and my BMI is steadily decreasing.