At the advice of my family physician, I have been wearing my Polar Heart Rate monitor for 2 days so far, and everything has been normal. After I woke up this morning and hit the summary, it said that my average heart rate was 82 and my maximum heart rate was 221.

Does that sound like a malfunction? I have never heard of my heart rate being that fast, wouldn't that have woke me up if it was in my sleep?

221 just sounds dangerous to me, and you guys know a lot more than I do, so I wanted to get your opinions. Thanks so much!

I am no expert but I do know the max heart rate when exercising is 220 minus your age. My bet is that it is malfunctioning. Easy check would be to manually check your heart rate and compare your monitor's number. Do this while resting and again while exercising.

Cheers