Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. It is in circulates blood from your lungs to the lower parts of your body. By monitoring your heart rate you can reduce the chance of injury from over training and know you are getting a great workout by staying in the target "zone".
Heart rate monitors can drastically increase your workouts. These devices can give you accurate gauge of how hard you are working during your workout. Your heart rate should increase as you exercise harder. With this detailed information you can tell if you are over training or slacking off.
By tracking your progress you will become more aware of external factors such as signaling a cold. If you are unable to get your heart rate to maximums that your used to or your resting heart rate is too high then it is a good possibility that you are getting sick.
For most people exercise is a difficult thing to make part of their daily lives. It just makes sense to add a simple tool in the form of a heart rate monitor watch that can help keep you on track and make improvements you might have thought impossible. Prices have dropped dramatically on these devices in the last few years so you should be able to pick one up for under $100.00 dollars.