Answer To Your Fitness Questions" />Try A Heart Rate Monitor
June 8, 2007
There is a television workout show on Lifetime channel that uses a heart rate monitor to keep track during the workout. I actually have one and when I use it, I love it!
It is a simple device with a wireless strap around your chest that transits your heart rate to a wristwatch. It tells you how hard your body is working in reaction to the workout you are providing.
A heart rate monitor can help students stay in the game class after class, or help those students who come regularly and are not seeing the scale budge. It can make sure the student is working appropriately in the zone, or intensity, and maximize their workout.
Here are the differing zones that we do or can put our bodies through and what they may feel like:
1) The warm-up: It is about 50-60% of the HRmax. It should feel comfortable and easy. It is the zone that will help prepare your body for the workout to come. The blood gets pumping, muscles and joints warm and the oxygen start to flow. This is also used in the cool-down.(Daily activities of ordinary living feel like this).
2) Moderate Aerobic zone: This one is about 60-70% of your Hrmax. This zone approximately 2/3rds of the calories burned are from fat. The intensity level promotes good calorie burning and is tolerated quite well by overweight or unfit people. This zone also benefits the cardiovascular system. (Brisk, mall-walking is a good example of this zone.)
3) Intense aerobic zone: It is about 70-80% of HRmax. This is the place for endurance training. You are taking in more oxygen and you are burning about 50% carbs and 50% fat. However, you are burning more calories overall. (Bringing on the sweat response, such as in jogging or aerobic dance but still breathing well enough to talk.)
4) Anaerobic zone: This is in the 80-90% Hrmax . This is high-intensity, burns more carbs than fat, and one benefit is it improves endurance and oxygen consumption. (It feels like you are starting to gasp for air and can only say a few words comfortably.)
5) Red line zone: 90-100% of the Hrmax. Sounds awful doesn’t it? But this zone burns the most calories and the lowest amount of fat. Only those who are extremely physically fit should be in this zone and it is used mostly in interval training in short, brief periods of the workout. (This is really gasping for breath, and very unsustainable)
It is really interesting how many students will want to stay in the higher end zones for their workouts. This is really a myth. The bottom line is balance. Each zone has their advantages. Spending too much time in the high intensity zones can cause burn-out, injury or overtraining and too much time in low intensity zones can lead to discouragement and lack of results.
A zone-focused workout regimen using a heart rate monitor can be very beneficial for all. But more importantly creates a balance that can lead to great satisfaction from your overall workout program.
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Thanks Deni, I love mine for running, especially when I’m doing a race. It’s so easy to run faster than you’re used to because of the hundreds of people around you. This way I know where my heart rate should be and I stay in the limits. By the end of the race, I’m passing all the people that were rushing past me.