Heart Rate Monitoring.... Need help

mommabenefield

I was given a used Polar FS1 HRM, I've never used one of these things before so I went searching for the manual got that all figured it out how to use it and such.... now its caused me to have all kinds of questions.

Heart Rate monitoring....

What good does it do?
How do you know what a good HR is?
Is seeing your average heart rate over the course of exercise beneficial for figuring calorie burn or just making sure you work hard?
etc...

This is one area of fitness I've never bothered to pay attention to, I typically just work out as hard as I can and let that be enough.
I used an online calculator and it says for my age (23) between 108-167 is a good range... why is that?

So what all can you experienced ones tell me, I'm sure these seem like silly questions, so thanks for any helpful answers!

sixout

Calculate your maximum heart rate, then you should average between 70-80% of your max heart rate for optimal fat burning speed.

These numbers could be wrong, off the top of my head what I remember. But I think it's right.