Here's what I'm trying to figure out...

wanderinglight

...you all must be so sick of my HRM questions but here goes.

How long should one remain "in the zone," i.e. is it better to STAY in the zone throughout the cardio workout, or is it better to DIP consistently and heroically in and out of the zone during the workout?

Let's say it's a 60 minute workout. I set my HRM to 75 or 80% of my Max Heart Rate. Which workout goal makes more sense?

Option A) my goal is to stay within the HR zone for a steady amount of time. How long is good? Am I aiming for, say, 50 minutes in the zone, with a warmup and cool-down on either end?

Option my goal is to dip in and out of the HR zone, for interval training. So, I get my HR up for 3 minutes, down for 2, up for 3, down for 2, etc.

Or are both good?

wanderinglight

...you all must be so sick of my HRM questions but here goes.

How long should one remain "in the zone," i.e. is it better to STAY in the zone throughout the cardio workout, or is it better to DIP consistently and heroically in and out of the zone during the workout?

Let's say it's a 60 minute workout. I set my HRM to 75 or 80% of my Max Heart Rate. Which workout goal makes more sense?

Option A) my goal is to stay within the HR zone for a steady amount of time. How long is good? Am I aiming for, say, 50 minutes in the zone, with a warmup and cool-down on either end?

Option my goal is to dip in and out of the HR zone, for interval training. So, I get my HR up for 3 minutes, down for 2, up for 3, down for 2, etc.

Or are both good?

wanderinglight

bump...bump...bump...

twingle08

That is a good question! My personal opinion is that you really want to stay within your target heart rate. So your Max Heart Rate is 220-your age. Your target heart rate is then 60-85% of your Max heart rate. Over that and you are not working as effectively, under that and you are not effective. My understanding is that by working at various ranges within that range (intervals, I guess) you would be keeping your body on it's toes, so to speak. If you maintain a steady pace over a long period of time each workout then your body gets used to it. If you do intervals of speed or hills (if on a treadmill, for example) then you are conditioning your body for whatever may come and it won't know what to expect.

Long story short - I would stay in the range but be sure to mix up what I do from workout to workout. If you do intervals one day and want to do a long endurance push on another that would work to keep things changed up.

Did I answer anything at all or was that just rambling out what you already knew?!! I tried!!

yoginimary

I agree about mixing it up. Never let you body know what's coming.

Many people think/believe that intervals will increase your cardiovascular endurance/limits faster than anything else. The key is that you are really pushing yourself - hitting 80-90% on the tough bits.

I read some training stuff for long distance running/walking and basically it basically said, couple days interval, couple days distance, couple days short and tough. The majority of the days were interval I believe (so maybe 4, 1, 1 or something).

For losing weight, a calorie is a calorie - but that high intensity seems to do something to your body. I don't know if it's that you gain in endurance (so you can burn more) or what.

When you are looking at your HRM, you may notice that if you do intervals, your HR doesn't dip down that much in the rest periods, so it might look like this: 1 min 80%, 1 min 75%, 1 min 70, 1 min 80, 1 min 75, etc. during an interval that is 1 min full on, 2 minutes rest - this will burn the same number of calories as a steady 75% - make sense at all?

BikeChick

That makes sense, but remember, also, that the more you work out, the harder you have to work to keep your HR in it's target zone! It's never a good idea to try to maintain HR at 100% (OBVIOUSLY :laugh: ) and in fact can be very dangerous. Are you a very active individual, eating all of your calories? That's important! I always thought 20 minutes was the right amount of time to keep your HR up - or at intervals, up and down. I agree, though, I think intervals works better because it's a "shock" to your metabolism when you are up at 80% and then close to resting and then right back up again. It keeps it moving!

wanderinglight

Thank you so much for responding.

I definitely don't have problem keeping my HR in the target zone (I've been aiming for 75% - 85%), it seems to stay up there pretty high from the minute I start really working hard.

And Mary yes, that makes perfect sense. I guess like everything else, change is good, so I'll keep trying out different scenarios and we'll see what works.