Heart Rate change

Floricienta

Hey everyone, I have been doing pretty much the same routine at the gym for over a month now. It's basically 1 day arms with cardio and strenght training and some abs workout + cardio on day 2. I always end my workout with a 30 min walk (speed 5.5/incline 13.0) I don't have a HRM so I just use the #'s on the machine as a rough guide, when I first started doing this my HR was easily around 160 but now I find it harder to keep it around 130-140. Now, my question, am I burning less calories? does it mean I need to work harder? :grumble:

erickirb

Yes you would be burning less calories for 2 reasons. One your heart rate is lower as you are in better shape and your body does not have to work as hard. Two, your body gets accustom to the same workouts becoming more efficient in performing it which means you need less energy to do the same thing.

It is recommended to change up your routine every 4-6 weeks, this will shock your system as you will not be use to the new exercise which will create a higher caloric burn.

lucybp

This one is hard to answer because the machines do not provide an accurate HR. I have a monitor and can tell you that the numbers on the monitor and the machine are a world apart. The best way to answer/monitor your caloric burn is to get a monitor that is taylored to your stats.

Hope this helps!

nabrown382

This one is hard to answer because the machines do not provide an accurate HR. I have a monitor and can tell you that the numbers on the monitor and the machine are a world apart. The best way to answer/monitor your caloric burn is to get a monitor that is taylored to your stats.

Hope this helps!

Do you have any recommendations on a good HRM? I have a very basic one that was less than $50, but I'm not confident that it's giving me an accurate account of my calories burned since I have to remember to periodically press the little button for it to register my HR.