How to know your optimal Hear Rate

radwan_masri

Hi; I recently bought a POLAR Heart Rate watch with calorie burn counter; I started my new Lifestyle and exercise routine on January 10, 2011, when I started my heart rate to the exercise done was reaching 135 MAX, now same exercise is giving me 125. Yesterday one of the instructors at the gym told me that this is too low, I need to reach to 175 Heart Rate to my age which is 48 years in order to optimize my exercise. Is that true?? I find it too high, can anyone help? Thanks

Lyadeia

Did your HRM come with a chest strap? If not, you need to monitor your heart rate by pushing those buttons on the watch like every 5 minutes or so to be accurate as it will not continuously take heart rate readings.

I always workout as intensely as I possibly can, and I average between 185-192 heart rate when I am at my max for the workout. My true average for the whole cardio session is normally around 175 which I don't find too high at all.

pyroxian

Depending upon which Polar HRM you have, there may be a fitness test built in to the watch that will measure your resting heart rate (and/or heart rate variability) and then use the age, weight, gender data you put into the watch to calculate your max heart rate. It will then base the zones upon percentages of that. Alternatively there are several commonly accepted ways to calculate your max heart rate, the simplest is simply 220 - age. More recent studies have suggested that that is overly simplified and that while your MHR is age related it's not a simple linear relationship. I punched your age into four of the formulas for calculating max heart rate that I see most often referred to, and came up with values from 172 to 176. I'm not a trainer nor a doctor but working out at a full 100% of your MAX heart rate sounds excessive and I would question the wisdom of the instructors who are telling you to push THAT hard, but at the same time I, personally, don't feel like I'm really getting the workout I want and need unless I'm working at least into the moderate intensity zones (80% MHR or so) and I regularly push up to the 90-95% of my own max hr... again - I'm not a doctor/trainer/coach, just sharing my thoughts.

You might also want to read this from Polar's site:
http://www.polar.fi/en/training_with_polar/training_articles/improve_fitness/the_three_exercise_zones/exercise_zones

radwan_masri

Guys; many thanks, that is very informative. I think I am not optimizing my exercise properly.

radwan_masri

Yes; it comes with a chest strap.