over-target heart rate exercise - is it bad?

shoppie
shoppie Posts: 618 Member
edited October 4 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm confooooooooooozed :noway:

I have a number of JM DVDs, several of which make various comments about not worrying about the heart rate eg that old max heart rate that is a dinosaur etc etc. I have always worked out as hard as I can without, you know, keeling over or something :laugh: I got an HRM for my birthday, which calculated my max heart rate as 158 (I'm 34 years old, female). Now it beeps at me frantically when I go over that. I found a thread about max heart rate where people had got rid of the beeping by increasing it - but how do I know what to increase it to? My highest heart rate has been early 180s somewhere!! And if yoru heart rate dfoesn't matter then why do I need it beeping at me? Someone on the thread said they hadn't taken the beeping off because you 'want to know if you are working over target - but why??

Heeeeellllllllppppppppppp please!

Replies

  • 3DFitness
    3DFitness Posts: 12 Member
    Even with a HRM, max heart rate is still +/- 10 standard deviations. Just listen to the body. True fitness is measured not by how high your heart rate goes, but how fast you recover about 50 beats. Hope that helps...
  • coppercurlz
    coppercurlz Posts: 65
    Anything over your target HR you are burning more sugar, not much fat for fuel (which will also make you more hungry than usual after your workout, than if you were to stay lower in your zones). Under your target HR, you are burning more fat for fuel than sugar. Base building exercises increase your V02 Max, which increases your zones, which increases you max HR. Meaning your body gets more efficient over time. You want to burn more fat than sugar if you are trying to lose weight. Thats what the beeping and the zones are for...to let you know when you are going too high/too low.
  • B2BB
    B2BB Posts: 222 Member
    Max heart rate is 220 - your age so if you are 34 you max is 186
  • shoppie
    shoppie Posts: 618 Member
    ahhhh that is very useful. Is that why I get really bad sugar cravings when I exercise hard? Or is that just a convenient excuse?!? I don't actually need/ want to lose any weight, but I would like to lose fat if that makes sense, so convert fat to muscle. Where do I need to be exercising (ish) to do that?

    My recovery time is very fast, I've been well please by that as I don't really know the ins and outs of it (like I didn't know I was lookign for a 50 bpm drop) but I can go from a heart rate of over 160 to under 110 (so it beeps at me again cos its too low *lol*) in under 20 secs :bigsmile: (this is where someone says that isn't that good :laugh: )
  • coppercurlz
    coppercurlz Posts: 65
    ahhhh that is very useful. Is that why I get really bad sugar cravings when I exercise hard? Or is that just a convenient excuse?!? I don't actually need/ want to lose any weight, but I would like to lose fat if that makes sense, so convert fat to muscle. Where do I need to be exercising (ish) to do that?

    My recovery time is very fast, I've been well please by that as I don't really know the ins and outs of it (like I didn't know I was lookign for a 50 bpm drop) but I can go from a heart rate of over 160 to under 110 (so it beeps at me again cos its too low *lol*) in under 20 secs :bigsmile: (this is where someone says that isn't that good :laugh: )


    I've heard people get sugar cravings when they burn higher/above their target. Not that its bad, just something to be aware of if sugar is a problem for you. you want to increase your AT by working in all your zones, even the high ones. A lot of people just hit the high HR all the time and don't work on the base building (lower zones). The lower zones burn more fat...true fact :)

    If your max is around 160-180, I would workout low...like 120-145 to burn more fat. You also will not feel too hungry after these kinds of exercises. Put in interval training too to increase your Vo2. Practice staying in the 120's and 130's and remember what that feels like and do it consistently for a while. With consistancy, you would probably notice some really good changes.
  • 3DFitness
    3DFitness Posts: 12 Member
    ahhhh that is very useful. Is that why I get really bad sugar cravings when I exercise hard? Or is that just a convenient excuse?!? I don't actually need/ want to lose any weight, but I would like to lose fat if that makes sense, so convert fat to muscle. Where do I need to be exercising (ish) to do that?

    My recovery time is very fast, I've been well please by that as I don't really know the ins and outs of it (like I didn't know I was lookign for a 50 bpm drop) but I can go from a heart rate of over 160 to under 110 (so it beeps at me again cos its too low *lol*) in under 20 secs :bigsmile: (this is where someone says that isn't that good :laugh: )

    Not sure why someone would tell you that's no good because it is. As far as getting hungry goes, your body always wants you eat up to energy expenditure. If you go out and burn 500 calories, you will be 500 calories hungrier. The goal of working out is to maximize your calorie burn. We have a saying in my gym that fat people finish marathons al the time. Why? Because they're working at a low intensity. Tell me the last time you saw a fat person sprinting. You're definitely on the right track. Keep up the good work.
  • Rinny_D
    Rinny_D Posts: 80 Member
    My HR has been know to get to 200-210 when I am running up hills (I am 23 years old) I only slow down if I get chest pain or my legs fatigue.

    I'm not dead yet....
  • snookumss
    snookumss Posts: 1,451 Member
    bump
  • shoppie
    shoppie Posts: 618 Member
    My HR has been know to get to 200-210 when I am running up hills (I am 23 years old) I only slow down if I get chest pain or my legs fatigue.

    I'm not dead yet....

    Groovy! :bigsmile: I'll keep going then and just try and move about between the different zones. And prob turn the beeping off!! :laugh:
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