New HRM

Options
japruzze
japruzze Posts: 453 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Finally broke down and bought a HRM. Love the idea of it. Tried it out last night at the gym. I changed my routine to do weights first then cardio as a friend said I'd get my heart rate up before I started the cardio and would then burn more calories. Didn't seem to work that way. During weights I was only in my target range for a few minutes (I did over 30) and I was tired and ready to go home before I started the cardio. Also I didn't burn more calories. Should I do weights first? Will it matter? Going this morning for my cardio only day. Planning on trying the HR rate setting on the treadmill. Noticed yesterday that I needed to increase speed to stay at 60% of my target range using the weight loss setting. This should be interesting.

Replies

  • AnarchoGen
    AnarchoGen Posts: 400 Member
    Options
    You wanna do weights first - I use to do cardio first, then weights but it's actually more important that you have the energy to do weights. What you can do is do 10 minutes of cardio as a warm-up then do weights and go back and do 30-45 minutes of cardio (whatever your preference is) All this should take about 1.5-2hrs to complete.

    edited: you want to do 3 sets of 12 reps each workout. I like to do 3-4 exercises per muscle group, and I work out 2 muscle groups per session. My abs is where I'm lagging so I always do those every other day. As you get stronger you can do 8-10 reps as long as you increase the weights. Think of it like this - if you can do one perfect rep at the heaviest weight for you possible, then you want to do about 60% of that 3 sets of 12, then as you get stronger you can go 80% with 3 sets 8-10 reps. If anyone has any other suggestions by all means - this is just something that I'm trying out. Your last 2 reps should feel like fire
  • zoeblairf
    zoeblairf Posts: 1
    Options
    Have fun!! I've been using a HRM monitor for a couple years now and i am absolutely addicted. Getting my HRM up turned into this really encouraging game during my every day gym workouts, and then when i put it on and forget about it during a dance or boxing class, i'm always blown away at how many calories I burned and how high my HR went without noticing. I was just having a good time! It's so nice to have a way of precisely measuring your effort, you know? Hooked!

Categories