Heart Rate Zones ???

roycruse73

Ok so Im quite allot over weight. I do mainly cycling (mountain biking) and spinning (indoor cycling) for my cardio.

I have laid off the fitness for about 2 years and so most of the weight i lost last time has come back and all of my fitness levels have gone.

A couple of weeks ago i have starting getting some cardio in my dirays on here are all public and you can see my garmin connect profile here http://connect.garmin.com/profile/roycruse73

My resting heart rate is around 80bpm which i know is not great. and my theoretical max heartrate for my age is around 180 which coincides with the maximum heartrate i have recorded on my garmin of 177.

According to this Fox and Haskell chart from wikipedia im doing most of my cardio sessions in my anaerobic and vo2 max zones.



I would hardly be putting any effort in to stay in my weight control zone and even in the aerobic zone im not feeling like im putting enough in.

Stuff Ive read says you should do most of your cardio in the aerobic zone but this just doesnt seem enough effort to me.

Any comments?

schwim

copied from Jillian Michaels website ... hope this helps

http://www.jillianmichaels.com/lose-weight/busting-the-fat-burning-zone-myth.aspx

The Rule of the Game: Intensity

If you're looking to shed stubborn pounds, the rule of the game is to increase the intensity of your workouts. I want you to be working out at 85 percent of your maximum heart rate (MHR). However, you may have heard the "fat-burning zone" theory that encourages you to work out at just 70 to 75 percent of your MHR. The outdated assumption is that your body is drawing predominately on fat calories for energy — WRONG! It's completely misleading and it's time to lay the "fat-burning zone" myth to rest.

During physical training, your body has three possible sources of energy: carbs, fat, and protein. Protein is a last resort — of the three energy sources, your body is the most reluctant to draw on your protein stores.

Whether your body takes energy from glucose, which it gets from the breakdown of carbs, or fat depends on the intensity of your workout. Training at a high level of intensity forces your body to draw on carb calories for energy — they are a more efficient source of energy, and your body goes for its premium fuel when you're working hard. If you are training at a low level of intensity, your body doesn't need to be as efficient, so it will draw on a higher percentage of fat calories for fuel.

Sounds like low-intensity training would be more effective when it comes to losing fat, right? Wrong. These physiological facts are the ones that spawned the mistaken belief that low-intensity activity is better than high-intensity activity when it comes to burning fat and losing weight. These days we know that even though the ratio of fat-to-carb calories might be higher during low-intensity exercise, fewer calories are used up overall. High-intensity exercise burns the biggest number of calories.

GuybrushThreepw00d

On a bike my heart rate goes up to about 160.
When i'm running I can get it up to and keep it at 180.

I've always followed advice of keeping above 90% of mhr.

BrianSharpe

You've just discovered the problem with the "theoretical maximum" heart rates. According to the conventional 220 - your age my max HR would be 164 my typical long runs are in the low 150s (I have a rest HR of 52 last time checked) and I can carry on a conversation at that pace. My 5K last weekend (which I ran hard) was at an average of 174bpm.

Unless you have a stress test done it's hard to pinpoint your MaxHR - I prefer to go on perceived effort.

emma7437

I work as hard as I can, doing interval training. I have lost nearly 30 kgs, so it is certainly working. I would say worry about the workout, not so much about the heart rate. Over time I have learned what my heart rate does, but never worry about it.

I am not an expert in any way, and have no research or anything to back this up, just works for me.

Good luck : )

roycruse73

So basically just keep on it as hard as I can for as long as I can then

Thats what feels like the right thing to do anyway...

BrianSharpe

So basically just keep on it as hard as I can for as long as I can then

Thats what feels like the right thing to do anyway...

Sort of but not quite.

Most of your training should be at a pace whereby you feel like you're working hard but can still carry on a conversation, some of your training (the next zone up) feels hard but you can still put together short sentences etc.

You should never be gasping for breath, even when you're going balls-to-the-wall (which would be very short bursts at aerobic levels) your breathing will be hard & rapid but not gasping....

Takes a little practice.