Suggested Heart Rate Training Session ?

roycruse73

Hi

I do spin twice a week and the workout is pretty much given to you by the instructor taking the class.

But now the evenings are drawing in and the weather is getting worse im going to start using the cardio machines at the gym instead of riding my mountain bike.

But without real terrain giving me hill climbs and downhill sprints etc and no instructor telling me what to do i want to have a go at Heart Rate Training.

I have a Garmin Edge 500 that i can prgram a heart rate based workout into but i have no idea what would be a suitable workout to start off with - any suggestions.

My garmin has 5 heart rate zones for me :-

1. 130-140bpm (50-60%)
2. 140-150bpm (60-70%)
3. 150-160bpm (70-80%)
4. 160-170bpm (80-90%)
5. 170-180bpm (90-100%)

so Im thinking something like :-

Zone 1 for 5 minutes (Warm up)
Zone 2 for 5 minutes (Warm up)
Zone 3 for 5 minutes (Warm up)

and so on probably into some interval training. etc but I have no idea what would be classed as a good workout.

roycruse73

Anyone ?

BrianSharpe

Rather than relying on the heart rate zones for your warm up and workout try using perceived effort as your guide (some machines will have built in interval training or simulated hill programs). Most of the HRMs use 220-your age for establishing the zones and it's not a terribly reliable guideline (for example my maxHR based on 220-my age would be 164 but I can run very comfortably and carry on a conversation at about 150bpm which according to my HRM puts me in zone 5 which is lactate threshold) For guidance on perceived effort:

Zone 1 - you can rap
Zone 2 - you can sing
Zone 3 - you can carry on a conversation
Zone 4 - you can talk in short sentences but would rather not
Zone 5 - hard effort, no talking

SJCon

I am far from an expert but from my reading you do not want to do High intensity every day which I imagine your spin class is. High intensity is anything in the 70 to 80% range. Unless your are going for competitive fitness you probably should not spend much time in the 80 plus range. IF you goal is weight loss than I would do Low one day 60 to 70% followed by High intensity the next and so forth. You may want to go to https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com and set up a free training account to track your traing in and make tweaks. I think Garmin has one also.

Your plan has a lot of time spent warming up.

Caution JMO and not a trainer.

roycruse73

My plan wasn't what I was actually going to do it was a suggestion of what I'm trying to write down.

I'm happy to do just 2 mins at each zone as I warm up or whatever is regarded as the norm. I have the technology to program my Garmin with a heart rate based work out so I don't see the point of trying to rap or talk to see how much effort om putting in. That seems like a way of telling if you don't have the kit.

So back to my original question what I'm looking for is a suggested interval training workout in the format of a list of steps with a time at each heart rate zone. The reason I'm asking is I have no idea if I should be doing intervals of 1 min at zone 5 followed by 2 mins at zone 3 or should I be doing intervals of 30 seconds in zone 4 followed by 30 seconds recovery in zone 2, then I don't know how many times to repeat etc etc. I have never done interval training or heart rate based training before so looking for suggestions of a good workout routine with the kit I've got rather than another way to do it.

I can always just make it up myself and then suck it and see but I was hoping someone could suggest a starting point for me.

roycruse73

Also the heart rate zones in the Garmin are ones I've set based on my resting heart rate a maximum heart rate. My estimated max heart rate is 180 and I've achieved a 178 on my bike really going for it so I think 180 is about right.

roycruse73

Found this...

Looks like a fairly good place to start.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/mobileart.asp?articlekey=90077&page=1

meshashesha2012

too much work for me and i even wear an HRM.

i just work out as hard as i can and pull back when i need to collect my breath then ramp up again. i'm usually too busy working out to keep track of what my hart rate is doing. at the end of the workout i do like seeing what my highest and lowest heart rate was. highest by far comes on sprint days when i can get up to 200 :devil:

oh yeah those formula are just formula and based on your age. if you really want to be accurate you should test your V02 max because there's no guarantee that people of the same age can do the same capacity.

for instance i'm in my 40's and so is dara torres but i'm positive her heart can do a lot more work than mine which means our target zones will be different. and my target zones are going to be much different than another woman in her 40's who's a couch potato

roycruse73

too much work for me and i even wear an HRM.

i just work out as hard as i can and pull back when i need to collect my breath then ramp up again. i'm usually too busy working out to keep track of what my hart rate is doing.

1st that's the whole point... My hrm has the ability to program in the heart rate training program - then I don't have to keep track it tells me when to go faster. And when to recover.

2nd having a program does 2 things for me. First, it keeps me honest about the work out I'm doing. Eg. I can push through an extra 30 seconds of desperately wanting to recover if I know that's the goal my program is asking me. If I am ad libbing based on going as hard as I "think" I can. I would have gone into recovery that bit sooner. And second, it let's me accurately track my progress. So I can keep a record of how I have improved. 40 minutes on any cardio machine can be done in so many ways. Right from a walk in the park to a full beasting and every step in between.