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HRM and lifting

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AirCircleI
AirCircleI Posts: 334 Member
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Does anyone else wear a heart rate monitor whilst lifting? I did last night for the first time and found it very interesting. After two weeks it is starting to get really hard, and I found that after a set, particularly of squats, my heart rate was up to a range as if I was jogging. During the rest it then goes down pretty quickly. Rather than time my rest between sets, I waited until my heart rate went back down to a certain range. If I was just looking at my heart rate, it would be a similar pattern to doing HIIT.

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  • newjourney2015
    newjourney2015 Posts: 216 Member
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    Interesting! I have a HRM but I don't wear it during lifting. I will try it tonight to see how it responds. I knew my heart rate would go up during lifting and then back down during rest but using it "time my rest" is a great idea. Mine however does not calculate how many calories burned. It is only a HRM. Do you use one that calculates burned calories for logging in excercise? And any idea how accurate it is?
  • sarahlouise7
    sarahlouise7 Posts: 198 Member
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    Im currently doing p90x and i also wear my HRM during all the weight training sessions. I was surprised that my heart rate got as high as it did, like doing cardio, and was just as surprised by how quickly it lowered. But also found it interesting to see that i was burning conciderabley more calories after the lifting than i would of with out it, way after i finished! :) I know this does happen for a while after exercise but it just seems to be so much more with the lifting days :)

    Even though im doing p90x and not currently 5x5, I spend alot of time reading all the info on here as 5x5 is my next project :) I cant wait to start it on 1st April after my p90x is complete :) So im trying to get as much info as possible in the mean time :)
  • sarahlouise7
    sarahlouise7 Posts: 198 Member
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    Interesting! I have a HRM but I don't wear it during lifting. I will try it tonight to see how it responds. I knew my heart rate would go up during lifting and then back down during rest but using it "time my rest" is a great idea. Mine however does not calculate how many calories burned. It is only a HRM. Do you use one that calculates burned calories for logging in excercise? And any idea how accurate it is?

    its as accurate as your going to get :) As you input all your personal details ect like height, weight, age and its an ecg so as long as its used correctly, they are very accurate i think :) Iv only ever used the ones with a chest strap so dont know about others. I think the only thing you have to take into account is that say for example your HRM says you burned 400 cals doing cardio, 100 of those cals you would of burnt anyway just breathing and living ect, so for this reason, i dont eat ALL my exercise calories back. HTH
  • tameko2
    tameko2 Posts: 31,634 Member
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    caloric burn from weight lifting is pretty difficult to judge. I wouldn't overly worry about it honestly - I much prefer to do a TDEE calculation that includes your exercise as a general rule, and subtract from that, rather than eating exercise calories, so I havent' done the exercise calorie thing in a while but when I *was* doing it, I was undereating.
  • AirCircleI
    AirCircleI Posts: 334 Member
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    I don't count calories anymore (did for 5 months and then got bored), but I continue to wear my HRM when I workout because it tells me a lot about my levels of exertion and recovery times. I always wear it when I run, but hadn't really thought about wearing it whilst lifting until the other day. I had just found it so interesting how high it went up on heavy lifts, and then found it useful a useful tool to judge recovery instead of just a time.

    I did find that as my heart rate was going so high, it said I burned an equivalent amount of calories to what I would with an equivalent time of cardio, but as I don't count calories anyway it is a bit academic.
  • alwyndacara
    alwyndacara Posts: 30 Member
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    Does anyone else wear a heart rate monitor whilst lifting? I did last night for the first time and found it very interesting. After two weeks it is starting to get really hard, and I found that after a set, particularly of squats, my heart rate was up to a range as if I was jogging. During the rest it then goes down pretty quickly. Rather than time my rest between sets, I waited until my heart rate went back down to a certain range. If I was just looking at my heart rate, it would be a similar pattern to doing HIIT.

    This is exactly what I do. I'm always REALLY surprised how high it gets (particularly after squatting) but it rockets down again after. I do that rather than having a specific time between sets - I let my body tell me when my heart's back down to "normal" (I go for around 130-140 BPM as "normal") and then I go for the next set.

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