best HRM for lifting weights

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  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
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    There isn't one.

    The is no useful relationship between breathing rate, heart rate, and calroies burned when strength training.

    A HRM uses heart rate to estimate oxygen consumption which in turn is used to estimate work performed and hence calories burned. Most strength training does not use oxygen in the chemical reaction to produce energy (it is anaerobic exercise, not aerobic exercise) so using a HRM is about like throwing darts blindfolded.

    The high effort and low effort calisthenics entries are solid #'s for strength training. Lots of lollygagging and isolation exercises, and warm up level stuff, use the low effort. Lifting heavy, doing circuits, or otherwise working hard, use the high effort. Or mix them based on how your workout went/what you were doing.

    FT-80 by polar disagrees..

    A validation study proved that heart rate based recovery time improves strength more than training with traditional recovery periods and, on top of that, Strength Training Guidance shortens training time nearly to half[1] – to sum it up, more results in a shorter time.Heart rate monitoring makes your strength training individualized when the Strength Training Guidance tells you optimal recovery periods for effective strength training based on your heart rate.

    1. Piirainen et al. Effects of the HR based recovery period on hormonal and neuromuscular responses during strength training in men and women. Oral presentation at the ECSS annual meeting in Oslo, June 2009.

    The HRM would be useful for telling you when to start the next set.

    It would not be useful for estimating how many calories were burned during the set.

    True but you aren't going to get 100% accuracy on that, I don't even log that anymore..You are also having to take into the effect the afterburn effect of lifting when you get your calorie burn. If I do I just take it and remove 20% and go with that number. I just saw the topic as best HRM for lifting weights.. then the next post was there wasn't one..
  • kyodi
    kyodi Posts: 376 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,550 Member
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    I use my hrm for all of my workouts.. cardio and weights... polar ft7. If i'm working out, i use it!
    If you're using it for weight lifting, then the caloric burn is inaccurate.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    Would you say it overestimates? I belong to a lifting group and members often posts their burns and I find the numbers to be extremely high so I'm curious.
    Yep. An HRM measures heart rate. If you lift something heavy say for six reps, and the last 2 are hard, heart rate will go up. But that doesn't mean that the caloric expenditure is the same as a heart rate for cardio.
    Heck someone watching a scary movie wearing a heart rate monitor could burn 350 calories during the movie according it's read out.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    IMO, if you are concerned about cals burned and your deficit, do cardio. If you are using strength training to change how you look, then the cals are largely irrelevant. So I advocate not tracking them.

    If you are dead set on tracking cals, guestimate. Pick a number between 4 and 7 cals per minute as an estimate.
  • kyodi
    kyodi Posts: 376 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    IMO, if you are concerned about cals burned and your deficit, do cardio. If you are using strength training to change how you look, then the cals are largely irrelevant. So I advocate not tracking them.

    If you are dead set on tracking cals, guestimate. Pick a number between 4 and 7 cals per minute as an estimate.

    I'm doing both; maintaining a deficit to burn fat and lifting to keep muscle. I do cardio when time allows (play indoor soccer and run after work 2 times a week for 3-5 miles). I've been tracking all the calories with my HRM, but this thread is pushing me to not track any lifting burn.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    IMO, if you are concerned about cals burned and your deficit, do cardio. If you are using strength training to change how you look, then the cals are largely irrelevant. So I advocate not tracking them.

    If you are dead set on tracking cals, guestimate. Pick a number between 4 and 7 cals per minute as an estimate.

    I'm doing both; maintaining a deficit to burn fat and lifting to keep muscle. I do cardio when time allows (play indoor soccer and run after work 2 times a week for 3-5 miles). I've been tracking all the calories with my HRM, but this thread is pushing me to not track any lifting burn.

    If you don't log cals, then any cals that you actually are burning just contributes to your deficit. IMO, that's a good thing, and it gives you a little leeway with all the estimating that's going on.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    I've found this formula to work pretty good:

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/76934-calories-burned-lifting-weights/

    I lift heavy and my burn is roughly equivalent to a light to moderate cardio workout of the same duration...little bit more than walking, but not quite as much as jogging.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    For myself, I find MFP's calculation to be surprisingly accurate. A lot of my friends do the same with similar results. That's probably a good starting point - adjust manually as needed. Simple.
  • Jonesie1984
    Jonesie1984 Posts: 612 Member
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    I'm very glad I decided to take my HRM off for strength training all together (before reading this). Truth it I'm doing it for gains and physique over actual calories burned. Great information here though =)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    For myself, I find MFP's calculation to be surprisingly accurate. A lot of my friends do the same with similar results. That's probably a good starting point - adjust manually as needed. Simple.
    Good point.

    Everyone has to start somewhere then adjust as necessary. Whether you chose to start with MFP's numbers, and HRM, some other website's calculations, whatever, just pick one and go with it for a month. Be as consistent and as patient as you can, then evaluate your results. If you are expecting a loss but saw a weight gain, then you're estimates are probably off (eating more than you think and/or burning less than you think). If you expected a loss and saw a loss, then you're pretty close.
  • crossfit_lover
    crossfit_lover Posts: 230 Member
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    Polar FT7
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    My suggestion is to estimate your overall burn, by using a TDEE calculator. Then don't track individual workout burns, This is much simpler over the long run, and less variables to worry about when you need to make adjustments up or down.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Pretty much i have lifting in my activity level and don't count anything for lifting calories. I always log it as 0. :)
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    My suggestion is to estimate your overall burn, by using a TDEE calculator. Then don't track individual workout burns, This is much simpler over the long run, and less variables to worry about when you need to make adjustments up or down.

    This! It keeps you from obsessing over individual burns. Calulate TDEE based on activity level, take a reasonable deficit of say 20% or 25%. Eat the same amount overall and macros day to day and don't worry about individual burns. Track for 3 or 4 weeks, adjust based on results. You can log the workout to keep track of it but just put it in as 1 calorie.

    BTW, MFP is one of the only systems that I'm aware of where you actually earn back food based on workout burns. It has it's plusses and minuses. The minuses include people obsessing over the kind of question in this thread and the other is the confusion it causes about eating back exercise calories and why.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
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    I apologize for my "n00b" question, but...

    If my HRM is useless, how should I estimate my caloric output while lifting? For example I'm going to do 5/3/1 Deadlifts A (BBB template). Should I just pretend there is no burn, or track 30% of the HRM output?

    For myself, I find MFP's calculation to be surprisingly accurate. A lot of my friends do the same with similar results. That's probably a good starting point - adjust manually as needed. Simple.

    Me too. Well at least the high effort calisthenics entry (low effort for warmups); the strength training entry is laughably low. About 2/3 to 3/4 the cals of my running pace in that time frame is what it comes out to, which seems about right.

    Works fine for me, whether cutting, maintaining, or gaining; my weight changes at the rate I expect it to, and I always eat all my exercise cals.

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