Heartrate, How important is it

nwarguy

to keep tabs on your heartrate during workouts? My main goal is to burn fat and I know (I think) that my max heartrate should be @ 80% of my max heartrate which is 152. When I'm doing cardio workouts, I easily go over that up into the 170's and 180's. Should I continue with my heartrate going at those levels or tone it down to keep it around 150? I've tried once to keep it around 150 on the treadmill and it took about 30 minutes to start a sweat making me feel that it wasn't much worth it.
Thoughts?

scottb81

For losing weight it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. For building cardiovascular fitness most effectively it should be at 80% of below most of the time.

Once you build some aerobic fitness running at 80% isn't really all that easy anymore and you'll have a sweat going in a couple of minutes. The reason is that the cardiovascular system gets very good at pumping large volumes of blood and the legs have to work harder to stress the system.

iWaffle

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Heartrate, How important is it
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4 out of 5 doctors agree that having a heart rate is better than not having a heart rate.

Scott is dead on again as usual. This time last year my running was totally limited by my heart rate and it never really made my legs sore. It wasn't uncommon for me to run at a 170 BMP pace. Now running at a 150 BPM pace will get me warm enough to sweat in a short sleeve shirt when it's 30 degrees outside and running at 160 or over will put my legs through the wringer. They feel it the next day for sure.

I would say to not worry about hitting 170 if the rest of you is doing okay with it. This will drop as your endurance improves. Workout at a rate that you can sustain for an hour without gasping for air.

lisamarie1780

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Heartrate, How important is it
4 out of 5 doctors agree that having a heart rate is better than not having a heart rate.

lol