Heart Rate Question

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  • kmulhollen
    kmulhollen Posts: 54
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    Regarding "training zone" - my goal for my workouts is to stay within that zone for at least 10 minutes to get cardiac benefit (on average I get about 25+minutes) I use the equation 220 minus age X .65 to calculate low end of heart rate needed for adequate cardiac exercise and 220 minus age X .8 to calculate highest heart rate. So MacMadame, could I be wrong in how I set up my hrm? Should I be using the run fast method cparter mentions? Now I'm confused!!:huh:

    That is a perfectly good place to start. You should record your exercise, time, and average/max hear rate per work out and use the following guidelines to make adjustments.

    1. Most people when starting an exercise program cannot reach their max heart rate or even 90% of it. Your max heart rate cannot be changed but as your fitness improves you can get closer and closer with less perceived effort. If you have reached your age calculated MaxHR or very close to it within a few weeks of starting exercising, it is probably set too low.

    2. Unless you are in very good physical condition, you cannot sustain 80% MaxHR for an hour. Most person's sustainable heart rate is 70-80% MaxHR. As your fitness improves and your anabolic threshold tolerance goes up, it will be possible to sustain 80+% MaxHR for longer and longer time. So if your HRM says you just averaged 82% MaxHR for an hour, MaxHR is probably too low. On the other hand, if your are in decent shape and just had a good hour long workout but your HRM said you averaged only 65% MaxHR, your MaxHR is probably set too high and therefore underestimating calories burned.

    These are just guidelines but should serve to enhance the very basic starting point of 220-age. My personal maxHR is lower than the age formula.

    Just got back from playing tennis for two hours, moderate effort but I'm no Serena Williams. My heart rate monitor range is set at 117 (low) to 144 (high). I am in good shape and have been working out almost everyday for a month cardio-wise. Here's the data from my hrm. Time in zone 33+ min; burned 431.85 calories; 60% fat (not sure what that actually means); max hr = 240 (doubt that!); average hr 112. Do you think the data are reliable?
  • canstey
    canstey Posts: 118
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    Just got back from playing tennis for two hours, moderate effort but I'm no Serena Williams. My heart rate monitor range is set at 117 (low) to 144 (high). I am in good shape and have been working out almost everyday for a month cardio-wise. Here's the data from my hrm. Time in zone 33+ min; burned 431.85 calories; 60% fat (not sure what that actually means); max hr = 240 (doubt that!); average hr 112. Do you think the data are reliable?

    Tennis is too uneven and explosive action to judge heart rate. You would need to do something you can do continuously for 30-60 minutes like biking, running, jogging, Zumba, etc. It is easier if you are doing something that is a fixed amount of mechanical work like cycling 10 miles or jogging 3 miles. Then as your fitness improves you can see how your average heart rate changes as your fitness improves and how your times for the distance change. Zumba is harder to measure because it is totally up to how hard you work so it is difficult to compare how much you did when you started versus 8 weeks into it other than knowing you are moving harder/faster.

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