Heart rate and Training Zone

The more you do the same type of exercise, the more your body will get conditioned, therefore you need to trick your body to get your heart rate up. Maybe you can start running short distances on your walk, this way you get your HR rate up to where you want it.

I have a question and any insight on this subject would really help in my understanding of the subject....And, thank you in advance.

I wear a heart rate monitor when I do my workouts. With that said I notice that it takes a lot longer for me to reach the 65% of my resting heart rate. For example, I walked 13 miles in the park by my house this morning. I walk this route frequently (not always 13, I have a 3.2 and 6.2 turn around spot). I didn't reach 132 beats per minute until well after 3 miles into my walk. And even then I didn't stay there. I probably wasn't doing my hardest or fastest walk ever, but it still seems like that took a lot longer than normal. My heart rate monitor says I was between 65 and 85% for only 2 hours and 50 minutes of my 3 hours and 23 minutes total and my average heart rate was only 128 beats per minute.

My last walk on the same route was a 6.2 miles and I reached my zone after 2 miles, and stayed there the rest of the time.

Is this delay on reaching 65% mean that I have conditioned my heart and just built up whatever it is that allows my body to adjust and adapt? Should I now up my training zone to 75-ish percent to 85%?

I have done a lot of google-ing on the subject but still have questions on how hard to work, the effects of working out below, in, and above my training zone, and really what I should be aiming for to have a productive workout for my health and body. Help! Any clarification on this topic would be so much appreciated.

Hmm...how to sort all this out:

1. The heart rate achieved during exercise represents how hard you are working as a percentage of maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max). Everyone has a maximum ability to process oxygen (your VO2max) and turn it into energy. VO2max is trainable--i.e. it increases with the right type of training. Eg: if you are working at 57% percent of VO2max, heart rate should be about 70% of HRmax.

2. During aerobic exercise, heart rate increases as oxygen increases as intensity of workload increases. E.g. you are walking at 3.0 mph and increase to 4 mph--it requires more energy to walk at 4 mph, so oxygen demand/uptake increases and heart rate increases in order to pump more blood and supply more oxygen (oxygen levels in the blood are fixed so the only way to increase oxygen delivery is to pump more blood).

3. Aerobic exercise at any given intensity has a relatively fixed energy cost. E.g.: walking 3 mph (level ground) has an intensity of ~3 METs. That energy cost is fixed--regardless of who is doing the exercise.

4. With training, your VO2 max increases (if training is done at the appropriate intensity, duration and frequency). Resting heart rate can decrease, but Maximum heart rate does NOT change.

5. If VO2max increases, then the energy cost of doing the same activity (in this case walking 3 mph and working at 3 METs) now represents a SMALLER percentage of VO2 max. Because of the smaller percentage of VO2 max (because VO2 max is now higher), heart rate will drop at that workload. That is the classic training response.

6. "Training zones" are different intensity levels. Easy, medium and hard intensity levels will have different training effects. Training zones represent different percentages of maximum effort --50-60%, 65%-75%, 80%-90%, etc.

7. The intensity of a "training zone" doesn't really change. As I explained earlier, however, the actual workload (3 mph, 4 mph, etc) that it takes to reach a particular "zone" should change over time as fitness level improves. In other words, in the beginning walking 3 mph might get someone to the "easy" zone; after training, one might now have to walk at 3.5 mph to reach that same "zone", or percentage of maximum. It's still "easy"--it's just that now 3.5 mph is "easy".

8. Depending on one's goals, one might include training at all of the "zones" in a workout plan. (not every workout, but different workouts).

9. If your heart rate is now lower, it is the sign of a conditioning effect (or it's the sign of an initial adaptation if you are just starting). That's a good thing. Quite frankly, unless you are hiking up some hills, I would expect someone your age to find it a challenge to reach a training heart rate level by just walking.

10. You don't need to "trick" your body--that's infomercial gibberish--if you find your heart rate decreasing for a given workout intensity. You just need to work at a higher workload.

11. There is no one "intensity" that someone should be working at. Most people will get the best results over time by including workouts at all the main intensity levels in their routine.

I have a question and any insight on this subject would really help in my understanding of the subject....And, thank you in advance.

I wear a heart rate monitor when I do my workouts. With that said I notice that it takes a lot longer for me to reach the 65% of my resting heart rate. For example, I walked 13 miles in the park by my house this morning. I walk this route frequently (not always 13, I have a 3.2 and 6.2 turn around spot). I didn't reach 132 beats per minute until well after 3 miles into my walk. And even then I didn't stay there. I probably wasn't doing my hardest or fastest walk ever, but it still seems like that took a lot longer than normal. My heart rate monitor says I was between 65 and 85% for only 2 hours and 50 minutes of my 3 hours and 23 minutes total and my average heart rate was only 128 beats per minute.

My last walk on the same route was a 6.2 miles and I reached my zone after 2 miles, and stayed there the rest of the time.

Is this delay on reaching 65% mean that I have conditioned my heart and just built up whatever it is that allows my body to adjust and adapt? Should I now up my training zone to 75-ish percent to 85%?

I have done a lot of google-ing on the subject but still have questions on how hard to work, the effects of working out below, in, and above my training zone, and really what I should be aiming for to have a productive workout for my health and body. Help! Any clarification on this topic would be so much appreciated.

Hmm...how to sort all this out:

1. The heart rate achieved during exercise represents how hard you are working as a percentage of maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max). Everyone has a maximum ability to process oxygen (your VO2max) and turn it into energy. VO2max is trainable--i.e. it increases with the right type of training. Eg: if you are working at 57% percent of VO2max, heart rate should be about 70% of HRmax.

2. During aerobic exercise, heart rate increases as oxygen increases as intensity of workload increases. E.g. you are walking at 3.0 mph and increase to 4 mph--it requires more energy to walk at 4 mph, so oxygen demand/uptake increases and heart rate increases in order to pump more blood and supply more oxygen (oxygen levels in the blood are fixed so the only way to increase oxygen delivery is to pump more blood).

3. Aerobic exercise at any given intensity has a relatively fixed energy cost. E.g.: walking 3 mph (level ground) has an intensity of ~3 METs. That energy cost is fixed--regardless of who is doing the exercise.

4. With training, your VO2 max increases (if training is done at the appropriate intensity, duration and frequency). Resting heart rate can decrease, but Maximum heart rate does NOT change.

5. If VO2max increases, then the energy cost of doing the same activity (in this case walking 3 mph and working at 3 METs) now represents a SMALLER percentage of VO2 max. Because of the smaller percentage of VO2 max (because VO2 max is now higher), heart rate will drop at that workload. That is the classic training response.

6. "Training zones" are different intensity levels. Easy, medium and hard intensity levels will have different training effects. Training zones represent different percentages of maximum effort --50-60%, 65%-75%, 80%-90%, etc.

7. The intensity of a "training zone" doesn't really change. As I explained earlier, however, the actual workload (3 mph, 4 mph, etc) that it takes to reach a particular "zone" should change over time as fitness level improves. In other words, in the beginning walking 3 mph might get someone to the "easy" zone; after training, one might now have to walk at 3.5 mph to reach that same "zone", or percentage of maximum. It's still "easy"--it's just that now 3.5 mph is "easy".

8. Depending on one's goals, one might include training at all of the "zones" in a workout plan. (not every workout, but different workouts).

9. If your heart rate is now lower, it is the sign of a conditioning effect (or it's the sign of an initial adaptation if you are just starting). That's a good thing. Quite frankly, unless you are hiking up some hills, I would expect someone your age to find it a challenge to reach a training heart rate level by just walking.

10. You don't need to "trick" your body--that's infomercial gibberish--if you find your heart rate decreasing for a given workout intensity. You just need to work at a higher workload.

11. There is no one "intensity" that someone should be working at. Most people will get the best results over time by including workouts at all the main intensity levels in their routine.

TL;DR

but adzak wrote it so I feel pretty safe saying ^^THIS.