Polar FT60 and Recovery Week

Celliott411
Celliott411 Posts: 49 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all! Does anyone else use the Polar FT60 HRM and get the "Recovery Week Needed" notification? My target calories burned/time for this week are still the same, even though the notification has shown up. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just take a week off from working out, work out less/at a lower intensity, or just continue onwards with my daily high intensity routine. I'm sure it's probably good to take time off so that any progress I've made over the last 5 weeks can really stick, but I hate the idea of not going to my regular classes and giving it my all. Any help/advice is much appreciated!

Replies

  • rextcat
    rextcat Posts: 1,408 Member
    i have it and only got it once...so i dont know what to tell you...try the lower intesity see if it happens again
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Hello all! Does anyone else use the Polar FT60 HRM and get the "Recovery Week Needed" notification? My target calories burned/time for this week are still the same, even though the notification has shown up. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just take a week off from working out, work out less/at a lower intensity, or just continue onwards with my daily high intensity routine. I'm sure it's probably good to take time off so that any progress I've made over the last 5 weeks can really stick, but I hate the idea of not going to my regular classes and giving it my all. Any help/advice is much appreciated!

    Interesting. What does the manual say? I can guess though.

    Because if every workout almost every day is high intensity (they probably base that on estimated HRmax which may or may not be true) then you are putting a very big load on your system and not giving it enough time to recovery.
    So it's basing on avgHR and time spent on probably rolling avg.

    Which actually, after 5 weeks of doing that, you may feel like you are putting the same load on your system, but it is very unlikely you are, because your body has never had a chance to rest, recover, repair, and rebuild stronger.

    It's hard to compare when already in that state. You must back off, and then notice how much better the workouts actually are after a rest, to really compare.

    Sounds like you'd benefit from getting some recovery zone cardio in-between the intense days, and probably at least 1 day off a week with nothing but walking 3mph or slower if you even must do something.

    Great warning, I'd heed it.
  • JForsythe0970
    JForsythe0970 Posts: 18
    I'm jealous. I use the FT60 and mine just keeps yelling at me that I have incomplete training weeks. I don't think I've made it to a complete one yet. I hope I get there some day!! Good luck.
  • Celliott411
    Celliott411 Posts: 49 Member

    Interesting. What does the manual say? I can guess though.

    Because if every workout almost every day is high intensity (they probably base that on estimated HRmax which may or may not be true) then you are putting a very big load on your system and not giving it enough time to recovery.
    So it's basing on avgHR and time spent on probably rolling avg.

    Which actually, after 5 weeks of doing that, you may feel like you are putting the same load on your system, but it is very unlikely you are, because your body has never had a chance to rest, recover, repair, and rebuild stronger.

    It's hard to compare when already in that state. You must back off, and then notice how much better the workouts actually are after a rest, to really compare.

    Sounds like you'd benefit from getting some recovery zone cardio in-between the intense days, and probably at least 1 day off a week with nothing but walking 3mph or slower if you even must do something.

    Great warning, I'd heed it.

    Yeah I think you're probably right! My training program only wants me to work in zone 1 and 2 right now, but being fairly out of shape, it's really easy to push it into zone 3 and for long periods of time. I think I'll just get some lower end cardio and fat burning in this week and not push it so hard. Thanks for the advice! (Oh and unfortunately, Polar manuals are pretty uninformative I find... Bummer.)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Yeah I think you're probably right! My training program only wants me to work in zone 1 and 2 right now, but being fairly out of shape, it's really easy to push it into zone 3 and for long periods of time. I think I'll just get some lower end cardio and fat burning in this week and not push it so hard. Thanks for the advice! (Oh and unfortunately, Polar manuals are pretty uninformative I find... Bummer.)

    I think that just proves you've been training your anaerobic system, which can be a valid type of workout - when mixed with other types.

    But you have little aerobic ability, if it's that easy to push into zone 3. After 5 weeks you have already made the big jump as be being in cardio shape compared to prior.

    I'd suggest spending a good 2 weeks down there below zone 3, which is usually Aerobic zone, and train your aerobic system to burn fat. Which actually then benefits the times you workout harder.
    While true you can usually burn the same calories worth of fat at higher levels as at lower levels - it doesn't work out if your aerobic system is so impaired, and your body goes into the carb burning mode so easily, because that's the only training level it gets.

    The other bad side effect to this, especially doing it daily and eating at deficit - you use up glucose stores of course that don't end up getting replenished day to day. After several days, the muscles are tapped out, and slipping into muscle breakdown for glucose conversion can happen even easier. And since a lb of muscle only provides 600 cal's of energy, it's easy to still lose weight, sadly it's not just fat.

    Look at last 5 weeks of calorie burn.
    If that intense in zone 3 and 4, with middle of zone 4 being 100% carb burn as usually lactate threshold, you might estimate 75-100% carb burn for those calories burned, or 88% if bouncing between mid-3 to mid-4.
    So if 500 calories burned, about 88% is carb, so 440 cal was carbs. Rest of the day at rest your ratio is about 30-40% carb burn, so you can estimate daily maintenance figure to that.

    Do you eat enough carbs to replenish from one intense workout to the next? 440 cal of carbs is 110 g, so probably not a problem - if the workout was the only thing using carbs.

    Just a thought since you have a statistically fun HRM, you may enjoy being a numbers geek!
  • Celliott411
    Celliott411 Posts: 49 Member
    Thank you again! That's very informative. I go to a lot of spin/dance/step classes and they're very intense hour long classes that strive to get us working in every zone, but I definitely spend more time working in anaerobic. I will definitely take some time to build up my bases.
  • Cruz2Fit
    Cruz2Fit Posts: 159 Member
    Bump
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    It's been a while since I looked at this, so I am going solely on memory--take it for what it is worth.

    Polar has been researching heart rate signals forever--they have looked at minute changes in signaling time and tried to discern patterns from the data. I believe the recovery signal is based on tiny changes in the timing of the heart beat process that they have determined is associated with a lack of recovery.

    I tried researching it, but coundn't get past all the ads that clog up every google search anymore.
  • szonjakun
    szonjakun Posts: 94 Member
    I just got the same message today, and I was wondering what to do about it and what does it mean...
    With my settings and all, it doesn't want me to workout in zone 3, but at least 4 times a week I run/do cardio, so at that time my HR is definitely in zone 3. Maybe I should try NOT to workout in that zone...?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I just got the same message today, and I was wondering what to do about it and what does it mean...
    With my settings and all, it doesn't want me to workout in zone 3, but at least 4 times a week I run/do cardio, so at that time my HR is definitely in zone 3. Maybe I should try NOT to workout in that zone...?

    Did you read what was already available above that gave the answer?

    That's great you searched and found an old topic on exactly your question instead of just creating a new one, but truly benefit by reading the responses.
  • szonjakun
    szonjakun Posts: 94 Member
    Yes, I read it. Just got a little confused. :)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Yes, I read it. Just got a little confused. :)

    Ok, it basically means they have observed your workouts are appearing to be all out each time, and that is actually counter productive. Of course that HRM system was meant for performance training, not just weight loss, so that is part of the advice.
    Not only does it mean you are training just your anaerobic carb burning system, which means as soon as you start exercise your body jumps to that level easiest.
    But you also don't get good recovery if too frequent day after day.

    If really hard one day, next day is good to have as zone 1. Or make zone 3 shorter, and zone 2 the longer days. That's the same positive effect.
    Training the aerobic fat-burning system them, and allowing good recovery.

    There are many that discover the bad effect of high anaerobic training all the time, they can never get past certain distances or speeds because the heart is always racing for their effort, which is burning up carbs, and that is a limited supply.

    Now, if you got the HRmax stat lower than reality, than you really aren't working in that higher zone.

    You might take a peek at your HRmax stat, and if you ever remember getting up to that HR or higher and actually seeing it during the workout, and you didn't have to stop immediately to almost die, you should probably add 5 bpm to whatever high level you have seen if near or higher than their stat.

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