Heart rate monitors are an accurate and convenient way to tell if you are exercising hard enough. Training zones are generally broken into two general categories--moderate intensity and vigorous intensity--and both categories are defined as a percentage of your maximum heart rate, or MHR. A monitor tells you whether you are exercising at a moderate level or a vigorous level.
Finding Your Maximum Heart Rate
A heart rate monitor is essential to finding your MHR. You need your MHR in order to establish appropriate training zones. Although you can estimate what your MHR will be by subtracting your age from 220, researchers at the University of Washington recommend a self-administered stress test at a local running track to get an accurate number. Run a couple of easy laps and then increase your pace by four seconds a lap until you are running as hard as you can. Your heart rate will steadily climb as your effort increases but will level off as you reach your limit. The number where it levels off is your MHR.
Keeping It Easy
Many exercise experts, including those at the University of Washington, recommend you alternate moderate exercise--generally considered 55 to 70 percent of your MHR--one day with vigorous exercise the next, and a heart rate monitor will help keep you on track. As you become fit, moderate days serve to give your body a chance to recover from your vigorous workouts, so on those days, a heart rate monitor can help you ensure your heart rate doesn't exceed 70 percent of your MHR. Any exercise over 70 percent of your MHR is considered vigorous.
Effectively Using a Monitor
Getting fit is a process of overload and recovery, experts at Rice University say. You stress your muscles and cardiovascular system, rest so they can recover and get stronger, and then you come back and tax them again. You keep getting fitter and faster, but you also have to continually up the ante by exercising at increasing levels of intensity. A heart rate monitor helps you do that. A heart rate monitor can also help you document improvement. Say you run a mile in nine minutes at an average heart rate of 145 beats a minute early in your training. After several weeks of training, you should be able to run that mile in nine minutes at a slower heart rate, Rice University researchers say. That shows you're getting in better shape.
Member Comments