Monitoring your heart rate during exercise enables you to measure your workout intensity with direct feedback from your body. According to the Mayo Clinic, as you exercise, your heart must beat faster to handle the increased need for blood and oxygen. The more intense your workout, the faster your heart must beat. By monitoring your heart rate you will know if you're working at the correct intensity and can immediately adjust if you are working too hard or if you aren't working hard enough.
Maximum Heart Rate
Your heart slows down as you age, according to the American Council on Exercise, or ACE, so your heart rate training zones change over time. To figure out where you should be training, you must first calculate your maximum heart rate, or MHR. The standard formula for calculating your MHR is 220 minus your age. This provides a rough estimate of the fastest rate your heart can beat. Northwestern Medicine has developed a more accurate formula for healthy women, which subtracts 88 percent of your current age from 206. If you are 30, your maximum heart rate would be 206 minus 26, or 180 beats per minute.
Taking Your Pulse
To find out how fast your heart is beating, you must take your pulse. A simple way to do this is by placing your index and middle fingers on the thumb side of your wrist, just below where it meets your hand. Feel for your heartbeat, then count how many times it beats in 10 seconds. It is easier if you set a timer. Multiply the number of times your heart beats in 10 seconds by 6 to get beats per minute.
Resting Heart Rate
Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you are not physically active. Find it by taking your pulse before getting out of bed in the morning. Do this consecutively for one week. Your resting heart rate, or RHR, is the average of these pulses.
Training Zones
When you exercise, your heart rate should be 50 to 85 percent of your MHR, according to the ACE. To figure out your specific target zone, use the Heart Rate Reserve Method. Subtract your RHR from your MHR to find your heart rate reserve, or HRR. Find the low end of your zone by multiplying your HRR by 0.5 and adding your RHR. Multiply the HRR by 0.85 and add the RHR to find the high end of your training zone.
For a 30-year-old woman with a RHR of 65 and an MHR of 180, the Heart Rate Reserve Method is as follows: Subtract 65 from 180 for an HRR of 115. The lower end of the zone is 115 times 0.5, or 57.5, plus 65, which equals 122.5. For the higher end, take 115 times 0.85, or 97.75, plus 65, which equals 162.75. Rounded up to the nearest whole number, the training zone for this woman is 123 to 163 beats per minute.
Exercising
Train with your heart rate by taking your pulse at specific intervals during your workout, such as every 15 minutes. Adjust your intensity accordingly. If you are not working hard enough, pick up the pace. Alternatively, if your heart is beating too fast, slow down.
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