Training with a heart rate monitor is expected to improve the effectiveness of your workouts because you can continuously monitor whether you're working out at the appropriate intensity to burn calories, develop your cardiovascular system and improve your aerobic capability. It's important to understand how to improve the function of your heart rate monitor, the importance of monitoring your heart rate with your monitor, and the possible benefits it provides before, during and after your training sessions.
Conductivity
Electrical impulses control the beat of your heart and a heart rate monitor reads that electrical activity that's present in your heart with a transmitter. A heart rate monitor typically consists of two pieces, a chest strap with a transmitter that wraps around your torso at chest level and a recorder that's placed within a watch that you wear on your wrist. At times, the monitor on the chest strap has difficulty reading your heart rate. To improve the conductivity, get the transmitter component on the chest strap that sets against your skin slightly damp.
Appropriate Training Heart Rate
Before using a heart rate monitor, you need to determine the heart rate at which you should be exercising. Your target heart rate range is how quickly your heart should be beating while you're training to maximize health benefits and it is measured in beats per minute. Target heart rate range is 50 percent to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. You can find your target heart rate range by first subtracting your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate. Once you have that value, multiply it by both 0.5 and 0.8, which will give you the low and high values of your range. When you're training, you should use your heart rate monitor to ensure you stay within that range.
Useful Before Workout
Not only is a heart rate monitor beneficial to wear while training, it also provides useful information before and after you're done working out. You can put on the heart rate monitor immediately upon waking up in the morning to get an accurate value for your resting heart rate. A healthy resting heart rate is 40 to 90 beats per minute. Those in better cardiovascular shape typically have lower resting heart rates. You can monitor your cardiovascular shape by using your heart rate monitor to periodically check your resting heart rate.
Useful After Workout
How quickly your heart can return back to its resting rate after you complete your training session is an indicator of cardiovascular health. To find your recovery heart rate, use your heart rate monitor and record your heart rate 10 seconds after finishing your workout and again one minute later. Subtract the one minute pulse from the 10-second pulse to find your recovery heart rate. If you see this value increase, you are improving your cardiovascular health.
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