Tips Of All Sorts

This article from Gina Kolata of the New York Times discusses the measurement of heart rates while training and “maximum heart rate.”

I’ve always been a strong supporter of wearing a heart monitor, particularly when you first start working out and when you are doing interval training.  The monitor can provide a significant aid to your workout since it gives you an immediate and unbiased view of how hard you are working.  I’ve also always thought that the monitor is extremely useful in gauging recovery, which measures your overall  fitness.  For example, if your exercise regime brings your heart rate near your maximum and then you stop and rest, it’s important to see how long it takes your heart to return to more normal levels.  If, after a minute of rest, your heart rate is still severely elevated and has only dropped a few beats that is definitely not a good sign for your fitness level.  Use of a monitor is particularly necessary in interval training, which many experts feel is the most effective type of conditioning.  It allows you to precisely track the cycle of your heart rate and lets you know if you need to push harder or less hard during an interval.  The monitor is also extremely useful as it provides your resting heart rate, a measure of fitness worth knowing.

While I’m happy to see an article that discusses heart rate monitoring during exercise the article loses some of its focus by worrying too much about one’s absolute maximum heart rate—after all, it can vary significantly from person to person and may not be a great indicator of fitness, per se.  The article  also throws in an anecdote of a person with a maximum heart rate of 400 which no doubt just serves to confuse readers.

Some of the key points from Ms. Kolata’s article:

The maximum heart rate reached may vary by sport.  For example, swimming tends to produce a lower maximum heart rate than sprinting.

Nerves can affect heart rates.

The heart monitor allows you to keep track of exercise intensity to meet performance goals or improve.

Ms. Kolata’s article drew a wide range of animated comments from her readers:  Many of the comments that  readers posted on the NYT site were excellent.  Some excerpts:

Resting heart rates may be more important than maximum heart rates, with lower being better.  (Normally, “a trained athlete” has a resting heart rate of 40-60.)

“I’m a personal trainer and I’ve been using a heart rate monitor for at least twenty years. I won’t train a client without one. When I design a workout regime for a client, one of the most important ways for the client to comply is to understand what’s going on with their body. I want the client to push themselves within boundaries and the heart rate monitor allows this. I also teach people to see how long it takes the heart rate to return to lower levels. What I have found fascinating is that perceived exertion is not necessarily a good gage of true exertion.  Most people at the gym on the equipment are working at such low rates that they might as well be taking a walk in the park. They don’t know this since they have no idea what heart rate training really is.”

“Think of an HR monitor as a tachometer which allows you to understand your own “power” usage and help endurance by keeping a pace slightly below your anaerobic threshold.”

“The correct Maximum HR can best be obtained in a sports med lab or in a real world sprint/ride, but for the recreational rider/runner/exerciser, the 220 minus age formula is a good start.”

“Notably, endurance athletes alternate intense workouts with lighter “recovery” days; HR monitors are at least as useful for exercising control on those days, keeping HR below a certain point, as they are for making sure intensity level is high enough during intense workouts.”

“Likewise, they are useful for pacing “long slow distance” runs and monitoring recovery during interval workouts.”

“Also, note that max HR is personal, and yes, it’s generally not an indication of ultimate cardiovascular capacity, and further, it’s testable! It’s probably a good idea for anyone who pays attention to HR in the health club to learn what his or her max HR is. See any of the good HR training books for advice on how this is done.”

“By basing my speed off of heart rate, I noticed that I covered more ground on each long run over the same time period, and have gotten all-around faster.  I agree that heart rate may not be the most important for everyone, but it certainly has helped my aerobic fitness and keeps me from overtraining on days when I don’t need to push myself to exhaustion.”

“Recovery time is not something that the general public should ignore. I am neither a pro or competitive athlete. But I do cycle a lot. If you are older or you do a lot of intensity and/or volume, you should pay attention to recovery time.”

“By simply cycling your intensity up and down (interval training) so that your heart rate repeatedly approaches, crosses and then drops below your anaerobic threshold, you can achieve dramatic fat-burning results, both during exercise and while you’re going about your daily business.”

“Before beginning to use a heart rate device 10 years ago, my exercise sessions and recovery were inconsistent. Knowing the zones, the heart rate, and following a program that works for me, I feel better, sleep better and am more confident that my exercise plan works.”

It’s a typical of the power of the internet that many of the comments on the original article provided more depth of understanding and detail than the article itself.  Be sure to read them all here.

Last Modified : April 14th, 2008
Filed under : Uncategorized
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