Get Heart Smart – Get the Most from Your Workouts

Everyone knows that exercising is one of most powerful things you can do to improve your health. Regular cardiovascular exercise makes your heart stronger and more efficient, burns calories, lowers your blood pressure and helps keep
you mentally sharp. However, it is important to exercise properly to get optimum results and help you achieve your goals. With today’s busy schedules, no one has time to waste on ineffective or inefficient exercise.

Performing cardiovascular work at the correct level of intensity is essential. Exercise too hard and you risk injury and exhaustion or you may burn out and stop exercising altogether. On the other hand, if you don’t work out hard enough, you may not get the results you want. The best way to measure intensity is to watch your heart rate as you exercise. This is where 1on1 training trumps group classes. Everyone’s heart zones or levels of fitness will be different. By training in a group, you may not be pushing it hard enough if you are too advanced, or if you are not ready for that type of activity accidents or injuries can occur.

Your predicted maximum heart rate can be estimated by subtracting your age from 220. This is the maximum number of times your heart can beat in a minute. Then multiply that number by .55 and by .9 to find the range that is your heart rate training zone. For example, if you are 35 years old, you have a predicted maximum heart rate of 185 beats per minute (220-35 = 185). Your lower limit is 102 beats per minute (.55 x 185), and your upper limit in the zone is 166 (.9 x 185).

If you have a very low level of fitness or haven’t exercised in a long time, 55 percent may be an effective place to begin your workouts, but a more conditioned person should work closer to 70 to 85 percent of his/her maximum heart rate. Depending on individual goals, most people who typically follow a regular exercise program should sustain at least 70 to 80 percent of their
maximum heart rate for 20 to 60 minutes.

I like to think of my heart rate as the RPM in my car. The higher you rev it, the more fuel your car will burn. But it is also important to monitor so you don’t over do it. During high intensity interval training, you will notice that your heart rate will
remain elevated and lower slowly even after you have stopped the interval completely. This is called EPOC, or excess post exercise oxygen consumption. This is a great thing, because you are burning calories while doing absolutely nothing! Your body is recovering from the interval and burning calories in the process. Be careful, you don’t want to rest too long, because you will eventually fall out of your heart rate zone. The more you work out, you will notice that your heart rate takes longer to elevate and will drop faster after an interval. This means that your body is adapting to that particular physical activity, and will burn less calories. Your body is adapting, or becoming more fit. Don’t worry, this is a good thing. This means your workouts should be taken to the next level, or there should be fewer brakes/rest in between intervals.

There are several ways to monitor your heart rate, including manually checking your pulse, and through using a variety of equipment, such as a heart rate monitor or hand sensors on fitness equipment. Checking your pulse can be done
by using the first two fingers of one hand to apply light pressure at the carotid artery on the neck or the radial artery in the wrist. Count the beats for 10 seconds and multiply by six to get your heart rate for one minute.

Heart rate monitors, such as those available from leading manufacturer Polar®, include a chest strap and a wristwatch type receiver. The strap picks up your heart rate and the receiver displays the result, making it an accurate and convenient way to measure your heart rate. I have tried several different heart rate monitors, and recommend Polar. While the chest strap may sound like an inconvenience, it doesn’t get in the way of my workouts, and is very easy to use. We have even equipped our spin bikes with built in Polar Heart rate monitors to get the most out our cardio spin sessions.