Part 2 - Objective training and your resting and maximum heart rates
It is very difficult to gauge whether you are exercising aerobically or anaerobically. This article identifies an objective way of making that distinction.
Before you get stuck in to this article please read the disclaimer.
One thing that is true for everybody is when you exercise your heart beats faster; and the more you exert yourself the faster your heart beats. This is the key to effective and objective training. Your heart rate is a measure of the amount of exertion you are under at any given time.
In effect you can think of a scale starting at the slowest rate your heart can beat going up to the fastest it can beat. This range can then be split into training zones. Each zone represents a level of exertion and through careful plotting of the zones you can be pretty sure if you are working aerobically or anaeroically. This is an objective test removes any guess work from the process.
We will look at the training zones themselves at a later date. For now let's look at how we figure out what is our heart rate range (i.e. the range between the slowest our hearts beat up to the fastest). The lower and upper heart rates are known as our resting and maximum heart rates respectively.
Heart Rate Monitors (HRM)
In order to take a truly effective heart rate you will need a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). These devices usually come in the form of a chest strap with a detector/transmitter that monitors your heart rate and a receiver which is usually a device rather like a wrist watch. The receiver will have a number of functions beyond just telling you what your heart rate is at any given time. These will include time functions, stop watch, facilities for recording split times etc. Some may even have an interface to a personal computer so that data can be downloaded and analysed.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on HRMs here. Readers interested in investing in one can do no better than buying the 'The Heart Rate Monitor Book' by Sally Edwards. [1]
One thing is worthy of mention though and that is that trying to take your heart rate manually (e.g. by taking your pulse and counting the beats over a short interval) is prone to huge error and cannot be relied upon. Generally, taking your heart rate this way requires you to stop your current activity. This will cause your heart rate to slow immediately. There is also some evidence to suggest that putting pressure on an artery or vein to take your heart rate can actually cause the heart to slow slightly. Maffetone et al report that taking your heart rate manually can be off by as much as 10 - 15 beats per minute (BPM). [2]
HRMs allow you to see your exact heart rate as you work out. An HRM is essential for effective training.
Resting heart rate
First of all we need a baseline from which to work. This is your resting heart rate. The most effective way of taking your resting heart rate is to use your HRM to take your heart rate as soon as you wake in the morning and before you get out of bed. If you do this over several days and take the average you will get a good idea of your resting heart rate.
The resting heart rate is a really useful tool in gauging how hard you have been working. If you are over-training (i.e. working out to hard too often) your resting heart rate may be elevated. This is a good indication that you should examine your workout plan to see if you are overdoing things. Over-training can be as bad as under-training. It can lead to illness because of the stress placed on your immune system and also to injury.
Maximum heart rate
The next important figure to obtain is your maximum heart rate (MHR). We will use this figure to gauge our training zones and so it is a very important figure. It is worthy of note here that training at or near MHR can be dangerous as it puts a lot of strain on that most vital of organs. This is particularly true if you are over 35 years of age or have lead a sedentary life style.
We now hit a definite problem. There are basically 2 methods for getting your MHR:
- Do a stress test and monitor your heart rate to find its maximum.
- Estimate it using one of a variety of methods available.
The stress test is the most accurate method of finding out your MHR. Unfortunately, this is also a risky enterprise because by definition it requires you to work at full effort for some duration. I am not going to describe any such tests here because of the inherent risks. Such test should really only be performed under the supervision of suitably qualified persons or medics.
The next is to use some method of estimating your MHR. These methods usually come in the form of formulae based on such things as your age and gender. I am going to describe the most common age adjusted method here.
There are 2 versions of this: one for women and one for men:
MHR (for women) = 226 - your age
MHR (for men) = 220 - your age
Taking myself as an example (being a 41 year old male) results in an MHR of 220 - 41 which is 179 beats per minute (bpm). As an illustration of how these formulae can be somewhat inaccurate I have recently raised my heart rate as high as 183 bmp during intense training. The difference is that I am reasonably fit having worked out continuously for many years. Having pointed out the inaccuracies in the formula it is still good enough for most people and will enable you to set target training zones quite effectively.
Conclusion
We have identified that the only truly objective measure of the amount of effort you are putting in to a workout at any given time is your heart rate.
We have also identified that estimating your heart rate by taking your pulse manually (e.g. by pressing a finger over a vein or artery) is highly inaccurate and therefore unsuitable.
A purpose made Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) is the only way to take your heart rate accurately.
The first things we need to know are our resting and maximum heart rates. With these two pieces of information we can identify training zones, which we will do in a later article.
References
[1] 'The Heart Rate Monitor Book', Sally Edwards, ISBN 0-9634633-0-6.
[2] 'The High Performance Heart', Dr. Philip Maffetone et. al. , p.30.
