Heart Rate Training

I'm sure you've heard the buzz about heart rate training or finding your target heart rate and working in the zones... but what does it all mean?

There are different intensities you can work out at to achieve different results from your workout session. They are all good results but someone who just wants to lose weight would not work out at the same intensity as someone who is trying to shave some time off their best 5k.

The first step is to figure out what your goals are from your work out session and what your 'Target Heart Rate' is. There are many methods people use to determine their THR some more accurate than others. I prefer to use the Karvonen method which goes as follows: We'll use a 23 year old person with a resting heart rate of 70 for our example.

Take 220- your age (the 220- age has been shown to be inaccurate A more accurate formula, offered in a study published in the journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, is 206.9 - (0.67 x age). )

So for our example we would take 206.9 - .67*23 = 191
Then you subtract your resting heart rate 191-70= 121
Then you figure out what intensity you will be working out at to find a range use the lowest intensity you will work out at and the highest
121*65% intensity = 79
121*85% intensity = 103
Then add your resting heart rate back in.
79+70 = 149
103+70= 173

The target range for this person would be 149-173.

Okay... now I've got this number what do I do with it?

You should determine what intensity you need to work out at to achieve your goals (if you need help with this step Jessica who is an ACE certified personal trainer can help you out) and then check your heart rate throughout your workout.

There are 2 ways you can check your heart rate during an exercise, by checking your pulse or using a heart rate monitor. The easiest way by far is with a heart rate monitor, a very good brand is Polar which Jessica can now sell (yay!) but there are others out there.

This is just a basic overview of how to determine your target heart rate and other information. If you would like more detailed information or to know how this applies to you and your workout please contact Jessica.