Many people hop on the treadmill and begin exercise with no other intention than to “workout.” Some days, it is a huge success if you can actually make it to the gym and still have enough energy to workout. But for the days when you are more spirited and inspired to get a good workout, there is a secret weapon that few people know about or use: your own heart rate.
This article is going to review two separate, but very related topics: Understanding your heart rate during exercise, and, how to get the most from your cardio workouts.
Understanding Your Heart Rate
Your heart has a maximum rate that it can beat every minute. Surprising to some, this number is solely based on your age and can be determined by subtracting your age from the number 220. For example, if you are 47 years old, the theoretical maximum number of times your heart can beat in any minute is 173. This is considered your theoretical max heart rate because the only way to truly determine your real number is through scientific testing and a maximal cardiovascular stress test. Unless you are an athlete, there is no real need to seek out this test. When you determine your personal max heart rate (220 – your age), it is helpful to know that your actual number could be as much as 15 beats per minute higher or lower. Keep this mind as you apply the exercise approaches discussed later in this article. This is a basic equation that you can use to make your workouts much more effective.
To take it one step further and customize your workouts even more precisely, it is important to take into consideration your current fitness level. Your heart is a muscle just like any other in your body. If you workout consistently and challenge your muscles, they get stronger and more efficient, right? Your heart does the same thing with consistent, effective cardiovascular exercise: it gets better and stronger at pumping blood. Therefore, a fit heart can pump more blood with each contraction, allowing it to pump fewer times in a minute. To get a sense of your current cardiovascular ability, determine your resting heart rate by counting the number of beats for one full minute.
In healthy adults, a slower heart rate is one sign of a fit heart. A normal range for resting heart rates is 60-80 beats per minute. Elite athletes can have resting heart rates as low as 45 and Lance Armstrong’s is reported to be around 35! Once you have determined your resting heart rate, you will incorporate it into the earlier equation, and use the result later in this article:
220 – your age – your resting heart rate = Your Number
Effective Cardio
Before we get into the higher math required to determine your heart rate training range, it’s important to understand the different approaches to cardio workouts. It is a mistake to jump into a cardio workout without first identifying your goals. Many people think that any sustained effort is an effective cardio workout. Unfortunately, this is a very common misunderstanding that could be wasting your time.
It is critical to decide exactly what you are trying to achieve in your cardio workouts. Are you trying to burn fat and lose weight? Do you exercise to improve your cardiovascular health and decrease the risk of heart disease? Is your goal to improve your fitness level so that you can workout harder? Each of these examples requires that you exercise at very specific heart rate ranges. If you are not monitoring your heart rate during exercise, you could be working too hard—or too easily—than your goal requires. It is incredibly common to see folks working too intensely when their goal is fat loss. It is also very common to see someone expecting big fitness gains but working at a heart rate range that is too low to inspire those big changes.
If you are going to spend the time and energy working out, doesn’t it make sense to take a scientific approach and ensure that you are doing it as efficiently as possible? Identify your specific fitness goal below and then use your heart rate equation from above to determine exactly where your heart rate should be during your next cardio workout. Remember to determine your personal number from above (220 – your age – minus resting heart rate) and insert it below.
If your goal is fat loss
- Your Number x .5 + your resting heart rate =
- Your Number x .6 + your resting heart rate =
These two numbers indicate your Heart Rate Training Range for fat loss
If your goal is cardiovascular health and fitness
- Your Number x .65 + your resting heart rate =
- Your Number x .75 + your resting heart rate =
These two numbers indicate your Heart Rate Training Range for cardiovascular health
If your goal is athletic development and higher level fitness
- Your Number x .75 + your resting heart rate =
- Your Number x .85 + your resting heart rate =
These two numbers indicate your Heart Rate Training Range for fitness
For example, if you are 47 and your resting heart rate is 60, and you want to burn fat during your workouts, your equation would look like this:
220 – 47 – 60 = 113
113 x .5 + 60 = 116.5
113 x .6 + 60 = 127.8
Your theoretical Heart Rate Training Range would be 116.5 – 127.8 beats per minute. Remember that your real range could be slightly higher or lower than this range. Try out the determined range for 2-4 weeks and then make adjustments based on your progress.
It only takes a moment, but this little mathematical puzzle will provide you with the best secret weapon in fitness. Use it, and your time spent in the gym will be so much more effective that you’ll be able to spend less time at the gym! Genius!
This is sooo true. Heart health is sooo important.
Author Diana Lynn Neiderhiser http://www.amazon.com
http://happylifepublication.fortunecity.com
Excellent! So much great info in this post, I'll be bookmarking it and referencing it in the future for sure. Now to find a nice little heart-rate monitor for my workouts.
This is awesome information – thanks!