Heart Rate Training

 

Heart rate is the best way to monitor your effort during exercise & stick with your training goals.  Matching your heart rate with your training zone is key to reaching your goals.

Remember:  If you are new or just returning to exercise, you want to get comfortable being uncomfortable, but don’t burn hot & burn out. Don’t do too much too soon as that could result not only in fatigue, but also overtraining and eveninjury.

1) Maximum Heart Rate
2) Resting Heart Rate
3) Heart Rate Reserve
4) Target Heart Rate

a)    50-70%  =  Fat-Burning Zone  (Warm Up Run, Long Run, Recovery)
b)    70-80%  =  Aerobic Zone        (Most of Boot Camp, Short Runs)
c)   80-100%  =  Anaerobic Zone    (Sprints, Burpies & full body exercises)

Determine your Max, Resting & Reserve Heart Rates

1) To determine your maximum heart rate you could do a simple equation, or push yourself to your limits. To get the simple answer, subtract your age from 220. If you are in superb shape this number may be 10-20 beats per minute (bpm) higher or lower than your age-predicted number.

Example: If you are 40 years old… 
MHR 
= 220-40= 180 bpm

2) Resting heart rate is best determined by taking your pulse when you wake up, before you get out of bed. For consistency, do this a few days in a row. Your heart rate will fluctuate based on a number of factors including body position, hydration, stress, etc. This is one thing you wanna take while laying down and calm.

Example: 3 mornings were evaluated & your values were 78, 82, 80… 
RHR 
= (78+82+80)/3= 80 bpm

3) Heart rate reserve is simply your maximum heart rate minus your resting heart rate. This value is the range available for exercise which we will use to determine percentages and training zones.

Example: based on the above calculations…
HRR
 = 180-80= 100 bpm

4) Your target heart rate is calculated by determining which training zone you are gearing toward. All that gear out there makes things confusing but the folks at this website really help clear it up https://bestcampinghammockgear.com/comparisons.

Determining Training Zones with Heart Rate Reserve

There are different energy systems that create ATP (ie energy) for your body. When oxygen is used we call it aerobic, and when there is no oxygen, anaerobic. Your body can also create energy using fat (glycerol & free fatty acids), carbohydrate (glycogen) and protein (amino acids).

a) Fat Burning 50-60%
While fat can be deposited as an energy store in the body, it is less accessible and therefore too slow a system for very intense activity. Your warm up run should be about 6% while your active recovery should be 50-60%. This zone does not burn the largest number of calories, however it does burn the largest percentage of fat calories. You will burn more fat calories at higher intensities.

Example: Based on the above calculations…
50% of 100 bpm is 50. 70% of 100 is 70. After adding the resting heart rate (80 bpm) back in, you get your range for most efficient fat-burning.  =  130-150 bpm

b) Aerobic 70-80%

Example: Based on the above calculations…
70% of 100 bpm is 70. 80% of 100 is 80. After adding the resting heart rate (80 bpm) back in, you get your range for your optimal aerobic training zone.   =   150-160 bpm

c) Anaerobic 80-95%

Example: Based on the above calculations…
80% of 100 bpm is 80. 95% of 100 is 95. After adding the resting heart rate (80 bpm) back in, you get your range for your optimal anaerobic training zone.   =   160-175 bpm