Three Reasons To Rethink Heart-Rate Training

[LedMatrix]

Seems lots of people are goo goo ga ga over heart rate monitoring these days. I’m not against it. In fact, if you really know what you’re doing, it can be beneficial. Especially for runners and other athletes. But for the average joe, is heart rate tracking necessary, or is it getting caught up in the fitness trackers hype?

For me, I know when I work out my heart rate will go up. When I’m at rest, it goes down. And for my purposes, that’s all I need to know. However, your situation may be different. That being said, here is an article that discusses three reasons why you may want to rethink heart rate training.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/03/training/three-reasons-to-rethink-heart-rate-training_47287/2

[WendyB]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing!

[WendyB]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing! 

[LedMatrix]

What did you find most interesting about it?

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@WendyB wrote:

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing! 

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[Ukase]

For me - this article brings grey areas to where many people didn't realize things were cloudy. 

It's a lot like an article I read recently that suggested that the caloric values printed on our food labels were just guesses at best. (And it's true) 

I've little doubt that this article is equally true. Our bodies are terribly complex machines. It's ludicrous to think that we can figure out the impacts of day to day differences on our metabolism and heartrate. 

But, the OCD in me ( a very small part in me) loves the idea of taking a problem and breaking it down to smaller parts - and when those parts include numbers and math, even better. 

Seems to me, at the end of the day, all we can do is try to be active and eat healthy. The rest is just genetics and complicated math. 

[LedMatrix]

@Ukase Thanks for your comments. The article was only presenting an alternate view of heart-rate tracking. Some care, some don't. I'm in the Don't camp.

[JohnRi]

Well one of the reasons I got my Surge had nothing to do with exercise.  My heart has always run fast.  90-100 bpm at rest.  So while getting my high blood pressure, and cholesterol numbers back into the normal range, I was also put on a low dose med to lower my resting heart rate.  Essentially a very mild setative. 

Atenolol does lower my blood pressure 5-10 points, but my heart rate dropped into the 70's.  Dropping 39 lbs, and lots of exercise, my resting heart rate is now in the 60's, almost 50's.  For me having a 24 hours a day monitor is important to my health and not my exercise.

Now when I do walk, I do keep an eye on my heart rate.  But I don't base my training on it.  I can tell more from my breathing, how fast I'm walking, how much I'm sweating, how my legs feel, that I can from a heart rate monitor...  Granted I can also tell that when my monitor shows a low reading, I tend to agree with it as I won't be sweating, my breathing will be easy, and my legs won't feel challenged.  And when it's high, the opposite is true.

[LedMatrix]

@JohnRi - You sound like a good canidate for heart monitoring. Do you use a chest strap based one too? For better accuracy? For serious health related issues I wouldn't rely on a wrst based tracker.

[emili]

the only reason I use it is for a closer to accurate calorie count. I am with you on knowing when it speeds up and when it slows down. In order for me to keep the crazy at bay with calories in and out, I need at least an illusion of accuracy. I wore the chest strap while working out for a long time and got pretty good and knowing what I burn when. Switched over to fitbit because of all the other features. I think what really gets me going is when people think of the fitbit as a medical device and get really upset about inaccuracies in HR, calories, sleeping- these are all nice to have features, but if you are hanging your health hat on them- probably not wise.

[DominicJ]

Having a tracker that can track it is very very helpful

You knowing it is not.

Should pretty much sum it up 🙂

[too_spicy]

Honestly, I think having the heart rate monitor is good for the above reasons, but I also don't really use mine to train. If my heart rate is elevated for some reason, I like to try and figure out what the cause of it could be. Am I stressed out? Am I dehydrated? Did I not get enough sleep? Or in the case where my fitbit was reading 176 bpm while I was sitting in class-- is my fitbit malfunctioning?

Historically, I've been really bad at taking care of my body. I'm a huge workaholic, and there have been times where I lived off nothing but a venti Starbucks coffee and one fried fast-food meal each day. For me the HR monitor isn't so much a HR monitor as it is a little reminder to drink water, get some rest, and exercise an appropriate amount. Complete with a little heart like, "Luv urself <3."

[Corney]

Interesting article, I use the heart rate monitor to measure heart rate recovery rate after a 5 minute cool down. I found the better physical shape I'm in the recovery rate increases( heart rate approaches pre exercise rate faster).

[LowededWookie]

Information is power.

I'd love to track my heart rate not because I'm wanting to push myself limits or whatever but just to see what I can improve on.

I am an IT professional. I repair and install computer systems so I lead what seems like a sedentary life but ever since monitoring myself with Fitbit and Up and even my iPhone I've come to realise that I do move a lot.

I have to admit I've had to cheat the Fitbit to get a more accurate level of reading by setting to Non-Dominant hand but wearing it on my dominant hand but it's because I'm trying to record my movement and most of my movement is with my right hand.

ALL movement is exercise because it works the muscles, although if it is repetitive then there is less effort because the muscles have set themselves for a particular motion but it still counts.

It's one of the reasons why I would like an Apple Watch (mostly because it fits in with my current ecosystem) because I get a lot of different types of monitoring in a single unit. It doesn't have to be pinpoint accurate it just has to paint enough of a picture to see where you need to work on.

Most stuff isn't that accurate anyway. Hell, if I have my iPhone in my pocket I can record 10KMs of biking in the Human app simply by sitting in my seat because I have a twitchy leg.

The point is it's information that you can do something about. Without the information you don't have a clue as to how you are going, what you should do more or less of.

[vrDrew]

It was a very interesting article. 

But my takeaway from it was that it just goes to show how important it can be to be aware of your heartrate!

When I first got my Surge HR I was very alarmed at how high my Resting HR was. But after researching, here and elsewhere, some of the sources of high HR levels - such as stress; lack of sleep; dehydration; etc. - I began to take steps that would mitigate those influences.

I started making a concerted effort to improve my sleep hygiene; cutting out alcohol and caffeine in the evening hours. I made more of an effort to stay properly hydrated.  And over the course of a few weeks I have definitely seen some beneficial changes.

In short: My body was telling me (via my heartrate) that it was not happy with the way I was treating it. I used that information to make some changes for the better.

[I-train-hard]

Very often the reading of hart hare on my Fitbit is not accurate. I would say +/- 8% based on using Polar hart strap.

[bcalvanese]

Just like humans to over complicate everything.

Heart rate is very important, and if you stick to the basics it's not rocket science.

If you want to increase your cardio fitness level you must do 1 thing.

1. Keep your heart in the cardio zone for at least 20 minutes non-stop, and do that at least 3 times per week.

This will give you a "minimum" "training effect". If you do it for 30 minutes, you will get a better training effect. If you do it 5 times a week you will get an even better training effect. 60 minutes 5 times a week, even better training effect. And so on.

A training effect means that you are increasing your cardio endurance, and cardio zone means 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. The age old formula in determining your maximum heart rate is 220 - age = MHR. In my case 220 - 58 = 162. There is a lot of debate on different formula's and people trying to get all scientific about it, but this basic formula will work for 99.9 percent of people. The peak zone (above 85 percent) is good for short spurts and you may want to check with your doctor if you are not already at a high fitness level.

If you use this basic fitness approach, you will increase your fitness level, but you have to do it, and there ain't no shortcuts.

All day heart rate monitoring is also very handy in calculating daily calories burned. It dont matter if you are stressed out, if you had too much coffee, or any thing that may get your heart rate up. What matters is your heart rate itself, and how many colories you are burning.

I hear a lot of people on forums saying that they do these short intense workouts 3,4,5 times a week and they cant get to the next level. Well guess what? They are getting almost to the point where they start getting a minimum training effect and then stopping. Those types of workouts have there place too don't get me wrong, but cardio endurance mean just what it says. Endurance. That means keep your heart rate at a cario pace for a longer time.

I started power walking a year ago. I was obese (75 lbs. over weight). I could only walk a mile at a 3 to 3.5 mph pace before feeling like I was going to die and having to lay down for an hour. I kept doing it, sometimes 2 and 3 times per day. Once I got to the point that I could start actually getting a training effect, I started feeling the benefits and kept pushing it a little more each day. Now, I can power walk over 8 miles at a 4 to 4.5 mph pace with no problem, I have lost about 57 lbs., and am actually eating more because I burn so many calories, and i have increased my fitness level from poor to good.

And all I did was follw these basic fitness principals.

[Corney]

I agree, that is what physical fitness means, making your heart(which is a muscle) a more efficient pump. Keep your heart rate in your training zone for at least 20 minutes non-stop increasing to 30 or minutes at least 4 days per week.  As your heart becomes bigger and stronger it will pump more blood to the body with each beat, I've decreased my resting heart rate by 12 beats in just 3 months.