Heart Rate and Workouts

 Heart Rate and Workouts

Is it necessary to monitor your heart rate when working out?

Well, that depends on who you ask and what phase of training you are at. Monitoring heart rate response to exercise is certainly an acceptable gauge of overall intensity. An important concern that many coaches have with using heart rate monitors is that athletes may become too focused on the "numbers" and forget a very important part of their training - how it "feels." This is probably the main reason that many coaches prefer to teach their athletes how to monitor workout intensity with and without using a heart rate monitor. Heart rate monitors can be a valuable training tool to gauge progress, adaptation and even over-training. Over-reliance on them, however, like over-reliance on any aspect of your training, is a detriment to overall performance.

Heart rate monitors are best utilized during four distinct phases of training:

When you start training in a sport for the first time

At the start of a new period or cycle of your training

For 1-2 weeks before and following a major competition

When recovering from an injury or illness.

At other times in your training cycles, which amounts to the majority of your training, the decision to use a monitor is a personal one. If you can avoid the tendency of many athletes to become overly reliant on the "numbers" and you consciously strive to learn to trust your own body’s feelings of exertion and effort, your heart rate monitor (HRM) can be used in the following situations.

(1) At the start of a new training program, the HRM can help both athlete and coach become aware of the athlete’s heart rate response to various kinds of training. The HRM offers an easy way to gauge recovery from repeated bouts such as intervals of hill repeats or your ability to recover following a long run. One of the first tests that should be undertaken with your HRM is a measure of maximum heart rate. Unless you have actually measured your maximum heart rate - not estimated it from a formula, you really have no more than a guess as to the rest of your training parameters. The easiest way to assess your maxHR is to find a hill, not too steep, not too gradual, that will take you about a minute to ride or run up. After a good warm-up, head up the hill with sufficient intensity that you crest the top at maximal effort. It may take three to four efforts for you to attain a true maximal reading.

You might be surprised that the number your HRM is recording may be well above or below the standard "220 minus your age" formula that many people subscribe to. The reason for this is that there are wide ranges in maximal ability of the heart to beat. These differences can be due to state of training, size of your heart’s chambers, nervous system regulation and many others.

Once you have attained your max value, you have a reliable base from which to design training programs based on intensity. Again, without an accurate measure of maxHR, you’re taking a stab in the dark, so painstaking measurement of heart rate during exercise is an exercise in futility.

(2) At the start of a new cycle or period of training, an HRM can be useful to gauge your heart rate responses to a novel exercise - which can be extremely different from your heart rate during those exercises that your body is accustomed to doing. For example, during the off-season, many athletes will concentrate on building strength or a better endurance base. During the transition from off-season to pre-season, the addition of more specific and intense training to the training program is a new stress on the body. Monitoring the body’s response to this change in exercise patterns is useful to avoid injury and over-training, especially in overly enthusiastic younger athletes.

(3) For the week or two preceding or following a major competition, proper use of the HRM is crucial for peaking before important competitions and for adequate recovery after them. Maintaining the proper intensity in the weeks immediately prior to a big event is difficult, but crucial for peak performance. Two separate forces are at work here - the need to taper the volume of training enough so you’re fresh for competition and the need to maintain sufficient intensity so as not to lose any of your competitive "edge" that has taken weeks or months to develop. In this situation, fine-tuning of the exercise sessions can be greatly aided by the HRM, provided that the proper max values have been obtained previously and you understand your typical HR responses for your exercise.

(4) When recovering from an injury or illness, the HRM can be that angel on your shoulder that helps you workout enough to promote healing, but not so much that you cause additional damage. This is a much-neglected use for the HRM. Many athletes and coaches view the HRM merely as a tool for keeping intensity high and as an incentive for athletes to push themselves harder. Used in just the opposite way, however, the HRM can be equally effective in holding the recovering athlete back from over-doing it and possibly re-injuring themselves. Low intensity activity can often speed recovery and return you to full participation sooner than complete rest. When you’re on the comeback trail, you can use the HRM as an upper limit, backing off when you find yourself reaching a set ceiling of exertion.

In training situations that fall outside of the areas listed above, you may want to leave the HRM at home. Instead try to become aware of the internal signal s that you receive from your body. Your HRM can be a great help in associating a particular intensity of exercise with a spectrum of feelings. For example, once you understand what 140 beats per minute "feels" like (how do your legs feel? your lungs? your cadence? etc.), you might be able to use your body’s signals to accurately gauge your exercise intensity. With practice, most athletes and regular exercisers can use exertion cues to accurately regulate their exercise intensity without the continuous use of a heart rate monitor. The HRM then, can be saved as a high-tech tool perfectly designed for certain phases of the training program, but not for the bulk of everyday training.