Workout Heart Smarts

Did you know you can get very fit in only an hour per day, several days a week plus a little more on the weekend? To do this, you must use that hour as efficiently as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to monitor your training with a heart rate monitor. These affordable tools can be almost coach-like in their ability to inform you about your body and motivate you to push yourself. Here are some tips on buying these great training devices and advice on how to use them.

Another way to measure output is by speed. You might run a loop regularly and time yourself. Then you could try to better that time on hard days. Or you might use average speed on a loop if you’re a cyclist. But this method has faults: Outside influences can affect your speed. On a bike, for example, you face headwinds, bad roads, rain and other elements that can change your average speed. It might appear as if you took an easy day, when even though your average speed was pitiful, you worked extremely hard.

A new way to measure exertion on a bicycle is with a device that’s built into or attached to the bike that measures watts, a measurement of power output. These will someday become the best tools for bicyclists to measure exertion and elite riders already use them. However, right now, these tools are a bit expensive and only made by two companies, so selection is limited.

Which brings us to heart rate monitors. These are available at price points down to $50. They’re easy to exercise with and understand. We feel every athlete ought to have one.

Heart Rate Monitors
There are many available devices that measure heart rate, and we’ve tried most of them, even one on which an annoying electronic voice tells you your heart rate and other things through earphones (“Get Going! Pick up the pace!”). But our advice is to purchase a wireless heart rate monitor. These units are comprised of two parts: an elastic chestband that includes a transmitter and a wristwatch that receives the reading of the heartbeat sent by the transmitter and displays the readout on the watch. This type of heart rate monitor has been around for years and is the accepted standard among athletes.

Chestbands vary in design. They can affect comfort, so it’s worth fitting a few or at least discussing with friends which work best. A stiff band may chafe. Certain models may fit better worn with sports bras, etc.

The band is wrapped around the chest so that the transmitter is in the center and the band is under the pectoral muscles. It should be snug enough not to move as you run or bike, but it should never restrict breathing. Before putting on the chestband, ECG gel (available at drugstores) or saliva must be applied to the rubber contacts on the inside face of the transmitter to allow the transmitter to read your heart beat.

The wristwatch (time is usually shown on the watch along with heart rate) is worn on the wrist or can be attached to bike handlebars. It can’t be moved past about three feet from the athlete without losing the signal. Once the chestband is installed, your heart rate will show on the watch giving you a constant readout of what your body’s engine is doing, displayed in number of beats per minute.

What’s the Best Type of Monitor for You?
Heart rate monitors range in price from $50 to $300. And the price can go higher if you purchase a model that is capable of downloading data to a PC, and you purchase the accessories to do this.

Many athletes, however, are perfectly happy with a heart rate monitor that gives nothing but heart rate. The reason is it’s simple to use. You see the heart rate when training and can adjust your effort accordingly.

A great feature is average heart rate. This gives you an idea of the total amount of work you’ve done during the workout, which is hard to track and figure by watching the readings. Average heart rate is especially difficult to track when cycling, too, because your heart rate tends to fluctuate wildly, low when coasting and high when climbing. But, if your monitor keeps track, you can easily take the reading after the workout.

You might appreciate having alarms, too. Though there’s a learning curve to setting alarms and turning them on and off (particularly when working out), an alarm can help some athletes. Alarms let you know if you’re over or under your target zones, so you can be sure to exercise at the proper level. For example, on a rest day, you might set the alarm to sound if your heart rate exceeds 145. You don’t even have to look at the reading. You know you’re okay as long as the alarm doesn’t sound.

When you get into the most expensive models, you can record the workout or race. You can then download the data onto your computer and create graphs and charts. The only problem with this type of monitor is they can be quite complicated and it may take a good deal of patience to figure out how to access the data and work with it. The manual may look like instructions for flying a 747.

Tips on Using a Heart Rate Monitor
The advantage of monitoring your heart rate is it’s like attaching a tachometer onto your body that tells you what your engine is doing. Plus, it’s a direct measure of your intensity levels. But there are also drawbacks such as:

• If you don’t understand what the number means, it’s just a number—it’s only meaningful in relationship to your individual maximum heart rate and also your individual lactate threshhold.
  
  
• There’s a lag effect. For example, when you’re biking along at a heart rate of 140 and you sprint, your effort jumps way up, but your heart rate response lags behind that.
  
  
• Many factors can change your heart rate response at a given power output such as dehydration, cumulative fatigue, glycogen depletion, and high temperatures.

• Zone 1: (recovery zone—guilt-producingly slow): 65 to 80% of LTHR
  
  
• Zone 2: (aerobic zone—for endurance workouts designed to increase general fitness): 80 to 92% of LTHR
  
  
• Zone 3: (interval zone—time trial work, to improve your performance for competition or superior fitness): 93 to 105% of LTHR