One thing many exercisers,
endurance athletes specifically miss is the concept that in order to improve
aerobic capacity and speed, you have to vary the intensity of workouts on both
ends of the spectrum. Some days you will push hard and other days you will
barely move, all by design. Heart rate training is an effective tool to help
you achieve optimum fitness.
Heart rate-based exercise training
has been around for years. It is an effective way for people with a wide range
of goals—from weight loss to elite-level athletic performance, to monitor and control the intensity of their
workouts. One of the most common mistakes in cardio exercise programs is
failure to vary the intensity of workouts in a practical way.
The concept of heart
rate-based training is simple. Heart rate has a well-known positive correlation
with exercise intensity. As the workload increases, so does the demand for oxygen.
Heart rate will also increase in order to supply the increasing oxygen
requirement in the attempt to sustain the activity.
The heart rate response to
exercise stimulus is highly individual. There are a number of factors that
influence individual heart rate responses to exercise. The most important
factors are as follows:
Size: Larger individuals
typically have lower resting heart rates.
Age: Maximum heart rate tends
to slowly decline with age.
Fitness: Aerobically fit
individuals are able to sustain higher heart rates for longer periods of time.
Heredity: A number of genes
influence resting heart rate, maximum heart rate and innate aerobic fitness
level.
Because each person has a
unique heart rate profile, effective heart rate-based training requires that
target heart rate zones be individually customized. There is an excellent book
titles Heart Rate Training by Benson and Connolly that provides methods for
establishing HR Zones.
A common mistake made in
cardio exercise programs is training at the same moderately high intensity in
most, if not all, workouts. The majority of exercisers regulate their cardio
workout intensity primarily by perception of effort. Research has shown that
when men and women "go by feel" in cardio workouts, they consistently
select an effort level that which is just below the lactate threshold or
anaerobic state and may be described as a moderately high intensity.
According to endurance
fitness expert, Matt Fitzgerald, the problem with training at the same
moderately high intensity day after day is that it is simply not as effective
as a program in which intensity is more varied. Research has suggested that a
program in which 80% of total training time is spent below the lactate
threshold, 10% is spent at the lactate threshold, and the remaining 10% is
spent above the lactate threshold yields greater cardiovascular fitness
improvement than a program of equal volume in which 70% or less of total
training time is spent in the lower intensity range.
Other studies, according to
Fitzgerald, have demonstrated that most
recreational athletes do as little as 45% and seldom more than 70% of their
training in the lower intensity range. This tendency to push the pace a little
in every session creates a burden of chronic fatigue that prevents the
exerciser from fully adapting to the work being done, and also prevents him or
her from performing optimally in the highest-intensity workouts. This some
workouts need to be much slower and less intense in order for the training
effect to produce results.
Most individuals will
regulate their workouts ineffectively. The proper use of a heart rate monitor,
however, can help exercisers avoid wasting their time. With a little self-study
and application a Hear Rate monitor with an individually constructed exercises
plan can dramatically improve your fitness.