Heart Rate Training: The Fast Way to Reach Your Weight Loss Goals
Monitoring your heart rate can be an effective way to get the most out of your exercise program. Keeping track of your heart rate and controlling how fast or slow your heart is working when you exercise is called heart rate training. Studies are showing that heart rate training helps people reach their exercise goals quicker and more efficiently.
To begin heart rate training you must first find out your maximum heart rate. After you learn your maximum heart rate, you will take that number and base all of the heart rate zones around it. But, before you find out what your maximum heart rate is and do the calculations, you should judge what fitness level you are at:
Poor Shape: You haven’t exercised in the past two months. Fair Shape: You do aerobic activity at least twenty minutes, or walk one mile or more, at least three times a week. Good Shape: You run at least five miles per week or you exercise almost every daily.
Do the following test to help you see what range your maximum heart rate will be in.
Walk One Mile: Walk a mile at an even pace either on a treadmill or at a track. When you are nearing the end of your mile, or in the last quarter of your mile, take your heart rate. Add 40 to this number if you listed yourself in poor shape; add 50 to this number if you listed yourself in fair shape, and add 60 to this number if you listed yourself in good shape.
Once you know what your maximum heart rate is, you can begin heart rate training. The easiest way to keep up with your heart rate during a workout is to use a machine that has a heart rate control monitor. Most quality treadmills and fitness machines come with heart rate control monitors. A monitor will tell you what your heart rate is during your workout so you know what heart rate zone you are in at any given time. A heart rate monitor becomes your personal trainer and takes the guesswork out of heart rate training. The readings let you know when you are over exerting yourself, or when you should give yourself a little extra push so you can stay in a target zone longer, or even push yourself up to the next heart rate zone.
Various Heart Rate Training Zones
A heart rate training routine should last between 20-30 minutes, and you should cycle in and out of the different heart rate zones throughout the workout.
Healthy Heart Zone: You feel comfortable and your heart rate is at 50%-60% of your maximum heart rate.
Fitness Zone: You find it is getting a little harder to talk and you are breathing heavier. You heart rate is at 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate.
Aerobic Zone: In this zone your heart rate is 70%-80% of your maximum heart rate and you should only be able to speak in phrases.
Anaerobic Zone: In this zone your heart rate is 80%-90% of your maximum heart rate and you should only be able to gasp out a word here and there because you will be breathing heavily.
Red Line Zone: You will only be able to stay within this zone for a few minutes, and you probably won’t be able to speak at all. If you do, it will be a gasped word or two that may be hard to understand. Your heart rate is on target for your maximum heart rate goal.
Heart rate training is a great way to reach your weight loss or training goals faster. Using a quality treadmill, or other exercise machine, that is equipped with a heart rate control monitor is by far the easiest way to heart rate train. These machines enable you to know exactly what is going on with your heart rate so you can effectively move in and out of your heart rate zones.
