Measuring the number of times your heart beats per minute is essential to improving your fitness. The areas you really want to measure and improve in are your heart rate at rest and the speed with which it recovers from sustained activity. A well conditioned ticker can pump less to get your body the O2 that it needs. A corresponding drop in the resting heart rate can result for consistent aerobic exercise. More exercise translates to a stronger pump. There are two types of workouts: aerobic and anaerobic. An aerobic workout consists of large groups of your body's muscles being used over a longer period of time in a steady state of exertion. An anaerobic workout consists of small groups of your body's muscles being used over a short period of time at a high level of exertion. Muscles need oxygen for either type of workout. The longer and more strenous the exercise then the faster the heart pumps to give your muscles the oxygen they demand. The heart pumps faster during a workout in an effort to deliver the additional oxygen that your muscles demand. To know how the engine is running we need an RPM gauge and this is precisely the function a good heart rate monitor watch performs. By utilizing a heart rate monitor watch you will always know if you are training in the correct zone. A heart rate monitor watch provides you with several key pieces of data you must have to improve. Resting beats per minute The resting heart rate is the rate that your heart beats per minute during relaxation. I personally like to measure it first thing when I get out of bed in the morning buy any quite period of inactivity during the day will do. What is normal here can vary; guys have a resting heart rate between 60 and 80 beats per minute. For the gals it is 70 to 90. A highly trained athlete can have beats per minute in the 40's at rest. With proper dedication it should decrease over time. Maximum heart rate Your peak, or max, heart rate is achieved at your maximum anaerobic threshold. There are serious health risks to trying to achieve this and measure it so suffice it to say that it is wiser to use the formula in the next paragraph. the fitness community has developed a baseline formula to measure your maximum heart rate. Subtract your age from the number 220. A 60 year old would have a maximum heart rate of 160 beats per minute. This number in and of itself is only useful in that it helps you calculate your target zone heart rate for training purposes which is discussed next. Zone range heart rate Your training heart rate is the range of heart rate that you maintain during aerobic workouts in an effort to improve fitness. In order to properly train with a heart rate monitor watch, you should work out at a steady pace which represents between 50% and 80% of your maximum heart rate. Which end of this range you use will depend upon your fitness level as we shall see below. Those new to exercise should start at 50% to 70% of their maximum heart rate. As your fitness improves try to stay between 60% and 70% and top caliber athletes can even consider 70% to 80% of max heart rate. It's like having a personal trainer coaching you through the workout. It takes a significant base of fitness or aerobic training before you should ever be attempting to go over 70% of your max heart rate. Of course such athletes have established a huge base of fitness, likely workout year round and have been doing so for several years so it only makes sense that they have a lower resting pulse and a heart that is sufficiently strong to take these higher levels of sustained effort. Speed of heart rate recovery One of the best indicators of your condition is how quickly your heart rate drops back down following exercise or during a break. This best explains the concept of recovery heart rate. Use your heart rate monitor watch to measure your heart rate before beginning your workout. Take a few small breaks during your workout of two to three minutes and see how long it takes your heart to recover to within 20 beats per minute of your pre-workout heart rate. Recovery times will improve after you have been consistent with your exercise program for a period of several months. A lot of times if you are not recovering well you may need a rest day. If your heart rate was 70 beats per minute before your workout than take several breaks and see how long it takes to recover to 90 beats per minute. Once you recover to 90 then resume your workout and repeat this process several times. A heart rate monitor watch and the correct way to use it Using a heart rate monitor is very simple. Working out without a heart rate watch is like racing a car without knowing the RPM's of the motor. Chest straps provide more accurate feedback. The strap detects the hearts activity. This activity is relayed wirelessly to a wristwatch that displays your pulse. There are strapless heart rate watches, Pro-Form or Mio, that calculate your pulse through sensors on the face of the watch. The only downside to the sensor watches is that you cannot get a heart rate measurement when you are on the run, but since most measurements are pre-workout and recovery measurements this doesn't pose too big a disadvantage and many women prefer to have no strap for comfort. Some heart rate monitor watches even come waterproof, like Garmin's new FR60, which is excellent for triathletes because you can wear one watch from start to finish and no watches under the swim cap. More advanced models have features that include alarms that sound when you've gone above or below your pre-programmed number. Other models include GPS devices and even alarms that chime if you go outside your pre-set range. I'd strongly recommend that you get one of the more advanced watches because they contain features that automatically give feedback, like alarm beepers for your target zone, that immediately reinforces the likelihood that you will stay in your most effective range of heart rate. Many heart rate monitor watches also allow you to download your workout heart rates from the watch to a computer so you can visually see your rate of improvement over time.
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