Monitoring Heart Rate during Training

I think most people would realize that when you exercise, your heart beats faster. This is because the heart needs to pump more blood the rest of the body to meet the demand for more blood and oxygen by the muscles of the body. The more intense or faster is the activity, the faster your heart will beat. Many referees or athlete carry out their training daily or consistently but I am sure not many would know that the rate of the heart beat has a significant relationship to the training. Is the intensity of the training good enough to make the change or improvement in your performance? Do you know that running at a high speed that your can heart can manage is dangerous for you, running below the intensity will result in reversibility or your fitness level. So what intensity is enough when you set your training. No two person has the same or similar intensity that will benefit both.Therefore, monitoring your heart rate during exercise is important and can be an excellent way to monitor exercise intensity.

There are few terminology that you need to get familiar with before we go further. Heart rate is the number of heart beats per minute; the times per minute that the heart contracts. Resting heart rate (Resting HR) is the number of beats in one minute when you are at complete rest. Your resting heart rate indicates your basic fitness level. The more well-conditioned your body, the less effort and fewer beats per minute it takes your heart to pump blood to your body at rest. The best time to measure your RHR for one minute is in the morning when you wake up from your sleep.

You need to know your maximal heart rate (MHR) too, which is the number related to your age. As we grow older, our hearts start to beat a little more slowly. To estimate your maximal heart rate, simply subtract your age from the number 220. A 40 year old man will have a MHR of 180 (220 - 40).

When doing a good training we do not run till we reach our MHR but we need to set the target heart rate (THR) which is the number of beats per minute (bpm) at which your heart should be beating during aerobic exercise. For most healthy individuals, this range is 50 to 80 percent of your maximal heart rate. So, if your maximal heart rate is 180 bpm, the low end of the range (50 percent) would be 90 bpm, and the high end of the range (80 percent) would be 144 bpm.

To enhance your performance or fitness level you need to undergo an intensity where your heart will beat between 90 - 144 bpm for at least 15 - 30 minutes. To maintain the target heart rate or training heart rate at 120 bpm, your heart beat should be 20 beats for a 10 seconds count. Measuring Heart rate during exercise - this can be done by pausing for a moment during your training bout and place your index finger on your carotid artery and count the number of heart beat for ten seconds. The number of beats is then multiply by six to get the THR for 60 seconds.

Give it a try for a month and monitor your RHR again to see the difference in the heart beat. If it is lower than the previous measurement, then your training exercises have benefited or improved you.

Good luck.