Sometimes the language used to describe the elements of effort can be confusing, especially if you’re new to the world of exercise, fitness or sport. Let’s take a minute and run through some of the most common concepts and try to make sense of them.
Maximum Heart Rate (MaxHR)
Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart will beat under any circumstances. Your max isn’t related to what you are doing. Your max will be the same whether you are running, cycling or disco dancing.
Your max is at its highest the day you’re born. For most male babies it’s about 220 beats per minute and for female babies it’s closer to 226. Year by year over the course of your lifetime your max heart rate goes down and there’s not much you can do about it.
The old formula, the one where you subtract your age from 220 doesn’t necessarily work exactly. Firstly that formula assumes that you’re loosing one heart beat per year off your max. It turns out that chronically fit people loose closer to one beat every 2 years. Secondly the formulae doesn’t take into consideration your resting heart rate, i.e. those that are extremely fit will have a lower resting heart rate (RHR) and when this is added to the calculation it will alter the final figures.
An example of this would be;
a) Standard measure for max heart rate is 220 – age (35) = 185. Working at 75% of my max HR would be 138.75 BPM (beats per minute).
b) Measure taking into account your RHR is 220 – age (35) – RHR (48) = 140. Working at 75% of my max HR using this calculation would be (140 x 75%= 105) + 48 (RHR)= 153 BPM.
You can immediately see from calculation b) that my target HR zone of 75% becomes much more specific in relation to my RHR and allows me to exercise harder at a higher HR.
Determining your honest maximum heart rate involves a very strenuous physical test. You really have to be able to place as much demand on your heart to get it to beat as fast as it can. I’ve done this before and it does take a huge amount of effort and energy.
The easiest way to find out your own maximum heart rate is to purchase a heart rate monitor and hit the roads. Sign up for a local 5K, strap on your heart rate monitor and conduct your own experiment.
Warm up prior to the race with a few easy and slow minutes, take the 1st mile at a moderate pace and the second at a challenging pace and finish the last 1 mile (ish) at a pace you can’t wait to stop.
Watch your monitor and keep track of the highest number throughout the entire race. This will be your maximum heart rate. Most heart rate monitors these days will give you your max HR once you’ve finished the race and stopped the watch. It may not be as accurate as the tests completed in a clinic but it is a lot more valid than dropping your age into a formula.
Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
Your resting heart rate, also known as your basal heart rate, is the minimum numbers of beats per minute that your heart has to make just to keep you alive.
It’s also the best indicator of your overall fitness. In general, people who are fitter will have lower resting heart rates. The stronger the heart is the stronger it beats. The stronger your heart beats, the higher volume of blood your heart pumps per beat. The more blood your heart pumps per beat, the fewer beats your heart must do to complete its job.
Whatever you resting heart rate is today, the chances are, as you get fitter it will drop.
Your resting heart rate is also the best indicator of whether you have recovered from a hard workout or if you’re coming down with an illness.
The easiest method I use to obtain my RHR is to take the reading first thing in the morning whilst still in bed. The night before I leave my HR monitor and chest strap by my bedside and once I wake (naturally, without an alarm clock going off) the following morning I sling on the chest strap and start my stop watch. I usually leave this ticking away for about 5 minutes in order to get a good average resting heart rate. The benefit of using this method is that you are more than likely in your most relaxed state as you wake in the morning.
Cardiac Reserve
Your cardiac reserve (also known as heart rate reserve) is the difference between your maximum heart rate and you resting heart rate. So, if your max is 180 PBM and your resting is 80 BPM then your Cardiac reserve is 100 beats per minute.
What’s important about your cardiac reserve is that it represents the amount of your heart beat that you get to use for training. Since you max is fixed the only way to increase your cardiac reserve is to lower your resting heart rate.
Aerobic Zone
Aerobic means ‘in the presence of oxygen’. When your heart is beating below about 80% of your max, you are in the aerobic zone. This is the zone where all the great fat burning takes place, great if you’re looking towards loosing a few pounds. This is also the zone in which you can maintain effort over a longer period of time.
Anaerobic Zone
The opposite of aerobic, anaerobic, is ‘not in the presence of oxygen’. For most of us, this is when your heart is beating over 80% max. You know this zone, as this is where you start to suck air, your sentences get shorter and you find it harder to breathe and talk.
In the anaerobic zone, your body switches from using a higher percentage of fat and begins to burn those precious stores of glycogen (energy).
Lactic Acid
This is the exhaust that your muscles produce when the engage. The muscles work hard and produce a toxic by-product called lactic acid. The harder and faster your muscles work, the more lactic acid they produce. Long distance, or endurance athletes, train and race at an intensity that allows their body to filter through and remove most of the lactic acid. Whereas sprinters build up a high percentage of lactic acid in a short period of time because of their dynamic intensity.
Anaerobic Threshold
This is the point of exertion, or heart rate, at which your body can no longer exhaust the lactic acid out of your muscles. At about 80% of max, that lactic starts to pool in the muscles. As your muscles fill, they get harder and harder to move, and before you know it, it feels like you’re running through treacle. Your anaerobic threshold is not constant. Therefore you can improve it with the right training. Improving your anaerobic threshold will allow you to progress from running 3 miles in 30 minutes while being able to chat, to completing the same distance in 25 minutes while holding the same conversation.
Happy Training!!
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