The use of heart rate monitoring used to be for elite sports people and hospitals. Now, gyms all over the country are incorporating different monitoring systems into their facility for their members. Some are doing it very well and others shouldn’t have bothered. This week we’ll discuss the benefits of HR training, how to maximize it’s potential and what to be aware of.
A few weeks ago, I announced my move from Dublin to Denver to take up a position with the University of Denver. Unfortunately, it wasn’t it be, and I have since moved back home. While they do an incredible job out there, I knew for several reasons that 5 months wasn’t going to be in my best interest or theirs. I am very excited about what the next few months hold for me here in Ireland and I’ll be keeping you all up to speed right here.
I have been using heart rate monitoring for the last 15 months, the MyZone system to be specific. There’s a lot of benefits to heart rate monitoring, like I mentioned above, and I feel starting with those benefits is a good idea.
Training Zones
Probably one of the best features of being able to objectively measure your heart rate is being able to stay within a certain heart rate zone depending on what training effect you’re trying to elicit. In this particular scenario, I use this mostly for low intensity, steady state work.
Remember, not everything has to be in the 90% heart rate zone for you to improve. Doing aerobic based work in the 60-70% zone for an extended period of time is a great option for recovery work after a big day. Having the objective, real time marker of a heart rate monitor in front of your means you’re not just guessing your intensity and over-doing it when you’re supposed to be in recovery mode.
Safety
Most of the time you’ll be able to spot someone struggling or if it’s you and you feel like puking you won’t need to data to tell you to stop but in some circumstances, you might feel okay but notice your heart rate is pretty high and not recovering as fast as you’d like it too. Depending on the goal of the session, you should perhaps wait until it recovers to an acceptable level before going in to your next set.
Accountability
This one takes a bit of the principles of the two above. Being realistic, you’re not at your best every single day in the gym or on the pitch. Work might have you down and your sleep might be suffering so you’re tired and un-motivated. You know the goals of the session and you also know that if you’re not working as hard as you should be your data will show it. It’s not about trying to impress the coach or others in the room but about being able to look at the data and know that you’re doing your best. If it’s below what it should be you know you have more in you.
Gamification
This is a great tool for motivation during training and long-term enjoyment of training. Gamification refers to different challenges you can set based on heart rate. MyZone gives you points based your heart rate per session and it’s a great way to set challenges for the other members using it. It creates a unique atmosphere within sessions while also providing people with some healthy competition.
They are probably all my favorite aspects of using a heart rate monitor in the general setting, does it have other, more specific functions? Of course, it does. But that’s the best points in my eyes.
Is heart rate monitoring a magic tool and the answer to all training’s problems? No. It brings some complications and be often prioritized as a major point of emphasis when it shouldn’t be.
All Out of Nothing
There are some facilities with coaches who do not understand heart rate training but have jumped on and bought a system to use it as a selling point for memberships. To make progress you do not need to be training at your max heart rate possible every single session, that’s not healthy. Anyone who thinks you should spend 60 minutes above 90% of your max HR is whack and you need to get out of there.
Hygiene
There are also some facilities that have a HR system and only a certain number of belts. These belts are owned by the facility, not the members. To me, this isn’t very hygienic, even if they clean the belts regularly, I would still want to have my own, personal one. Not one that 100 different others have sweated in.
On that point also, this method of utilizing a HR system is not very accurate. Monitors can take some time to adjust to a certain person’s own HR and how their heart responds to training. It can take several sessions to calculate an accurate max and averages. If you’re constantly using different ones with others your data won’t be accurate.
To sum everything up, do you need a HR monitor to train effectively? No. People have been fit and healthy and doing amazing training for hundreds of years before this technology came about. Does it help with certain aspects? Yes. I enjoy being able to see my HR data and adjust intensities based off it, but I also take a mental note of how I’m feeling that day and how my body is, so it’s not purely the HR data because it doesn’t tell the whole story. It is and always has been one piece of the puzzle, not the answer.
Hopefully this helps some of you who have questions over heart rate training and what it’s benefits are. Just remember it’s not the be all and end all and don’t be afraid to ask your facility questions over why they use it.
See you next week,
Rory.