Why you need a heart monitor.

I've been meaning to write this for a while.  I've been pretty busy but seeing as how the new year has begun & a drove of people are invading gyms everywhere, I thought I'd write about heart monitors.

Stay with me.  I know you're thinking you just want to lose a little weight, and you just don't need such gadgetry.  Or maybe you're taking baby steps & a heart monitor seems like an unnecessary leap into something that might not aid you in reaching your goal.

There are many benefits to using a heart rate monitor during exercise.  It allows you to see whether you are not working intensely enough or if you're working TOO intensely to where it's counter productive.  It also allows you to determine what "zone" you want to stay in.  More about that in a bit.

But let's move on for now....

The amount of calories you put into your body and the amount of energy you use up on your activities will determine your body weight. Therefore, balancing your calorie input with your energy output helps maintain your weight; adjusting your energy output with your calorie input will help you achieve your desired weight. Simply remember that when you take more calories than you need to perform your day's activities, your body stores the extra calories and you gain weight. On the other hand, you lose weight if your body uses your stored calories when you take less calories than you use. This concept is no secret!

 
So now we know that if you are gaining/storing fat, you are eating more calories than your body is able to burn, right?

& we know weight is lost when caloric intake (calories in ingest) is less than caloric output(burn via exercise).

A good weight loss strategy is to reduce daily caloric intake by 500 calories. Though you can lose weight by simply reducing calories, a combination of increased physical activity and calorie reduction will bring quicker results.

But how do you GET that information?

Well, you need to know, at least roughly, how many calories you're taking in.  Now don't go running off on me just yet.  The truth is that it's not time consuming to do this.  My favorite site to use is www.livestrong.com & there's even an app if you have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch.  Just punch in what you ate and walah! 

But now you need to know how many calories you've burned!  In comes the heart monitor.  Once you've established your Target Heart Rate, it's as simple as putting on a watch and that's it.  Punch that in into Livestrong.Com (free!!)  & it'll show you what you need to change, how you're doing, your progress and you can even input your own meals in there so you know how many calories a serving has.


There are a few key words I want you to understand before we begin:

Resting Heart Rate -  (RH) is how many beats per minute your heart beats while at complete rest, like in the morning while you're awake in bed, before getting up.

Maximum Heart Rate - is the level, or heart beats per minute, that must never be exceeded.  This is determined by your age with the following equation, 220 - Age = Maximum Heart Rate. 

I am 27 years old so 220-27=193.  When I do cardio, I am between 165-175, so knowing your heart rate when you're exercising is important for your health. You do NOT want to go over your MHR.

Target Heart Rate - is the heart rate range that you should try to maintain during exercise.


And before you ask, "but how do I know what my Target Heart Rate is?", I'm going to link you to a great step-by-step guide that will show you how here --->  http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Your-Target-Heart-Rate

Recovery Heart Rate - is also important to know because you want to know your heart is recovering at a steady pace. Your heart rate should be below 120 after 2-5 minutes after exercise has stopped. If your heart rate is still high, you didn't cool down well enough or a low fitness level may be the cause.


Zones
ASSUMING you now know your THR, let's talk about those "zones" again.  Using the information you've calculated, you now want to pick a zone to work in and try to maintain your heart rate at that level.

Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate: The easiest zone and probably the best zone for people just starting a fitness program. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!

Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%.

Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.

Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate: Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability, which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.

Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.

(The link I provided above will help with this.  Don't let is overwhelm you.  Take it one step at a time and you can't get lost.  If you do, feel free to message/comment on Alegria Fitness and I will try to help as much as I can.)



Look, I remember what it was like to read about all this when I first started.  I put it off for a long time, thinking it just wasn't necessary.  Then I spent time researching and really taking the time to just understand it.  I assure you, it's worth it.

HIIT

Are you wondering what this "HIIT" I rave about is?

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training & it's THE way, THE WAY, to lose fat.  I absolutely love it.

Basically, what you do, (after you warm up, of course) that you work ANAEROBICALLY for a short burst and then have an active recovery period. Generally speaking, you may sprint for 30 seconds and then jog or walk for 1 minute. You would repeat this workout routine numerous times for the best effect.

Anaerobic literally means "without oxygen" so when I say you work anaerobically, I mean you're are GOING AS FAST AS YOU CAN GO.  I want you sucking wind by the end of the 30 seconds, kid!!

If you're NOT sucking wind, you just worked aerobically. Still good, NOT the purpose of HIIT, however.  Still, if you're new to HIIT, it's understandable that you start slower.  I actually don't run as much as I used to but I did go a few weeks ago after having gone without running for, uh, a good while.  I was worried.  But the wonderful bonus about HIIT is that it builds your endurance and your cardiovascular strenght so I actually ran faster and longer than I had before. 

So WHY anaerobically??  Ben Greenfield of "Quick and Dirty Tips" explains it like this:

“When you exercise, your body uses oxygen to create energy. But when you reach a high intensity during exercise, your body’s demand for oxygen exceeds your ability to breathe in that much oxygen and deliver it to the muscles. When this happens, your body goes into an “oxygen debt.” Once you go into oxygen debt, not only do your muscles begin to burn and you begin to breathe hard, but you also put your body into a state where it needs to “repay” that oxygen debt after exercise….when you breathe more and breathe deeper, your body burns more calories. Depending on how hard you’ve worked, this oxygen repaying can help you burn anywhere from a few dozen to over a hundred extra calories each hour after you exercise, for up to 24 hours after you’ve finished!”


Imagine having that afterburn effect where your metabolism is working fast and your burning mega amounts of fat for 24 hours after a HIIT!  Wow.  Amazing because your average HIIT workout is between 15-30 minutes long.

I do want to mention, however, that you DO NOT do HIIT every single day.  You'll over train and you'll be more prone to injury.  Please stretch afterwards for 5-10 minutes and keep your stretching to a minimum BEFORE you begin.  Warm-up, though.

Some people like to do 30 seconds of HIIT workout then actively rest.

Others, like me, like to do several HIIT's in 45 seconds then rest for 60 seconds.

Research and play around with it.  Do what you prefer but keep it challenging.

A sample HIIT of what I do is this:

SPRINT - 8 counts/seconds
JUMPING JACKS - 4 counts/sec.
BURPEES - 4 cnt/sec.
SPRINT - 8 cnt/sec.
KNEE TUCK JUMPS - 6 cnt/sec.
SPRINT - 8 cnt/sec
MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS - 8 cnt/sec.

ACTIVELY REST - 60 seconds

REPEAT.

Now you can repeat the above HIIT workout one more time, twice, as many times as you want.  I'd say 3 times.  Then do a different HIIT workout, repeat 3 times.  You can either finish there or do yet another HIIT workout, repeat 3 times. 

I put 8 counts OR seconds because while you need to go as fast as you possibly can, it's not going to take the exact amount of seconds to do several counts.  Challenge yourself but be aware of what your body (NOT MIND!) is telling you.  So if I say "Sprint, 8 counts", I literally mean, "Count 1-2-3-4-5-6--7-8", & NEXT.

Always remember to keep good form/technique.  You don't want to hurt yourself.

Again, finish up by stretching.  I can't stress that enough.  I also want to recommend you buy, wear and utilize a heart monitor so you know how many calories you've burned.

I hope this blog helps y'all out if you've been wondering about HIIT.  If you've got any questions, please post here or on my facebook, Alegria Fitness. 



*Always consult your physician before starting a new workout program.