Mark’s Daily Apple

Rates and Zones and Hearts and Things

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Relax.

Lub-DUB, Lub-DUB. Lub-DUB, Lub-DUB.

Listen closely.

Lub-DUB, Lub-DUB.

That is the sound of your heart gently beating.

What an amazing machine. This involuntary muscle rhythmically thumps more than 10,000 times a day without you even giving it a passing thought. That works out to about 2.5 billion continuous beats in an average human life span.

What a nice sound. Lub-DUB, Lub-DUB. The sound of life.

Now get up out of your chair and go for a jog. Lub-DUB starts sounding more like bam-BUMP. Before you know it you’ve got what sounds like the percussion section of a marching band banging away in your chest. Have a nice run!

Chiceaux Flickr Photo (CC)

You’re back? Already? I’ll tell you why.

As you got up out of your chair, began walking briskly, and then proceeded to step up the intensity, your heart responded accordingly. You may have gone from a resting heart rate of about 70 beats per minute up past the century mark without a hiccup. But when your jog turned into a run, and your run into a full out sprint your heart passed the piddly warm-up range and headed straight for the roof – aka your max heart rate. You over did it. What is wrong with working out near your max heart rate? Well, nothing if you are into agony and torture, and don’t want to work out for more than 12 seconds. (Admittedly though, sometimes this is the idea. Exercise, like life, is highly nuanced.) Working out at or near your maximum heart rate is something we will leave to elite athletes looking to increase their fast twitch muscle fibers. For the rest of us there is a better place to be.

(Cue celebratory horns and introductory chimes)

Life as Art Flickr Photo (CC)

(Allow the cute baby blowing the odd horn to set the stage for the ensuing drama)

Wait for it!

The Target Heart Rate Zone!

Sort of anti-climactic, wasn’t it? It wasn’t nearly as grandiose a title as I was hoping to deliver. Nevertheless, your target heart rate zone is special. It represents the intensity that will ensure you are getting the most out of your workout. While target heart rate zones differ depending on age and level of fitness a good guideline is to exercise between 60 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. This is the prime range for burning fat and improving your aerobic capacity. It keeps your heart rate elevated so that you are bound to see physical improvements, but low enough to minimize the risk of injury and keep you out of the “red line” anaerobic activity.

There are a number of ways to determine your max heart rate which is needed to determine your target heart rate zone. The old (and easier) way was to subtract your age from 220. This would give you a theoretical max heart rate. Much has changed since then as we now know that there is a great deal of variation among individuals. The best way to determine your own individual max heart rate is by doing a series of short workout bursts; either running or cycling. Start with a 10 minute warm-up run/ride. Then do 3 minutes at 75% guesstimate effort, 3 minutes at 40% effort, 2 minutes at 80%, 2 minutes at 40%, 1 minute at 90%, 1 minute at 40% and then do an all out 45 second sprint. Go as hard as you can. Your heart rate at the end should give you your max heart rate. This method is best done using a heart rate monitor. And by golly I know where you can enter to win one for free.

Only do this if you are fairly fit to begin with. If not, then just use 220 minus your age as the starting maximum heart rate. Now that you have your max heart rate multiply this number by .6 and by .8 to determine the zone of beats per minute you should target. Train in this zone to keep your heart Lub-DUBBING for many years to come.

For more information on building a workout regimen around your heart rate check out these resources:

Wikipedia Heart Rate

Simple Target Heart Rate Range Calculator

Training Zones

More Training Zones

Heart Rate Training with Heart Rate Monitors

Further reading:

Most Popular Posts at MDA 

Technorati Tags: heart rate, training, heart rate training zone, target heart rate zone, exercise, heart

Posted under: Fitness, Health, Health Challenges, How To, Personal Improvement

7 comments

1. terry:
   
2. August 15th, 2007 at 7:24 pm

   Its never ceases to amaze me that involuntary mechanisms exist in the human body, especially such an important one. Very informative!

3. Sara:
   
4. August 15th, 2007 at 7:52 pm

   Thanks so much for clearing this up, Aaron! I always wondered!

5. Oxybeles:
   
6. August 16th, 2007 at 9:57 am

   Thank for the important safety tip. Didn’t seem to matter when I was in the teens through thirties, but now it sincerely is imperative to bear this in mind whilst exercising.

7. Mark Sisson:
   
8. August 16th, 2007 at 12:39 pm

   Great work, A.

   Easy to feel invincible when you’re young…it catches up!

9. terry:
   
10. August 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm

    And the human body has an amazing capacity to heal itself.

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