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How hard are you training?
Another increasingly popular practice is to use a heart monitor to assess the overall intensity of a training 'cycle' (which often turns out to be about a week of training). There are various ways to do this, including the unique 'Banister Plan' developed by exercise physiologist Eric Banister at the University of British Columbia in Canada

To use the Banister system, you simply determine your average heart rate during each workout. From your average workout heart rate, you subtract your resting heart rate to obtain a number we'll call 'A'. The rest is quite easy. From your maximum heart rate, you subtract your resting heart rate to obtain a second number - 'B'. Finally, you divide A by B and multiply the result by the length (in minutes) of your workout

Here's a specific example: Let's say that Wilma rides her bicycle for 30 minutes at a heart rate of 150. Her resting heart rate is 50, so A = 150 - 50 = 100

Wilma's max heart rate is 200, so B = 200 - 50 = 150. A/B = 100/150 = .67, the relative intensity of her workout. .67 X 30 minutes = 20.1, the overall value of her training session

If you've been following along closely, you'll note what a logical way this is to determine your workout value. The number 'A' is simply a measure of how far you climb above your resting heart rate during a workout, and the number 'B' is an assessment of how far above the resting rate you could go if your workout were truly maximal. That means that dividing A by B automatically calculates the intensity of your workout, or - more specifically - how close you are to working full-tilt during your effort

If A and B are identical, it means that you're at maximal heart rate throughout your session - you're working as hard as you possibly can. On the other hand, if you barely climb above resting heart rate during your training session, A will be a very small number and the workout will have a low value - unless you train for many hours. Multiplying A/B by the number of minutes in your workout simply allows you to reckon the overall impact (value) of the session - and to compare one workout with another. In Wilma's case, for example, 23 minutes of cycling with a heart rate of 180 will have about the same value as 30 minutes at a heart rate of 150 (figure it out!)

A new system created by German scientists keeps track of training stress in a different way: their system simply counts the total number of heart beats in a 24-hour period. The thinking is that the quantity of beats indicates the total amount of stress an athlete is experiencing, including both the stress of physical training and stress from other sources. The Germans reckon that, at least with elite athletes, a hard day has more than 105,000 beats (they must be working with athletes with low pulse rates, because that's an average of just 73 beats per minute), a moderate day has around 85,000 beats, and an off day would feature just 72,000 ticks

Of course, those are somewhat arbitrary numbers; one can imagine that some 100,000-beat days might be pretty serene (you could get to 100,000 just by taking a long, rejuvenating walk at the beach, for example). Also, there will be a lot of variation from person to person; a given number of heart beats might be nothing for one athlete but a huge load for another

But a bigger problem is that the heart-rate counting systems - including both the Banister and German programmes - do not take into account the specificity of training needed for a particular event. For example, let's say that two runners, Joe and Joanne, have equal resting and max heart rates, can run the 5K in about 19 minutes, and hope to set new PBs of 18:36 (six-minute per mile pace) in the near future. However, Joe and Joanne develop completely different training plans. Believing that high mileage is the answer, Joe trains for 600 minutes per week at a modest average heart rate of 140 beats per minute. Convinced that high intensity will help her run faster 5Ks, Joanne cuts back on her volume of training but raises her average running speed, ending up with just 120 minutes of training per week at an average heart rate of 170. A large share of Joanne's mileage is completed at around six-minute per mile tempo - the exact velocity she'll need to set her PB, while the bulk of Joe's work consists of tortoise-like trotting

According to the Banister - or any - heartbeat-counting system, Joe is training 'better' (he is doing more total work, with 84,000 heart beats worth of training per week, versus just 20,400 beats for Joanne). However, Joanne is much more likely to run a faster 5K. She is focussing on the specific pace she needs for her new PB, while Joe's mega-mileage is not necessary for - nor specific to - 5-K racing

The key pitfall associated with using a heart monitor to classify the intensity of your workouts and assess the overall difficulty of your training is that it can place the heart on too high a pedestal. Learning to cycle or run at a goal velocity is often ignored. In addition, your heart rate during certain types of workouts - hill repetitions or high-speed, short-distance intervals, for example - is irrelevant, so you shouldn't even be worrying about it! Likewise, you don't need heart rate to plan VO2max-building workouts; you can simply use your current 5-K pace (or, for cyclists, 95 per cent of the velocity you could sustain for only 12 minutes). And, as mentioned above, utilising heart rate is a notoriously inaccurate way to try to lift lactate threshold, unless you have a lactate analyser and can determine precise blood-lactate concentrations at different heart rates. Even then, cardiac drift and changes in psychological state and environmental conditions will 'uncouple' lactate threshold from a chosen heart rate

What monitors are good for
I've been pretty hard on heart-rate monitors so far, but that doesn't mean I think they're worthless. In fact, one of my favourite training sessions, which I call a '171' workout, is carried out with a heart monitor. In this session, which I use to build endurance after a layoff period (and which I utilise when I'm not preparing for a specific race), I simply try to exercise at 90 per cent of maximal heart rate for 60 minutes or so. Since my max heart rate is 191, this turns out to be 171 beats per minute (hence the name 171). Recognising cardiac drift, I let heart rate inch up to 178 or so without concern in the latter part of the session. I don't worry at all about actual speed of movement but just try to work hard and keep heart rate up. The lack of concern about velocity lets me really relax and focus on form, and when the 60 minutes are over, I've had a great workout. Other athletes successfully use monitors to prevent themselves from exercising too intensely during easy workouts, setting their upper limit at 70 to 75 per cent of maximum or so

I never bother to use a heart rate monitor when I engage in cross training (I know that my heart gets enough of a stimulus to improve from my usual running workouts, so I don't worry when I climb aboard a bike), but heart-monitor usage during alternative activities raises an interesting point: your max heart rate when you do something other than running will usually be lower than your maximal running heart rate. In fact, it's often 5 to 6 per cent lower. For me, that would mean that my max heart rate on the bike would be about 181, not 191, and a 90 per cent of max session would put me at 162, not 171. In fact, trying to get to 171 might actually induce quick, excessive fatigue and shorten the overall exertion

How to work out your max
If you want to actually reckon your max heart rate on the bike, it's easy: simply warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy pedalling, and then ride 'full-blast' at nearly maximal power output (while maintaining an optimal rpm of 90 to 95 or so) for two minutes. 'Spin' easily against little resistance for 60 to 75 seconds, and then pedal at maximal capacity for two more minutes. Your heart rate should almost 'top out' after this second two-minute surge (make sure you get your doctor's permission before you try this, however). To determine max heart rate while running, warm up and then run 800 metres nearly full-blast, jog easily for one minute, and then run 800 metres at top speed. You should reach max at the end of the second 800 (again, get your doctor's permission before trying)

The bottom line - or rather the bottom lines? If you can avoid the pitfalls associated with heart-monitor training, using a heart monitor can be enjoyable and helpful, but bear in mind that even if you use your heart monitor to classify all your workouts as hard, moderate, or easy - and even after your monitor has told you whether you've had a hard or easy day, week, or month, your monitor can never tell you how you should be training. Your monitor is only a device which collects data; it's not a programme planner

And the information your heart monitor collects refers specifically only to your heart; it doesn't tell you whether your leg muscles are really ready to handle the rigours of your goal speed: only training at a specific pace can do that.
Owen Anderson

Heart Rate Monitor Reviews

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