Heart Rate TrainingThe Power of Heart Rate - Heart Zones™ Training
This fitness revolution started with basic questions. Am I wasting my time? Was my workout effective? Should I buy a heart rate monitor or another pair of shoes? What do the heart rate numbers mean anyway? All these questions, which lead to choices, fill our heads as we assess the value of spending our time and money in the gym, on the bike, out for a run/walk, getting off the couch or just finding time to exercise in our hectic day. What is the rate of return on our investment – the ROI?
With a heart rate monitor and the knowledge of Heart Zones™ Training - you can determine your current fitness level and a solid way to measure your fitness improvement. The Heart Zones™ Training system teaches how to use a heart-rate monitor to assess fitness, monitor stress, motivate you through a workout, manage your fat burning potential, and organize your workouts to achieve your goals. Heart Zones™ Training is a completely personalized exercise program that works for anyone, of any age, of any current fitness level, performing any activities. It works for a 20-year-old professional athlete, a 70-year-old wanting to improve health, a 30-year-old who has never been fit, a 55-year-old fighting fat, or a 40-year-old who has become sedentary. Heart Zones™ Training is based on science, research, experience, and the precept that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits all training program. To be effective, exercise must be tailored to fit each of us. Heart Zones will be based on your physiology, and each heart beat will have meaning in the context of a safe and effective exercise program. How do your start with Heart Zones™ Training and a heart rate monitor?
The first step is easy. Start by observing your heart rate in many situations - hugging a friend, talking on the phone, driving in traffic, eating chocolate, listening to music, cycling in class. The change in your heart rate is a reflection of immediate stressors that affect you throughout the day. The second step - Ambient Heart Rate. Sit and relax for a couple minutes. Then, look at your heart rate monitor. In a sedentary position, your heart is beating at a rate called the ambient heart rate. Your ambient heart rate is a key indicator of both the physical and emotional stresses in your daily life. Your ambient heart rate is affected by internal and external factors: altitude, temperature, some medications, caffeine, some foods, even a compromised immune system. The third step - Move. What do the numbers mean when I’m in cycle class, run, and box or do yoga? This question is best answered in a full day Heart Zones™ Training seminar with a certified Heart Zones™ trainer. But let’s give you a preview to the answer. To train with a heart rate monitor, you must first know your maximum heart rate. Maximum heart rate is the anchor point to set your individual zones. It’s time to bust the myth. Maximum heart rate is not determined with a formula. That's right: 220 - age is not equal to Max HR To determine your maximum heart rate, you can perform a sub maximum test. A sub maximum test allows you to evaluate your maximum heart rate with a submaximal effort and then closely estimate your maximum heart rate. Submaximal heart rate tests are outlined in many of the twenty Heart Zones books. One of the most popular training books is The Heart Rate Monitor Guidebook, authored by Sally Edwards. The fourth step - Zones. Once you have identified your maximum heart rate, your anchor point, you will set five zones. A zone is a range of heartbeats. Hundreds of articles have demonstrated the powerful benefits from exercising using your heart’s beat to train in different heart zones on different days to get different benefits. The best way to train with Zones is with Heart Zones Training™. Wow- now you are getting it. There is value in your exercise when you use a heart rate monitor. In fact, you have already started the fifth step—training. The fifth step - Training:
Interested in learning the power of the Heart Zones™ system? Log onto www.heartzones.com, register for a seminar, read a book, select a training program. Start investing in your fitness- use a heart rate monitor with the Heart Zones Training System.
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Using a heart rate monitor coupled with the Heart Zones™ Training
system yield the greatest return on investment “ROI.”
The first step - Observe.
Training is not just exercising. Training is exercising with a system and
a plan in order to achieve a goal. With a heart rate monitor, you have tool
that gives you feedback; with Heart Zones™, you have a system that
gives value- meaning- to the feedback. You have a return on your investment.
All you need is a goal, your goal. Then you are training with heart.
