Top 3 Ways to Get the Most out of a Heart Rate Monitor

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Wearing a heart rate monitor when you exercise has numerous benefits. In a society riddled by confusion about the right ways to exercise, this simple and effective device can literally mean the difference between success and failure!

Basically a heart rate monitor keeps track of your level of exercise intensity by giving you a real-time readout of your actual heart rate during your entire exercise session.

Unlike some of the other methods of tracking your level of intensity, such as manually taking your own pulse (ever tried to do that while exercising?) or keeping track of your level of fatigue, a heart rate monitor gives you a clear and accurate picture of whether or not you are working hard enough to generate results.

There are plenty of reasons why people want to track their heart rate, although just trying to get it higher and higher is not the effect that you are looking for.

Depending on the goal of your workout, being able to track whether or not you are in your Target Heart Rate Zone is more effective than just blind intensity. Detailed below are some methods of using your heart rate monitor to get the most out of each exercise session.

Cardiovascular Training

The most well-known way to use a heart rate monitor is to track your level of intensity whenever you are doing cardiovascular training. Using the well-known formula for determining your Target Heart Rate, you can easily track whether or not you are meeting your goals for that exercise session:

Formula: Your age subtracted from the number 220, multiplied by the exercise intensity that you are after. For example:

220 – 40 = 180. In this case, the individual in question is 40 years old, so their maximum heart rate is 180 beats per minute. Cardiovascular training is normally done in the range of 60% – 85% of your maximum heart rate. For a 40 year old person, that would mean keeping their heart rate between 108 and 153 beats per minute.

By properly monitoring your heart rate during your entire workout, you can tell immediately if you need to step up the pace if you drop below your goal, or if you need to slow down if you are exceeding your goal, or compromising your personal safety limits.

I am 37 years old right now and I've had my heart rate up to 180 beats per minute before. Believe me when I say that is pushing the limits! I do not recommend an inexperienced or out of practice person ever goes that high. By wearing a heart rate monitor, you can make sure that you stay within the safety zone.

In addition to tracking your heart rate during a "standard" cardiovascular training session, you can also use your heart rate monitor to track specialized training sessions that include higher and lower intensity durations. Popularly known as "interval training," these methods are radically successful for both long-term weight loss, as well as a very high level of cardiovascular fitness.

Resistance Training

Resistance training exercises are primarily geared towards strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and not as much emphasis is put on the cardiovascular component. However, there are 2 instances whenever you might want to keep track of your heart rate while you are doing resistance exercises.

Circuit Training

Circuit training is a popular form of resistance exercise whereby you move rapidly from one exercise to the next, allowing very little time for rest in between exercises. Although not a "cardiovascular workout" per say, keeping your heart rate at a moderately elevated level is one of the goals.

By wearing your heart rate monitor during your circuit training session, you can make sure that your heart rate stays within the prescribed zone for that workout, and that it never goes significantly higher or lower than that level.

Safety Zone

Most standard resistance training sessions (not circuit-based) are all about the muscles and other bodily tissues that are used during the workout. Keeping your heart rate up is not a primary goal during those types of workout sessions.

However, even though you are not keeping your heart rate at an elevated level for extended periods of time, your heart can – and often does – peak momentarily at the height of fatigue when doing certain movements.

Depending on your level of cardiovascular fitness, staying at those peaked levels for an extended period of time could be dangerous.

Say, for instance, that you were recovering from a heart attack and a moderate intensity resistance and cardiovascular training program was prescribed as part of your rehabilitation. In a case like that, monitoring your heart rate during resistance training as well as cardiovascular training could literally mean the difference between a rehabilitated heart or another heart attack.

Freedom of Movement

One of the lesser-known benefits of wearing a heart rate monitor is that it gives you complete freedom of movement whenever you are exercising.

Speaking specifically of cardiovascular training that utilizes the standard type of equipment found in a gym, tracking your heart rate using that equipment usually means that you have to have your hands in a very specific position in order to get the measurement.

That means that you are hanging on to the machine while you are taking the reading, which also means that you are resting. Depending on the type of cardiovascular training equipment that you are on, holding on to the machine can make a drastic difference in the effectiveness of the exercise. 

If you are wearing a heart rate monitor that includes a chest strap, as many popular models do, the machine that you are on will usually pick up your heart rate from the chest strap and constantly display it on the machine. Even if you aren't touching the machine with your hands, you will still get an accurate reading.

Also, if you are a runner, most treadmills will give you very inaccurate results if you try to hold on to the heart rate measurement handles while you are running. It is difficult to stay still enough for an accurate measurement, especially if you are running at a decent rate of speed.

In addition to the difficulty of getting an accurate heart rate reading while trying to hold on to the machine, you would also have to hold on for the entire workout if you wanted to constantly track your heart rate. By wearing your chest strap, the machine will monitor and record your heart rate not only more accurately, but during the entire exercise session, not just when you are touching the equipment.

Conclusion

Overall, a heart rate monitor can be a very useful part of any exercise and weight loss program. A lack of proper intensity is one of the top reasons why people do not see success from their exercise programs. By wearing a heart rate monitor, you can ensure that you do not "cheat" and allow yourself to drop below the intensity level that is needed to attain both short and long-term results!

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