Among the many gym machines available today, one of the most effective is also one of the least understood. However, a heart and breathing monitor is not a complicated device. In fact, putting a calculated answer right in front of your eyes does not hamper a practical, but essential, formula. That way, you can achieve your fitness goals more quickly and safely.
Although your heart rate can be calculated manually during a workout, there are some problems if you do it yourself. Fitness advocates suggest two methods of self-measuring heart rate, each with its own complications:
- The “perceived effort” method requires you to assess the level of your activity using a “conversation test”. In other words, at different stages of your training, you need to measure your effort with the ease with which you can say a complete sentence. It goes like this: if you can leave a chain of statements or continue a long conversation with yourself, you are probably not working enough. On the other hand, if you blow and blow in the middle of this sentence, you are probably working too hard. Although it is the easiest to implement, there are two difficulties that make this heart rate measurement strategy difficult: 1) You really need to remember to run the test at different stages of your training to distract you from the task in question; and 2) the perception of effort is in the eyes of the viewer, which means that human error is likely. That is, what a beginner perceives as heavy breathing can only be moderated by an expert.
- The mathematical method requires the insertion of certain values in the following formulas: (220 – your age) * 0.60 = your minimum target heart rate and (220 – your age) * 0.80 = your maximum target heart rate. For optimal benefit and safety, your heart rate should be between these two numbers during periods of continuous exercise. The obvious dilemma with this method of heart and breathing monitoring is that the brain is needed. (Who can think if they focus on movement ?!) The underlying difficulty is that you need to count your own heart rate while you are active, another task that is at risk of human error.
A heart rate monitor eliminates all of these error limits by placing traces and calculations in the hands of an electronic device. Simply follow the instructions that came with your heart rate monitor to determine your target heart rate, then use the monitor for all strenuous activities. The instructor takes care of all the details – think of it as your fitness minicomputer.
Regular use of a healthy heart rate monitor offers the following benefits:
• It is easy to use (just plug in) and very accurate (much more than counting your own pulse).
• You can focus on movement and not logistics.
• You can see how your fitness level increases. If your heart rate drops during an equivalent exercise, your stamina increases.
• Avoids excessive or insufficient training. By monitoring your heart rate, you can speed up or decrease your intensity so that it stays within your target range.
• A heart and breathing monitor allows you to accelerate yourself – especially important for resistance participants, such as marathon runners and triathletes.