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I push myself harder with this routine and I'm really starting to like it. I generally run on a treadmill. Right at the end of my last interval yesterday, I checked my heart rate using the treadmill's built-in heart rate sensor. I was pushing 193 for a couple seconds! The internet tells me that the max heart rate possible should be 220 minus my age: 25 years old.
First off how accurate are built-in heart rate sensors? Secondly, if my heart rate really was that high, could I be causing damage to my heart? I was out of breath and sweating hard but I wasn't dieing or anything. No pains or wooziness. It actually felt pretty good; like I got a solid workout.
Background: I'm relatively healthy but could lose around 10 pounds. I was in great shape for a while and was forced to cut back my gym activity for about 8 months recently. During that time I still ran 3-5 miles once or twice a week. Resting heart rate is 56 right now.
What you want to attain when performing cardio exercise is your target heartrate, not your maximum heartrate, which is usually constured to be 220 minues your age.
Your target heartrate (THR) shold be 75-80% of that maximum number.
So, for you, around 160 bpm.
That is the HR you want to achieve for 30 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week when starting-out.
After a few weeks at that, you can bump up your time-spent exercising a bit.
Short of training for some important, upcoming event like a professionaly or amateur athlete would, say, an Ironman comp or even a marathon, there is really no need for someone who just wants to get fit to ever keep a sustained HR of more than 80% of his max.
And, no, those HR monitors on treadmills are notoriously sketchy.
A far more accurate method of measuriing your HR is to take your pulse at either your inside wrist of jugular vein on your kneck. You'll need a watch. Count it for twenty seconds and then multiply by three.
I've noticed that the heart rate monitors on the machines aren't very accurate. They tend to be on the higher side for heart rate and calories burned. I would suggest you buy a heart rate monitor which comes with a strap. I wear one when I workout and it's a more accurate gauge of fitness. I don't know how accurate that 220 - age is either, because I'm 36 and I've gotten my heart rate up to 183 for a few seconds at the end of sprint intervals.
So is the point of intervals to push yourself all out (somewhere near max heart rate) during the work period, or just to get to 80% of your max heart rate? I like to push myself and if I'm not gassed and sweating after 30 minutes I feel like I should have pushed a little harder. I feel like limiting myself to 80% would drastically decrease the quality of my workouts.
I just try to make myself a little uncomfortable when I'm working out. Sure I could get on the elliptical or walk, and I do sometimes, but I just have to have a little pain.
5 min mile pace for 1 min
30 second walk
Repeat about 8 times
So is the point of intervals to push yourself all out (somewhere near max heart rate) during the work period, or just to get to 80% of your max heart rate? I like to push myself and if I'm not gassed and sweating after 30 minutes I feel like I should have pushed a little harder. I feel like limiting myself to 80% would drastically decrease the quality of my workouts.
Garfunkle
Everything you do must have a purpose. Don't blindly begin doing intervals. For the relatively untrained individual your Anaerobic Threshold (AT) level will be around 80% of max HR, Elites 88-92%. Then I would agree with you. You can increase your max HR through aerobic and anaerobic training. Ironically, your resting HR will also decrease as your stroke volume becomes stronger. If your goal is weight loss, you need to stay in the aerobic fat burning zone (60-75ish%). If you desire to get faster you will have to increase the aerobic training with stints of anaerobic work. As I tell everyone though, the harder you train the harder you have to recover! Don't be a hero on that treadmill. I would encourage you to take a long term progressive outlook on any of your athletic/ health oriented goals.
PS: Not a huge fan of treadmills, because of the "pulling" motion rather than the "pushing" motion you get while running/ walking. As far as the HR stuff, every machine is going to be slightly different. I do feel that Garmin/ Polar are reputable resources in the HR industry if you are really wanting to track it.
I push myself harder with this routine and I'm really starting to like it. I generally run on a treadmill. Right at the end of my last interval yesterday, I checked my heart rate using the treadmill's built-in heart rate sensor. I was pushing 193 for a couple seconds! The internet tells me that the max heart rate possible should be 220 minus my age: 25 years old.
First off how accurate are built-in heart rate sensors? Secondly, if my heart rate really was that high, could I be causing damage to my heart? I was out of breath and sweating hard but I wasn't dieing or anything. No pains or wooziness. It actually felt pretty good; like I got a solid workout.
Background: I'm relatively healthy but could lose around 10 pounds. I was in great shape for a while and was forced to cut back my gym activity for about 8 months recently. During that time I still ran 3-5 miles once or twice a week. Resting heart rate is 56 right now.
I have run with heart rate monitors for about 18 years. The max heart rate guides are just approximations. Calculating your max HR is not easy to do. I hit my highest heart rates at the end of 5K races when I was running as hard as I possibly could. Temperature and humidity also affect your max HR.
I have trouble using the the built-in heart rate sensors that you have to hold on treadmills. I have used my chest strap monitor on a treadmill with a HR sensor and I found them to be accurate.
You are not going to damage your heart by raising your HR to near maximum unless you have some type of heart condition. It doesn't sound like you were anywhere close to your max HR. Be aware that max HRs differ. My wife is not in as good as shape as I am, but her HR routinely goes higher than my max when she is running on a treadmill. You don't really increase your Max HR by getting in better shape. Your resting HR is more of an indicator of your fitness level. As you get in better shape, it will drop. It is not unusual for elite runners to have have resting HRs in the 30s.
Yesterday I tried to do heart rate-based intervals where I had level 2 at 65% of my max and level 3 at 90% of my max. I ended up topping out around 85% and bottoming out (after warm up) at around 70%. This was not on a treadmill but with my perceived effort it felt like the heart rate monitor was more accurate.
I concluded that the model of treadmill in my gym tends to overestimate heart rate by about 20 bpm, which is A LOT! I also found that it's very difficult to get down to 60% of my max heart rate unless I completely stop the exercise for 30 or so seconds. I like to make the most of my cardio workouts so resting is tough for me to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RunningLane
Garfunkle
Everything you do must have a purpose. Don't blindly begin doing intervals. For the relatively untrained individual your Anaerobic Threshold (AT) level will be around 80% of max HR, Elites 88-92%. Then I would agree with you. You can increase your max HR through aerobic and anaerobic training. Ironically, your resting HR will also decrease as your stroke volume becomes stronger. If your goal is weight loss, you need to stay in the aerobic fat burning zone (60-75ish%). If you desire to get faster you will have to increase the aerobic training with stints of anaerobic work. As I tell everyone though, the harder you train the harder you have to recover! Don't be a hero on that treadmill. I would encourage you to take a long term progressive outlook on any of your athletic/ health oriented goals.
Though my goal is weight loss, I prefer to focus on speed and strength conditioning and let the weight take care of itself. I like to focus on things like lifting more weight, doing more pullups, using better form, running faster and farther, etc rather than focusing on the number on the scale. This is why I don't really seek out advice on burning fat and losing weight. I'd rather seek out advice on how to get stronger and faster, then the weight melts off. I do believe I have a reasonably good base to build off of, so my goal is to consistently increase that base. And as much as I try to push myself, I've never had an injury that's gym-related.
The issue with intervals and heart rate monitor is that your heart rate won't stabilize during short intervals. Now if you were doing a 1:00 effort than maybe the HR would be accurate.
Everything you do must have a purpose. Don't blindly begin doing intervals. For the relatively untrained individual your Anaerobic Threshold (AT) level will be around 80% of max HR, Elites 88-92%. Then I would agree with you. You can increase your max HR through aerobic and anaerobic training. Ironically, your resting HR will also decrease as your stroke volume becomes stronger. If your goal is weight loss, you need to stay in the aerobic fat burning zone (60-75ish%). If you desire to get faster you will have to increase the aerobic training with stints of anaerobic work. As I tell everyone though, the harder you train the harder you have to recover! Don't be a hero on that treadmill. I would encourage you to take a long term progressive outlook on any of your athletic/ health oriented goals.
PS: Not a huge fan of treadmills, because of the "pulling" motion rather than the "pushing" motion you get while running/ walking. As far as the HR stuff, every machine is going to be slightly different. I do feel that Garmin/ Polar are reputable resources in the HR industry if you are really wanting to track it.
FB page RunningLane.com
I always based AT level at 85% of max HR. The literature I have read is not clear on whether you can increase max HR. What I found was over years I would occasionally hit a new max HR, but it was based more on heat and humidity, and the ability to push 100%. I don't believe in the idea of a fat burning zone and consider it a complete waste of time.
I agree with the rest of what you are saying. To put it another way, you need to mix easy and hard days. A rule of thumb using a HR monitor is easy days are less than 70% max HR and hard days are greater than 85% of max HR. This is difficult to do because most people want to go out and run somewhere between 70% and 85% of max HR.
I think treadmills have their purpose. They can force you to run at a certain pace for a certain length of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garfunkle524
Yesterday I tried to do heart rate-based intervals where I had level 2 at 65% of my max and level 3 at 90% of my max. I ended up topping out around 85% and bottoming out (after warm up) at around 70%. This was not on a treadmill but with my perceived effort it felt like the heart rate monitor was more accurate.
I concluded that the model of treadmill in my gym tends to overestimate heart rate by about 20 bpm, which is A LOT! I also found that it's very difficult to get down to 60% of my max heart rate unless I completely stop the exercise for 30 or so seconds. I like to make the most of my cardio workouts so resting is tough for me to do.
Though my goal is weight loss, I prefer to focus on speed and strength conditioning and let the weight take care of itself. I like to focus on things like lifting more weight, doing more pullups, using better form, running faster and farther, etc rather than focusing on the number on the scale. This is why I don't really seek out advice on burning fat and losing weight. I'd rather seek out advice on how to get stronger and faster, then the weight melts off. I do believe I have a reasonably good base to build off of, so my goal is to consistently increase that base. And as much as I try to push myself, I've never had an injury that's gym-related.
Why do you think your treadmill is overestimating your HR? I would have to walk to get my HR down to 60% of max HR after a workout like you describe.
I agree with not worrying about the weight loss. People who think they are burning more fat by walking or running slowly are fooling themselves.
If you want to run faster, incorporate three types of runs into your weekly training.
1. Do intervals once a week. Your intervals should be at at a goal pace based on a recent 5K time and last for two to five minutes. Work up to more intervals and shorter recovery times between intervals. There are charts on the internet to find pace times but if you are running a 22:00 5K, your 800M interval pace would be 3:16-3:26.
2. Do a tempo or AT run. This is a minimum 20 minute run at a 7:20-7:36 mile pace (based on a 22:00 5K).
3. Do a long run at 70-75% of max HR. This should be about 8:15-9:32 mile pace. These runs should get increasingly longer but don't increase the distance too quickly. A mile or two a week is probably the max.
All other runs should be easy runs at about 70% max HR. Don't run hard two days in a row.
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