Heart Rate Training: Get the Most Out of Your Efforts Part I

Heart Rate Training Zones: A convenient method to
maximize the effectiveness and results of exercise routines.

By Dr. Steven Acocella
Fellow - American College of Lifestyle Physicians
Diplomate – American Clinical Board of Nutrition

June 5, 2008

In disease free individuals resting pulse rates reflect our current state of fitness. Being aware of our pulse rate can help us avoid injury when beginning an exercise regime, measure the effectiveness of various exercise routines and determine if we are under or over training. By monitoring our heart rate throughout an exercise session we can adjust our efforts in real time so that we achieve our desired results and goals. Using our heart rate as a guide we can specifically focus on improving cardiovascular health, maximizing body fat reduction, improving stamina and endurance or build lean-muscle mass. As we become more fit, plotting our resting heart rate over a period of time on a graph will demonstrate our progress as clearly as fitting into those skinny jeans again!

Heart rate training is based upon a key anchor point, our maximum heart rate (MHR). From our MHR we derive heart rate training zones. As we will see later, these zones help us target the results we want and achieve those goals from our efforts. There are 3 ways to determine what our individual MHR is, a strictly mathematical formula based on age or by measuring our heart rate during actual exercise. There are 2 methods that use our ‘perceived level of exertion’ (how we feel) during actual exercise. I prefer these exertion-based methods of capturing MHR as they better reflect individual fitness level and ability. However, a resent study reviewed some 50 different mathematical MHR formulas and identified the most reliable and accurate calculation method. The study found that the maximum heart rates obtained using this formula varied only fractionally when compared to exercise derived MHR’s in the same subjects. Certainly, for the average fitness enthusiast, both methods are useful and valid. I will present the mathematical and exercise derived methods in this article.

There are two ways to obtain your pulse, manually by feel or by using a heart rate monitor. Heart rate monitors use a transmitter housed in a chest strap worn during exercise; this device detects the heart’s electrical activity and then send this information to a receiver, usually housed in a wrist watch which displays heart rate and other data. Once only available to professional athletes, personal heart rate monitors are quite inexpensive and accessible to most of us weekend warriors. If you shop for a monitor I recommend you find one with a built in “Fit Test”, a program to calculate your heart rate zones via a guided exercise routine. Many home and most club gym exercise machines have heart rate monitor receivers built right into them. If you have access to these machines you may only need to purchase the chest strap. Some machines with built-in receivers even adjust the workout intensity automatically based upon the user’s target heart rate zones!

If you don’t have a monitor here are a few tips on taking your pulse directly. You can take your pulse on the underside of your wrist on the thumb side using your 1st and 2nd fingers (never use your thumb to take a pulse). Or, some prefer to take the carotid pulse located on the front side of your neck about 1/3 of the way down and about an inch on either side of center. Practice locating your pulse. Once you’re good at finding and feeling the pulsing blood vessel, use a second hand watch and count the pulses for 60 seconds, this is your current heart rate. Once you’re proficient you can count the pulse for 30 seconds and simply double the number. Be sure to master pulse taking before you need to do it during a heart rate test or when exercising.

Firstly, let’s determine your MHR mathematically. Simply plug your age into this equation:
MHR = 205.8 – (0.685 x AGE)

For example, the MHR for a 45 year old is:

MHR = 205.8 – (0.685 x 45) = 175 Beats per Minute

Now let’s look at the methods that use exercise to capture MHR. The first method, known as the Sub-Maximal HR Test is useful for people that are just beginning an exercise program, recovering from an injury, medical procedure or anyone not in good enough shape to push themselves to their absolute limit. This method instead derives MHR by estimating or extrapolating from a heart rate obtained from a less than all out effort. This test is most accurate when supervised by a professional but an average test is still quite useful.

Using walking as the ‘control effort’ - map out a 1 mile course, a ¼ mile track is optimal but not mandatory. Walk briskly (without jogging) pushing yourself into a challenging but comfortable stride. A good rule of thumb is the talk test, i.e., you should be able to maintain a conversation during this level of effort. At about the ¾ mile mark, without stopping, take your pulse. Keep walking and repeat taking your pulse a couple more times during the last quarter mile. If there is more than a few beats difference in each heart rate simply add them together and take the average to obtain a more accurate number. If you are using a heart rate monitor simply note your HR 3 times during the last ¼ mike and take that average. Now that you have your sub-maximal heart rate, add 50 beats per minute (BPM) to that number to calculate your MHR. Again, this is a working ball-park average but it’s still very useful especially for those of us closing the doughnut box and getting off the couch for the first time.

Finally, we’ll look at obtaining a MHR from the Maximal Effort Method. This method should be utilized only by those whom are already fit and in good cardiovascular health. Be forewarned that this method is quite challenging. Choose an activity such as biking, an elliptical machine, treadmill or any aerobic activity in which your body position is upright. I do not recommend recumbent exercises or swimming for the Maximal HR Test as MHR can be sport specific and these activities have the greatest variation.

The Maximal Effort Method test is designed to last about 15 minutes. Begin to exercise and after about a 3 minute warm-up begin to exercise at the level of effort described for the sub-maximal test. Maintain this level for a full 10 minutes. Once you are at this 10 minute mark the fun begins. Over about a minute, accelerate and intensify your effort until you can push no more. You should be at a level of effort that is very uncomfortable and barely sustainable. After pushing yourself at this highly competitive pace for about a minute note the reading on your heart rate monitor or take your pulse (ask a partner to help you by tracking the time for you) while maintaining your pace. It is this pulse rate during this final minute that is your MHR. Once you have obtained it you can then slow down, cool down and then fall down!

So, now that you have obtained your MHR from the mathematical or effort derived methods we’ll apply this information to get results from our workouts. The broadest application is to define a single target heart rate range to make sure you are getting something out of your workouts. This is a general heart rate range that is required to improve respiratory capacity, cardiovascular health and general overall fitness. This HR range is 60 – 85 percent of our MHR. To find your range simply calculate these 2 numbers:

Lower limit of Heart Rate Range = MHR X .60
Upper Limit of Heart Rate Range = MHR X .85

So, our 45 year old with a MHR of 175 BPM would have a beneficial heart rate training range of 105 BPM – 149 BPM (175 X .60 and 175 X .85).

Sat. Jun 7, 9:46am

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