The most important muscle in your body....

Today I received my trophy!! You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about but I recently purchased a Polar FT60 Heart Rate Monitor and I’ve become a little obsessed with it when I exercise. This training computer checks to see where your heart rate is when you start and then gives you a program for the week based on 3 heart rate zones. This past week I had to spend 7 hours and 5 minutes exercising, which allowed me to burn 2800 calories.

So what are the benefits of knowing your target heart rate? Well you can measure your intensity accurately and safely. This can keep you from over or under training. Using a heart rate monitor is scientifically the most accurate method of measuring calories burned during your workout. Sorry but the numbers on the cardio machines aren’t accurate…you probably didn’t burn 400 calories during 30 minutes of walking. Keeping track of your heart rate also allows you to see if you are improving or not. Finally, exercising with a heart rate monitor allows you to really exercise smarter!

So what are these heart rate training zones and how do we find them? It’s best to find out your anaerobic threshold and calculate your maximum heart rate from that number. According to Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, anaerobic threshold is defined “at increasing speeds/intensity levels the point above which the muscles derive their entergy from nonoxygenic rather than oxygenic sources during exercise. The body can only operate above this threshold for a short period of time, such as when sprinting, before lactic acid builds up in the muscles.” Once you find your AT, your maximum heart rate is on average 12-15 beats higher than your AT number. Once you know your maximum heart rate you can calculate each training zone.

Zone 1 – Light zone – 60-70% of your maximum heart rate – this zone is good for weight control and improving your aerobic fitness. In zone 1 fat is the main energy source. Zone 1 is your base and training in this zone helps build endurance.

Zone 2 – Moderate zone – 70-80% of your maximum heart rate – this zone is faster than zone one but uses carbohydrates for an energy source. You are still aerobic in this zone and training in zone 2 helps improve your cardiovascular fitness.

Zone 3 -Hard zone - 80-90% of your maximum heart rate – in this zone your are breathing heavily and feeling a little fatigued. Training is zone 3 takes you toward your anaerobic threshold. It significantly improves your fitness and performance but you don’t want to spend all your training in zone 3 because you start to use proteins as an energy source which decreases your lean muscle mass. And the more lean muscle you have the more calories you burn!!

So back to my trophy…my polar ft60 gave me a program based on my current level of fitness and then I trained properly in each zone to assure that I was getting a good workout and not over or under training. I recommend that everyone have some sort of heart rate monitor so you can start training the most important muscle in your body!