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Why Wear a Heart Rate Monitor?
Questions
Have you ever wondered in the middle of training, or exercising for health if what you're doing is the best thing, or more importantly, the right thing for you to be doing or, if what you're doing is as efficient and effective as possible? Have you ever considered whether you'd be better off with with a new pair of shoes, a new pair of bike shorts or a heart rate monitor.. and what is the point of a heart rate monitor anyway??
Chances are that those questions and several others that lead to you making choices have definitely passed through your head at some point, and probably more than once.
Use your time wisely
If you're working on getting the most out of your time during cardio workouts whether you're training for an elite event, weight loss, or maintaining or improving your health, a heart rate monitor is a great piece of technology to help you get where you're going in the best possible shape and time.
With a heart rate monitor and some basic information you can: get an idea of your current fitness level, monitor your stress levels (outside of workouts), motivate yourself during workouts and manage your training to make sure you're working at the right rate to achieve your fitness and health related goals, without ending up overtrained.
As much as it would be easy, there is no such thing as an off-the-shelf "one size fits all" Get-Fit programme. To be safe and effective, your exercise must be tailored to fit you and where you're at in a fitness and health sense. A heart rate monitor will help.
Step One: Getting started.
The first step is easy. Tune in to yourself: how you feel and what your heart rate monitor tells you. Get a feel for the changes in your heart rate in different situations, such as when you're talking on the phone, driving in traffic, eating your favourite food (which might be chocolate as easily as it might be your Mum's cooking), listening to different types of music, walking to the shops, work, or (if you're lucky) the beach.
These changes in your heart rate reflect the effect on you of immediate activators (or 'stressors') that you probably face every day. How you're feeling healthwise and how you feel about each event will have an effect on your Heart Rate response.
They're not right or wrong: they're yours. Get to know yourself and your body a lttle better so that you know when you're on track, or getting a bit worn down.
Step Two: Understanding your environment
Sit and relax for a few minutes and then look at your heart rate monitor. A few minutes of sitting and relaxing is usually enough time for your body to slow down to its day to day "restful rate". Your heart rate in this state is a good indicator of how you cope with your environment which includes both internal factors like caffeine intake, cigarette smoking, some foods and how your immune system is faring; and external factors like the temperature and altitude of your location.
Step Three: Move!
Learn what your body does, and more specifically what happens to your heart rate when you move.
Pay attention to how you feel as far as effort goes and how that relates to the numbers on your Heart Rate monitor.
To get a better perspective of what's going on in your body and how hard you're working in terms of the most you could possibly do, its a good idea to get a guage of your maximum heart rate.
The best way to do this accurately is with a submaximal fitness test, but to make it easier, a generally accepted way to determine your maximum heart rate (HR Max) is by performing a simple sum: HR Max = 220 - your age.
When you know this number, you will have an idea of how hard your heart is working during your run or gym class as a percentage of its maximum, or how high the intensity of your exercise session is.
At different intensities, your heart will beat faster or more slowly, depending on how hard you're working, and different energy systems will be used in your body.
The trick for training efficiently is matching your training intensity to your event energy system.
That is, if you're training for endurance, you'll want to exercise at a rate that is sustainable for a longer period of time - about 60%-80% of your HR Max.
If you're training for shorter more powerful activity, then you'll want to match your training to the relative energy system and train at much higher intensity - say 85% - 95% of your HR Max.
So there you have it: the best way to get the best value out of your training sessions is to use a heart rate monitor.
It'll let you know that you're in the right training zone for what you're trying to achieve every day.
It'll help keep you honest whether you've planned a recovery session or a full-on power session.
A Heart Rate Monitor will help you train rather than just exercise: Training is exercising with a plan in order to achieve a goal.
A heart rate monitor is a tool that provides you with feedback to let you know that what you're doing is moving you toward your goal - with your heart.
Shop for a Heart Rate Monitor
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SportSPeak brings NuMetrex to Australia!
SportSpeak has now partnered with Textronics Inc. in the USA to bring you the NuMetrex collection of products.
The power of a heart rate monitor is now available with the freedom of strap-free wear!
Utilising unique textiles that sense and respond to the body, the team at Textronics Inc. delivered the first of its products from the innovative NuMetrex "clothes that monitor your body" collection, over 12 months ago.
The range currently includes the NuMetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra for women, the fully flexible cardio strap (both available now) and the men's Cardio Shirt, scheduled for release in Early April 2007.
Interested in partnering with SportSPeak to spread the Word?? We're looking for Resellers and Affiliates now!
Contact us for more information on how to become a Reseller or to join our Affiliate Programme.
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