For a long time I debated the pros and cons of investing in a heart rate monitor until one day I took the leap and am happy to report I’ve never looked back on my decision. For those of you on the fence about whether or not to buy a tracking device of your own, I have compiled a few of my favorite reasons why I now feel naked without my heart rate monitor during workouts.
The wakeup call alone was enough to get me hooked; what do you mean that 45 minute spin class didn’t burn 1,000 calories, I felt close to death! Sound familiar? While there are a an overwhelming amount of gym accessories available that I will not even attempt to assess, any device that can read your heart rate (using a chest strap and wrist device) is all you need to take your fitness routine up a notch.
First and possibly most important for anyone looking to make their workout more effective in terms of losing or maintain weight is the fact that your heart rate is the most accurate way to calculate calories burned. Many cardio machines are programmed to ask for your height, weight, and gender but despite having this information the calorie count can be inflated by hundreds of calories from what you actually burned! And what about when you want to exercise outdoors or take a group fitness class? Even the most accredited fitness apps for your smart phone are only able to calculate an estimate of the calories you have burned without syncing the app to a heart rate strap.
While calories burned are important, knowing your heart rate during a workout has many other benefits. For example, if you are training for a long distance event, keeping your heart rate at a maintainable level for a long period of time is crucial to your race success. With a heart rate monitor, you can judge if you started at a pace that will cause you to burn out before the end of the race (anaerobic, high intensity, or athletic conditioning are terms used to describe this zone) or if you started slower and have capacity to pick it up while maintaining a manageable heart rate (your target or aerobic zone) for the duration of the event.
If you are crunched for time (and really who isn’t!), knowing when your heart rate is elevated to an athletic endurance range will help you to get more work done in a short window of time. There is a lot of talk about HIIT workouts or High Intensity Interval Training which are performed for short periods of time, 20-30 minutes at most but deliver some of the most effective fat burning results when performed correctly. By knowing your heart rate is elevated to your highest capacity and it is lowered to a resting state when appropriate you will experience the best results from your HIIT workout. Further, with any workout once you feel your fitness level improving you now have a way of tracking your personal best and can gauge a number you would like to hit or surpass to increase your intensity in future workouts.
Finally, using your heart rate monitor during your strength training routine can also provide evidence of the intensity of your workout. While your heart rate does not need to be extremely elevated, working up a sweat during weight lifting or body weight exercises never hurts. In fact, if your heart rate becomes elevated from lifting weights without engaging in cardiovascular movements, this is a sign you’re on the path to building muscles. Remember if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you!
The wakeup call alone was enough to get me hooked; what do you mean that 45 minute spin class didn’t burn 1,000 calories, I felt close to death! Sound familiar? While there are a an overwhelming amount of gym accessories available that I will not even attempt to assess, any device that can read your heart rate (using a chest strap and wrist device) is all you need to take your fitness routine up a notch.
First and possibly most important for anyone looking to make their workout more effective in terms of losing or maintain weight is the fact that your heart rate is the most accurate way to calculate calories burned. Many cardio machines are programmed to ask for your height, weight, and gender but despite having this information the calorie count can be inflated by hundreds of calories from what you actually burned! And what about when you want to exercise outdoors or take a group fitness class? Even the most accredited fitness apps for your smart phone are only able to calculate an estimate of the calories you have burned without syncing the app to a heart rate strap.
While calories burned are important, knowing your heart rate during a workout has many other benefits. For example, if you are training for a long distance event, keeping your heart rate at a maintainable level for a long period of time is crucial to your race success. With a heart rate monitor, you can judge if you started at a pace that will cause you to burn out before the end of the race (anaerobic, high intensity, or athletic conditioning are terms used to describe this zone) or if you started slower and have capacity to pick it up while maintaining a manageable heart rate (your target or aerobic zone) for the duration of the event.
If you are crunched for time (and really who isn’t!), knowing when your heart rate is elevated to an athletic endurance range will help you to get more work done in a short window of time. There is a lot of talk about HIIT workouts or High Intensity Interval Training which are performed for short periods of time, 20-30 minutes at most but deliver some of the most effective fat burning results when performed correctly. By knowing your heart rate is elevated to your highest capacity and it is lowered to a resting state when appropriate you will experience the best results from your HIIT workout. Further, with any workout once you feel your fitness level improving you now have a way of tracking your personal best and can gauge a number you would like to hit or surpass to increase your intensity in future workouts.
Finally, using your heart rate monitor during your strength training routine can also provide evidence of the intensity of your workout. While your heart rate does not need to be extremely elevated, working up a sweat during weight lifting or body weight exercises never hurts. In fact, if your heart rate becomes elevated from lifting weights without engaging in cardiovascular movements, this is a sign you’re on the path to building muscles. Remember if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you!