Find Your Workout Heart Rate. to Maximize your Workout Potential

This article discusses the most effective way of determining a good workout heart rate range. It also covers why this may not be necessary in finding the most beneficial way to workout.

Here we are sitting in college Kinesiology courses, learning how to figure out what a good workout heart rate range is. This is good stuff. First, we learn the most popular way to determine workout heart rates. The basic idea is that you find a range of 50-80% of your maximum heart rate. How do you determine your maximum heart rate? You take an approximation. As I was saying, the most popular way is to take (220-age) x percent intensity. For example, a 35 year old male wants to figure out his workout heart rate range. To do this he applies this formula for the lower end of the range (220-35) x .50 = 92.5. Then, for the upper part of the range, he applies this formula (220-35) x .80 = 148. So, this 35 year old male can workout at an effective range with a heart rate of 92.5-148. By the way, these heart rates are in terms of a pulse taken in terms of a minute. [This heart rate range is considered an effective workout heart rate range by the American Council on Exercise.]

Then we learned that a more effective formula is to apply what is called the Karvonen formula. This formula is more specific since it takes resting heart rate of the individual into account. The Karvonen formula goes like this: [(220-age) - restingHR] x percent intensity + restingHR. So, if we took the same guy and applied the formula to him, with a resting HR of 74, then the lower end part of his range would have this formula: [(220-35) - 74] x .5 + 74 = 129.5. The upper end of his range would be 162.8, by the way.

But, is taking your resting heart rate really necessary? After having trained for a dozen or more years, I challenge you that taking your workout heart rate range may not be as necessary as you think. Sure, I believe that it should be taken every once in a while just for personal knowledge. I also think you should take your heart rate if you feel it is anywhere besides what you consider a normal range. But it is necessary for those that are just starting a fitness routine and are simply trying to workout and lose weight?

Well, as I mentioned above, I think it is good to take it, and I virtually always do with my new clients. But the primary advise that I give them regarding their cardiovascular exercise workout intensity is that they should have slightly labored breathing during the activity. In other words, if they are huffing and puffing a little bit (not gasping and wheezing) then they are working out at the correct heart rate. In fact, when workout heart rate is taken and they have been huffing and puffing, it's almost always at the correct range.

But what is a correct range? I've had this discussion many times with more advanced clients. Sure, that workout range is great for those in the general populace or just getting started, but what about the triathlete or the martial artist? The resulting analysis produced this conclusion. The primary reason that one does cardio (for the sake of this discussion) is to burn calories (it's also to improve cardiovascular capacity, but that's not being discussed here), right? But even if they were really going all out doing cardio they don't really burn that many calories WHILE DOING CARDIO. The main time they burn the calories is when their bodies, recovering over the next 24 hours from doing intense cardio, has increased it's metabolism. In other words, when someone does high intensity cardio, their body increases their metabolism over the next 12-24 hours to heal and recover from it. This is the time when the body is truly burning calories. Sure, the calories burned up while doing cardio count, but added to the increased metabolism during recovery time, that is really a great deal of calories burned.

So, I challenge my more advanced clients to focus on pushing themselves, changing intervals from peak output to a steady state, and focusing on how they feel (called perceived exertion) rather than obsessing over their heart rates . This keeps them huffing and puffing and more and burns the maximum amount of calories over the shortest amount of time.

Again, this deviation from the traditional take-your-heart-rate-all-the-time-and-keep-it-in-the-range training format is not for the beginning clients, but it can be very effective if you are looking for changes and advancements in your workout routine. Increase your intensity, try intervals and keep huffing and puffing and you'll continue to improve your cardiovascular endeavor.

Other training tips can be found at my blog site.