Having adjusted the strap as best as possible for a more comfortable fit, and having remembered to wet the electrode areas, the women’s heart rate monitor was now transmitting the beats of my heart for anybody with an appropriate receiver. I was going to have to stop telling lies, probably.

“All set?” my mentor asked. I nodded and motioned that the strap was in place.

He beckoned me to an area of gym mats and asked me to lie down.

Resting Heart Rate

“Ideally, you should take a note of you resting heart rate as soon as you wake up. This number should represent the lowest rate that your heart beats. We will get close to that number now, but I’d like you to take an early morning measurement when possible, so that we have an accurate measurement.”

He got me to close my eyes and relax while he looked at his watch. Not through boredom, he assured me. He was checking my heart rate. “Keep still and relax” he reminded me.

After a short while he decided that we had gotten close enough. The lowest reading was noted as my resting heart rate (RHR). He also did a couple of calculations and jotted them down too.

The recovery ceiling was calculated as follows:

Recovery Ceiling

Start with your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

Subtract your Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

Multiply the result by 0.7 (i.e. 70%)

Finally, add back your Resting Heart Rate.

((MHR – RHR) x 0.70) + RHR

If you have a MHR of 200 and an RHR of 60, the calculation is

( (200 – 60) x 0.70 ) + 60

(140 x 0.70) + 60

98 + 60

158

In this case your Recovery Ceiling is 158.

The last number he worked out was the Threshold Floor calculated as follows:

Threshold Floor

Start with your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

Subtract your Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

Multiply the result by 0.85 (i.e. 85%)

Finally, add back the Resting Heart Rate

((MHR – RHR) x 0.85) + RHR

So, continuing with the above example the calculation is

( (200 – 60) x 0.85 ) + 60

(140 x 0.85) + 60

119 + 60

179

So the Threshold Floor is 179.

“Now we have the numbers we need” my mentor announced “we can make a plan”.

Technorati Tags: heart rate, recovery ceiling, resting heart rate, threshold floor, Womens Heart Rate Monitor

The next time I reluctantly met my new mentor he sat down with me to explain some things before we started the training.

“You may have seen some information about heart rate monitor training printed in leaflets, or on the treadmill itself. Perhaps you’ve looked at the pretty graph of heart rate training zones. For example, they say you can check your heart rate to ensure that you are training in the fat burning zone, or the aerobic zone. Well, I want you to forget all that nonsense!”

“The heart rate monitor training method I’m going to show you is simple and effective.”

He had my attention. Simple and effective is good.

“The first thing we need to do is establish some numbers to work to. I’m afraid I’m going to have to be indelicate and ask your age, because I can then estimate your maximum heart rate. Unless you would prefer to start with a stress-test to get a more accurate number and keep your age secret?”.

Stress Test? Two of the worst words in the English language!  I gave him my age.

“Right. Now I’m going to apply a quick and dirty formula to estimate some very important figures. Namely your Maximum Heart Rate, your Recovery Ceiling and your Threshold Floor.”

He wrote the calculations down for me. This was how he did the first one:

Estimated Maximum Heart Rate

Start with 205

Subtract half your age

Add 5 for women (0 for men)

If you are following along with this, 40 year old men would have an estimated maximum heart rate of

205 – (40 / 2) + 0 = 185

Whereas 40 year old women’s heart rate monitor maximum would be estimated as

205 – (40 / 2) + 5 = 190

[Note: This is the first number that will be entered into your personal heart rate chart when calculating your own heart rate training program.]

Clearly, not all 40 year old men or 40 year old women will actually have maximum heart rates to match those numbers. In fact, I’ll warrant that statistically, the majority will not match those numbers. They are nonetheless a useful starting point, and far better than anything that I had used up to that point – which was zilch.

“I’d now like you to put this Heart Rate Monitor strap on, so that I can reasonably calculate the next number.”

He could see that I was looking a little worried about what was coming up next.

“Don’t worry.” he said “In fact, it’s very important that you are very chilled-out and relaxed for the next step. Now, before you go to put this on I should point something out…..”

“The heart rate monitor strap has some electrodes at the front and we want to make sure that we get a good reading – even though you haven’t started exercising yet. So please remember to wet the sensor’s that are in contact with your chest.”

Technorati Tags: exercise heart rate, exercise heart rate monitor, heart moniter, Heart Rate Chart, heart rate monitor running, heart rate monitor women, heart rate training, heart rate zones, heartrate monitor, normal heart rate, Womens Heart Rate Monitor