At this point I probably should explain some basics about what a heart rate monitor actually is, plus a little about how it works.

A heart rate monitor is really two devices. One is the transmitter, which is generally (though not always – as we shall later discuss) worn around the chest. Commonly, the actual transmitter area is made of flexible plastic, to which is attached an elasticated strap that passes around your back to hold the device in place just below the bust. When putting on the chest strap, it is often a good idea to wet the electrode areas that are in contact with the chest. This ensures that the best signal is picked-up from the outset. As you workout, the sweat will do the job nicely for you  The chest strap feels a little uncomfortable to start with, though it becomes less noticeable in time. There are a couple of accessories that can help women in this respect.

The second device is the receiver which is built into specialist wrist watches, or into some gym cardio machines – such as treadmills, cross-trainers and stationary cycles.

The advantage on the cardio machines is that it is easy to keep an eye on the current heart rate reading on the machines LED display. Some cardio machines cycle the displayed information with other data such as calorie count, unless you “lock” the display.

My experience is that people who have a magazine sitting on their display panel are

a) not measuring their heart rate, and

b) probably not working hard enough!

Though I do have a sneaking admiration for anybody who’s eyesight is good enough to be able to focus on a magazine article while running, it’s probably no coincidence that they are nowhere to be seen in the gym within a few months of starting their program.

There are a good number of heart rate monitor watches to choose from. I was not aware of any at the time I began training, but I am certainly now aware that there are an increasing number of women’s heart rate monitor watches available.

One thing to be aware of is that heart rate monitor’s are subject to interference, which can lead to occasionally inaccurate readings. If you see your heart rate jump fifty beats a minute while running through a field of microwave towers, this is probably not cause for concern (though I would question your choice of running route). On a cardio machine, a more likely source of interference may be the person on the machine next to yours. They may also be wearing a transmitter and may be within range of your equipments receiver.

Some watches may be “paired” with your transmitter, which prevents interference from others using transmitters near to you. The “pairing” is only usually necessary when you use the watch and monitor strap combination for the first time, and it is a trivial task.

The more expensive watches are mini-computers that can keep a whole raft of data during and after your workout. More on this in a future article.

In my next articles I’ll describe how my mentor found my “resting heart rate” and how he used this information to calculate my initial workout plan.

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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.”

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