Women’s Heart Rate Monitor – The Myth of Perceived Exertion
I’ve heard people advised that there is no need to use a women’s heart rate monitor. All you need to do is listen to your body.
In my local Gym there was a large poster which had a chart of perceived exertion effort ranging from 1 to 10. If your effort was 1 , you wouldn’t have made it as far as the gym to read the chart in the first place. If your effort was 10, you were unlikely to be going home afterwards except via the local Emergency Ward. Somewhere between the extremes there was a light workout pace with slight sweating but able to hum a merry tune; conversational pace; then stilted conversation; polite nod’s only; hand waving; and finally a high exertion where you’d blank your own mother lying in the gutter.
Okay, so I may be changing the category descriptions a little, but the principle is the same. Often, there is very little guidance about what level you should be working out according to your goals. They tend to tread the safe path of “sweating, but conversational” pace – okay if you want to bore yourself to death with your routine.
The idea behind it would be great if everyone’s perception of exertion was the same, but you’d be lucky if you could get even two people to agree on all the levels. Frankly, it’s all a bit of a farce and riddled with problems as it’s too easy to fool yourself.
The biggest danger is that someone works out too hard at every workout without even realising it. Perhaps they do a couple of planned hard workouts a week, then cut-back on their remaining recovery days. However, if they unwittingly do not cut-back far enough with their training they will eventually burn-out due to glycogen depletion.
Have you ever exercised enthusiastically for a number of weeks, only to find that you are completely worn-out and overwhelmed by the process? Enthusiasm wanes and all too soon there are other priorities in your life. Exercising was just a waste of time! Well, the chances are that you simply trained too hard.
In addition to the problem of overworking, is the lack of motivation that comes from seeing no progress with your training. You may well be getting fitter over time, but you have no measure of that progress other than what you may perceive. It’s not a very reliable measure, I can assure you.
For my money, the heart rate monitor is the answer to the pitfalls of guessing your level of exertion. Combining the Karvonen Method with a knowledge of your maximum heart rate and resting heart rate, you can ensure that you genuinely workout as easily as is necessary on your recovery days. This way you will recover from harder workouts and make steady progress without getting burned-out.
With the growing number of women’s heart rate monitor models available, there is no excuse to waste another moment guessing how hard you should be working out in order to achieve your goals. Comparing your progress over time will motivate you to continue training and make it a lifestyle habit.
After some time getting used to the feeling of working out at different levels of exertion, you may genuinely find that you can judge your perceived level of exertion if you forget to pack your heart rate monitor. But without the prior experience of seeing what levels of exertion are doing to your heart rate, you will only be guessing based on an intangible unit of measure.
Your heart is a great exertion-measuring device. Use it!
August 29 2009 11:34 am | Womens Heart Rate Monitor