From what I can figure out, HRMs are pretty darn accurate. A person's max HR can vary greatly, and has nothing to do with fitness. Basically it is just genetics. Your max HR is what it is - and it is possible for it to be over 200.
*EDIT: I also found this:
Dehydration can increase the heart rate by up to 7.5%
Heat and humidity can increase the herat rate by 10 beats/minute
Given it was stinking hot at 6am this morning, that may explain it.
Your resting HR however, is determined by fitness. Mine is 60 which puts me in the 'elite' category. Haha I love it! I might do it again though, as I've just read that you should do it in the morning, before you get out of bed as so many factors (incl caffeine and stress) can affect the result. I did mine in the afternoon, straight after work and probably not too long after a Diet Coke.
I did find some interesting and easy to understand info on Sports Zones. My HRM has this feature, but I've never used it as I didn't know how to set them up and wasn't really sure what zone I should be training in. I've now set them up and had a look at my results over the past week. Here's what I've discovered...
• When I train with Rusty I spend most of the time in Zone 2 and 3... exactly where I should be for fat burning and aerobic training
• This morning I trained on my own and burnt a similar amount of calories as I do with Rusty, but I spent too much time in Zone 1. I did however get into Zone 5 (hence the 224 max HR
• In a spin class I spend more than half the time in Zone 2 for fat burning, and a little time in each of the other zones
If anyone else has any advice on HRM training I'd be happy to hear it. You can email me emh_1977@hotmail.com or comment. I found this website quite good.
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2 comments:
All those numbers do my head in!
I use my HRM to tell me how hard I'm working during cardio only in terms of total calories burned at the end of it.
I know that if I sit on or above 150 bpm I'll burn 10 calories a minutes. When I am losing fat, I just aim for a total calorie burn. Some days it takes longer if I go slower but same outcome.
I think it all depends on your goal. If you are looking for cardio fitness then achieving a low resting heart rate is a good thing. If you are cutting like me, I don't want my heart rate to be super low all day because I'll burn less calories (my resting HR is 72 bpm).
I never worry about zones especially when I'm lifting because lying on your back doing skull crushers is almost the same as lying on the couch but I want muscle size so I take that over burning calories. And I would never do less work to make sure I'm in the 'fat burning' zone - I'm just happy to burn something because my body will get to the fat eventually.
When I'm not on a diet, I don't even really bother with the thing.
Lovely numbers!! :)
But so true that it can go over 200 - I remember reading the Keiran Perkins was getting up into 220 range when he was a super fit swimming machine!!
I always wear my HR monitor watch too, it's that little bit of extra motivation.
But RHR is really odd, cause even at my heaviest (of 140kg), I was still only 80, and now it's 52. I think genetics play a big part in that one too!!
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