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Heart Rate Training

Posted January 21st, 2007 at 2:00 PM by Emily Hoskins

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Exercise

Monitoring your heart rate during exercise is an excellent way to improve performance, avoid overtraining, and track your progress. Heart rate training is popular because it is easy to monitor and for most athletes if offers a practical way to measure exercise intensity. Heart rate training relies on the fact that as your exercise intensity increases so does your body’s demand for oxygen.

It is important to monitor your exercise intensity because (1) there are different physiological adaptations associated with training that depends on the intensity being implicated, and (2) you can manipulate your entire training program to reach your own personal goals based upon your specific sport or event.

Drawbacks of Heart Rate Training:
There are a few limitations to heart rate training that should be discussed so you can try to avoid them. The first problem is that most heart rate training programs are based upon your individual maximum heart rate (MHR). The rule of thumb for finding your max heart rate has been subtracting your age from 220. However, this is not very accurate because according to this equation all 40 year olds would have the same heart rate, which we know is not the case.

The second problem is that even if you can accurately calculate max hear rate, simply giving standard exercise perceptions based upon those numbers does not allow for any personal adaptations. For example research has found that performance improves when you increase your lactate threshold.

You can improve your lactate threshold by exercising for 25 min 3 times a week at 85-90% of your VO2 max, but this may not be the case for everybody. Along with maximum heart rate the only way to accurately determine the correct heart rate training zone for increasing lactate threshold is by pricy and inconvenient lab tests. Besides these few limitations heart rate training still offers an unbiased rule for determining exercise intensity.

Determining Your Heart Rate:
As stated above using age as a prediction for max heart rate is not the most accurate. The Karvonen formula takes into account an individual’s resting heart rate (RHR) which accounts for individual differences making it more specific to you. Determining your RHR is extremely easy. Find a quiet place to lie down and relax. After 20 minuets take your pulse (beats/min) and that is your RHR. As you become fit you will find that your RHR will lower so check your RHR monthly to keep it accurate. The Karvonen formula is: Max heart rate – resting heart rate x heart rate zone + resting heart rate.

Here is an example: A 35 year old has an RHR of 65 bpm. and wants to train for a 10k run. The heart rate zone that endurance athletes train at is 70-80% of their MHR with 70% being the lower limit and 80% the upper limit.

Maximum heart rate = 185bpm (220-35)
185 - 65 = 120bpm (this is called the working heart rate)
120 x 0.7 = 84bpm (70% zone)
84 + 65 = 149bpm (lower limit)
185 - 65 = 120bpm (this is called the ‘working heart rate)
120 x 0.8 = 96bpm (80% zone)
94 + 65 = 161bpm (upper limit)
Target heart rate zone = 149 - 161pbm

Heart Rate Training Zones:
There are four hear rate training zones and within each of these there are subtle physiological differences that improve your over all fitness.

Energy Efficient/Recovery Zone 60-70% MHR:
Training within this zone develops your basic endurance. All recovery running should be completed at a maximum of 70% of your maximum heart rate. This will be taxing on your aerobic system and the body’s major source of fuel will be fat. So if you work out in this zone long enough you can lose weight and replenish your muscles with glycogen which has been depleted due to faster paced workout sessions.

Research has suggested that when you cycle, swim, row or run at a modest intensity of only 50% VO2max (about 69% MHR), fat provides about 50% of the calories you need to keep going for the first hour or so. If you keep going, fat becomes even more generous, providing around 70% of the total energy after two hours and 80% or more if your work duration exceeds three hours. If you increase the intensity then the Fat contribution decreases - at 75% VO2max fat provides 33% of the energy.

Aerobic Zone 70-80% MHR:
Training within this zone will develop your cardiovascular system. Your body has the ability to improve the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles and carbon dioxide away from them. After training in this zone you will become stronger and able to run some of your longer runs at up to 75% of your max and will give you the benefits of fat burning as well as improved aerobic capacity.

Anaerobic Zone 80-90% MHR:
Training in this zone will develop your lactic acid system. Until now fat was being predominately used as the main fuel source. When exercising at 80-90% of your max heart rate your body reduces the amount of fat utilized for energy and now relies upon glycogen stored in the muscles. The byproduct of burning glycogen for energy is lactic acid- a runners worst enemy. There comes a point where your body cannot remove the circulating lactic acid faster than it is being produced. This is called your lactate threshold. Lactate threshold happens at an individual heart rate for everyone and is associated with a rapid increase in heart rate and a slowing of your pace. Through training you can increase your threshold and delay the onset of fatigue.

Heart Rate Training to Increase Lactate Threshold

Here’s a simple heart rate training program to increase lactate threshold:

Assuming your heart rate at lactate threshold is 170bpm
Start by completing two 6-10 minute runs approximately 5% below the lactate threshold heart rate. In this case it would be 162bpm.
Rest for 2-3 minutes between runs and complete this twice a week.
Gradually build up the length of each run or the number of repetitions (up to 6). Also increase your target heart rate up to your threshold (170bpm).
The target eventually is to reach a sustained 20minute run at or just above your threshold heart rate.
Complete a thorough cool down at the end of each session. Also re-test your lactate threshold every 6-8 weeks.

Red Line Zone 90-100% MHR:
Training within this zone is only possible for short durations. It helps to train your fast twitch muscle fibers which build speed and power. You must be very fit in order to train in this zone. Interval training is the best way reach 90-100% of your max heart rate.

Finding out your RHR and MHR is easy and training in the different zones will help you to become more fit and reach your personal goals. Give it a try!

Research sources and for more information: [Sport Fitness Advisor], [Marathon Guide], [Runners World], [Cool Running], [Brian Mac]

Joe Nolasco said:

As a certified personal trainer, all of what you said is traditional basic dogma, quoted by nearly every person who writes about heart rate training, even the famous Jack Daniels (yes that is his real name) speaks of the use of heart rate training in the same manor. You have also pointed out that MHR are different for everyone, so using the formula to find your training limits is somewhat flawed, ( I also agree since my Maxvo2 is 196bpm and I am 45yrs old and my Maxvo2 should only be 175bpm).

The question is how does one get to know their, what I call, TMaxvo2 (true Mvo2). The answer is simple, you use a treadmill. For the most part many of us can not sustain a pace of more than 5min per mile and since the best treadmills can be set for that pace, one could find out their true Maxvo2.

To conduct this research one would need a heart rate monitor and a treadmill with a top speed of 12 (note some treadmills only go up to 10). You would use 3 miles as your distance to do the test. In the frist mile you would get warmed up and start at a low pace like 8min miles or so, then you would start lowering the pace every .25 miles or until you reached your race pace. Lets say that your race pace is 6min, at that pace you would check your heart rate, if you started at 8min pace and increased your pace every .25 miles and you increased it by 30sec, you would have a log of inputs of 8min pace @ 1.0 miles, 7:30 pace @ 1.25, 7min pace @1.50, 6:30 pace @1.75, and 6min pace @2.0 miles. Since you have one more mile to go you would continue to increase your pace but at a lower rate by 15sec @ every .25. Your collapes point is close so you will need to monitor your breathing patterns and your running form, since these are the two best indicators for every runner. Also if you have noticed your position on the treadmill, if you have stayed close to the console for most of the test you will now notice that it is getting increasing harder to stay close to the console (just like in a race when you run with a faster runner who is pulling away). Most experienced runners know when they have hit their wall of o2debt and will start to taper off the pace, also most runners try to save something extra for the finish and tend to know what they can run for the last mile of a 5k race. If that 6min pace runner can muster a 5:45 for their last mile in a normal race, then the treadmill test should show them what they could do at say 5:30 pace or even 5min pace for the last .25. At the 3 mile point check their heart rate and you will find that to be their TMaxvo2. If they did not finish the 3 miles then check their heart rate at their collapes point and that is their TMaxvo2.

If the subject can run faster than 6min pace then you will need to adjust the beginning mile pace to make sure that at 2.0 miles they are at their race pace, also no incline will be used during the test unless said test subject can obtain a race pace faster than 5min miles, but thats a different test. I hope that this will help redefine how we use heart rate monitors for those who have higher Maxvo2 than normal.

Joe Nolasco
January 30th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Peter Jeffery said:

Shouldn’t the last two lines of example read as follows:

96 + 65 = 161bpm (upper limit)
Target heart rate zone = 149 - 161pbm

(not 84 + 65…)
February 28th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Adam Jacobs said:

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. It has been corrected.

Thanks again,
Adam

–
Adam Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief
TheFinalSprint.com
adam@thefinalsprint.com
February 28th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
jhampshire said:

Can someone relay (in a less technical sense) whether one should be concerned by being able to work out at a high bpm?

My supposed max. heartrate is around 190 (I’m 24) and my resting heartrate is about 66. I’ve been getting fit, losing lots of weight, improving body composition, etc., and when I do aerobic dance-style exercise I work at between 140-160bpm, but in the ‘intense’ sections can easily hit 180-196bpm. In these moments I am not in pain, out of breath, my chest doesn’t pound, I don’t feel in any way unwell, and they are only brief spells in amongst more ordinary heartrates. But am I still pushing it too hard?

Please help!
June 18th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
papatrexas said:

is it secure for cardiovascular rehab programms?
February 17th, 2008 at 12:37 pm