We recommend heart rate training to anyone looking to improve their fitness — whether they’re a competitive athlete or just starting their fitness journey. Here’s why you should track your heart rate and use an activity tracker every time you hit the gym.
1. Measure effort and intensity
A heart rate monitor provides data that shows you how hard you’re working. That information can help you stay in the right heart rate range, or “zone,” while exercising. If you’re starting a new workout routine, staying in the right zone is especially important because it helps prevent injuries and maximise results.
Most workouts recommend using 65-80 percent of your maximum heart rate before increasing the intensity to 90 percent during the final stretch. Monitoring your pulse shows you how much of your maximum heart rate you’re using, making it easy to decide when to slow down, maintain intensity or push yourself to the next zone.
2. Improve recovery time
Recovery time is a great way to gauge your physical fitness, and tracking your heart rate can improve your ability to bounce back. Here’s how you can use a heart rate monitor to enhance your recovery time, step by step.
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Check your heart rate immediately after completing a cardio workout. Make sure you log your results.
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Until you reach your resting heart rate, check your pulse once every minute to see how much it drops. Make a note of your heart rate at each interval.
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Follow these steps the next time you complete that workout. Compare the results of your recovery time to see if you’ve improved.
You should see your recovery time drop as you get more fit. To get the most accurate reading, make sure you record your heart rate at each interval every time you work out.
3. Track your progress
One of the most compelling reasons for using a heart rate monitor is tracking improvements to your fitness level. To do this, we recommend completing a benchmark cardio workout on a monthly basis that involves muscular fatigue — something like a 5k run or row.
Make sure you wear a monitor to track your intensity, recovery time and maximum heart rate. Generally, as you get more fit, the time it takes to complete these workouts will drop, along with your average heart rate.
Kick your workout up a notch with heart rate training
Heart rate monitors are great for measuring your fitness. They are easy to use, provide great information and can help improve your cardiovascular health! To get started, find the right heart rate monitoring system for you or speak to a coach about our Wodify Pulse system at the gym.