It's not as weird as it sounds, I promise.
Don’t ask me where my infatuation started, but I have to share with you all my healthy (yet someone unhealthy) addiction to monitoring my heart rate. It all started with the purchase of my Fitbit (big shout out to to the $100 Best Buy gift card I received when I bought my phone). It’s rose gold with a blue band, and I love it.
Heart health is so important - both in the prevention of disease and overall health & wellness. My obsession with it, however, is saved for monitoring my heart rate during training. Tracking my heart rate lets me see how fast I'm working. Even though I’ll feel like I’m giving a workout my all, I won’t really know unless my heart rate tells me so. With high-intensity training, I can make sure I’m hitting 80% of my maximum heart rate, and when I need to recover, I’ll shoot for around 60%. Back-up, Case - what’s maximum heart rate?
There have been many approximations for what your maximum heart rate is, but think of it as the number of beats per minute (BPM) when your heart is working at its maximum. Basically, it monitors how much effort your heart is putting into your workout (or everyday life- just last week, my roommate scared me and my heart rate SKYROCKETED). It’s approximated as 220 - (your age), so, mine is roughly 198 BPM.
You should never aim to hit your maximum heart rate, but you want to get pretty close. When I’m training hard, for example during my HIIT workouts, I try to shoot for 85% of my maximum heart rate (MHR), roughly 188 BPM. I’ll be honest, it’s very difficult for me to get my heart rate up this high due to my cardiovascular health (big thanks to you marathon), but I try my hardest. I know that I’m working really hard if I can get my heart rate to hit 180 BPM.
You can also track your heart rate when you’re in recovery mode (which we should all be in at least once to twice per week if we’re training hard in the gym), shooting for roughly 60% of your MHR, mine being around 119 BPM. While I don’t recommend getting too caught up in the numbers, I can honestly say that my training has improved since I’ve invested myself in heart-rate training. Even if I don’t want to use the numbers to track my intensity levels, it’s fun to break a sweat and look down to see how hard you’re actually working. If anything, it’s rewarding - and, we all love a good reward!
While I track my heart-rate everyday, I haven’t gotten to the point where I track from workout to workout (i.e. saying I want to hit 185 on Monday, 175 on Tuesday, etc.), which I hear can do great things for overall health and your body’s ability to adapt to stressful, physical conditions, ultimately allowing you to improve in physical performance. What do you all think of this idea? Do you track your heart rate, and would you be willing to craft your workouts around your monitor (or, if you don't have one, counting your own heart rate with your finger) rather than the treadmill or squat rack in front of you? I might give it a try .. I’ll keep you updated!