Resting heart rate is not always equal to performance Monitoring your resting heart rate is an excellent discipline to integrate with your daily procedures since it can give you some vital information about your fitness. You will start to see a pattern when you have registered your resting heart rate in the morning for a […]
Low Resting Heart Rate – Does it matter? Read More »
Question from Rob Worrell: “My seasonal goal was an 11mile hill climb near my home at the conclusion of the summer. In interval training, I once hit 182BPM (I am 39 Years old), but most of my intervals are around 160-170BPM. In the MTB hill climb race (seasonal goal), I averaged 173BPM for a 1:05:30
Average Heart Rate vs Threshold Power Read More »
Many heart rate monitors and bike computers has a feature to measure the energy cost of the exercise. But can we believe these numbers? I have always been sceptical to these calculations since they are based on very few variables (percentage of maximum heart rate and total time). I have always said to my riders that they can use these numbers for fun, but don’t count on them when they cook dinner. There is probably huge variability in the quality of calorie metres, some gives a rough estimate and some doesn’t.
Yesterday I found a study published in Medical Science of Sports and Exercise that tried to figure out how accurate the energy expenditure calculator of the Polar s-410 heart rate monitor was. They used three different calculations of the energy expenditure: 1) Polar s-410 using predicted values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. 2) Polar s-410 using actual values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. 3) Indirect calorimetry (You might have heard about this one in school”¦)
The results showed that the Polar s-410 did a quite good job for the men with no significant differences between the three calculation methods. The women’s numbers were overestimated when using predicted values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. The estimation was better when they used the actual values but still overestimated with 12%.
Read the full article about Polar S-410
Polar S-410 Gives a Rough Estimate of Energy Expenditure Read More »
A heart rate monitor is one of the most used tools for pacing strategy during intervals or competitions, analyzing of performance and detection of overtraining. Polar heart rate monitor watches make very precise measurement of the current pulse. This information can be very useful for an experienced user who understands the exercise physiology behind heart rate regulation.
Getting started
One of the best ways to learn to use a heart rate monitor is to use one during training. Don’t buy one of the top models from Polar (cs600, s725 etc.) – these watches are not made for beginners. Instead try one of the basic Polar monitors for a beginning. These watches are cheaper and easier to deal with. There are also several other manufacturers of monitors and some of them are probably cheaper. My point is that for a beginner who has never tried heart rate monitors before, it might be a clever idea to buy one of the cheaper models for a beginning and then buy a more advanced heart rate monitor when you know which kind of data you are interested in. A Polar cs600 is a great tool for experienced riders, but is very likely to be overkill for a beginner.
Notify how your heart rate reacts
When you have bought a heart rate monitor: Get out on the roads! Spend a month with your regular training program, just wearing the monitor, but notifying how the heart rate reacts to the efforts. It is very interesting to study the heart rate and very quickly you will discover that you start to use the monitor for pacing. At this point you are already getting paid back for your investment, since you train harder and are more motivated during the ride.
Watch your own heart rate monitor – not your training partner’s…
The fact is that you can only compare heart rate values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.
Your maximum heart rate is correlated to your age, but that does not mean that we all fit in to 220-age formula. There is a huge standard deviation because we all are anatomically different. Just like with the resting heart rates, maximum heart rates does not predict performance.
Be patient
It is not necessary to use a special heart rate focused training program when you start to use it. As I said, just wearing the monitor for the first month is a very good education. I remember when I started to use a heart rate monitor for the first time back in the mid 90’s. At that time I had read some literature about general exercise physiology and heart monitors, but I lacked practical experience with the monitor. The result was that I made some target intervals for my heart rate which triggered the alarm system to beep most of the time. After a few of these rides I started to ride without target zones until I knew more about how my heart rate reacted during cycling. The lesson I learned was that you have to be patient and wait a while before you start doing intervals based on heart rate target zones.
How To Use a Heart Rate Monitor for Cycling Read More »
This is a very common question among cyclists. I have heard several people discuss this topic and have often seen them compare registrations of early morning resting heart rates. The fact is that you can only compare these values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.
Autonomic nervous system regulates resting heart rate
The resting heart rate is closely related to the autonomic nervous system. You will probably already have noticed that your resting heart is lower when you are in good shape. This is because of a larger stroke volume or more correctly a bigger parasympathic drive on the sinus node. This is one of the central adaptations to endurance training.
Know your resting heart rate
A good reason to know your normal level of resting heart rate is that you can use it to discover overtraining or illness. If your resting heart rate is 10-15 beats above normal, you might have a disease. In that case I will recommend you take your temperature and look for other symptoms. Avoid intensive training or races if you don´t feel well.
Some values to compare with (don’t do it”¦)
There are great deviations in normal resting heart rates. Many well trained cyclists normally have a resting heart rate in the 40’s, some in the high 30’s and few in the low 30’s or lower. There are also well trained cyclists or even professionals in the high 40’s or low 50’s. And as I said previously: Don’t compare values with others’”¦
What is a Good Resting Heart Rate? Read More »
The fact is that you can only compare heart rate values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.
Your maximum heart rate is correlated to your age, but that does not mean that we all fit in to 220-age formula. There is a huge standard deviation because we all are anatomically different. Just like with the resting heart rates, maximum heart rates does not predict performance.
Your working heart rate at the same external workload changes from day to day because it is affected by several factors including caffeine, water balance, temperature, physical stress, psychological stress etc. Thus, you should know how these things affect your heart rate since that is essential if you want to use your current heart rate for pacing. Taking action of the response from your heart rate monitor on your effort is an important part of using this tool. E.g. if you feel your heart rate is too high compared to the workload, then consider if there is a good reason for this (dehydration, too much coffee etc.) When you have found the answer, then take action on it.
Heart rate monitor training is much about analyzing. If you have an advanced or professional heart rate monitor from Polar, you can collect tons of data for analyzing on your personal computer. This is an important process if you want to get the full value out of your heart rate monitor. When you get used to see your heart rate records, you will begin to get a deeper understanding of how your body works. If you add some studying in exercise physiology to your analyzing, you will be able to make better decisions about your future cycling training. And that is exactly the point of spending reviewing your bike rides.
When you enter a race, you will see that you are able to ride faster than you normally do at training. It is difficult, if not impossible, to make clever decisions based on your current heart rate in a cycling race. I’ve heard several riders give up, when they were trying to jump from the peloton because they thought their heart rate indicated that they should slow down. That is definitively a big mistake since there is large tactical factor in play in cycling races. Thus, if you are lucky, the peloton will slow down and stop struggling to close the gap. And that is why experience is so much more important in races than heart rate registrations.
Heart rate target zones are a way to categorize different types of training. Many riders use basic training programs where they are supposed to work at percentage of their maximum heart rate. But these programs are born to be inadequate since there is a huge deviation in relative working heart rates (Just like with minimum and maximum heart rates). Thus, these target zones should be based on your personal experiences and testing procedures, not a general formula. Also I will recommend you to not making the target zones to small, because of the factors influencing on the heart rate. One day you are in top of the target zone and the next day you are in the bottom, but the subjective feeling might be the same. Thus, if the interval is too small you are likely to cross the limits which will make you work either easier or harder to stay in the target zone.
5 Biggest Mistakes in Heart Rate Monitor Training Read More »