Utilizing Your Heart Rate Measurements
Resting Heart Rate (RHR): RHR is an indicator of heart health because it suggests how efficiently the heart is pumping blood. Typically, the faster your RHR, the less efficient the circulatory system is functioning. The heart has to beat faster in order to pump the necessary blood throughout the body. If your heart is overworked for long periods of time, the risk of failure increases.
The best way to think about is to view your heart as a muscle,
the more you work it the stronger it gets. A stronger heart means more blood with each beat, and the same amount of work can be done with fewer beats. If your heart needs more beats to do the same amount of work, over time this can lead to cardiovascular disease and/or heart attacks.
Maximum Heart Rate or HRM: Your HRM can serve as a great indicator and provide a guideline for determining your true level of intensity during an exercise.
Maximum Heart Rate or HRM: Your HRM can serve as a great indicator and provide a guideline for determining your true level of intensity during an exercise.
This is one of those excuse-eliminators;
if your heart rate is at or near your max, you know that you are pushing yourself.
If you note that your heart rate is well under your max, if intensity is your goal you know its time to step your game up.
Heart Rate Zones:
Zone 1: Coming in at 50- 60% of your maximum heart rate: You can consider this your warm-up zone. This is the easiest zone and probably the best for people just starting a fitness program or with more serious health risks. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats.
Zone 2: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%. This is where your endurance cardio sessions usually put you and really is only beneficial if training specifically for endurance.
You may have heard of this zone as being the magical “fat burning zone”. This comes from the fact that in this zone, 85% of calories used are fat.
Heart Rate Zones:
Zone 1: Coming in at 50- 60% of your maximum heart rate: You can consider this your warm-up zone. This is the easiest zone and probably the best for people just starting a fitness program or with more serious health risks. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats.
Zone 2: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%. This is where your endurance cardio sessions usually put you and really is only beneficial if training specifically for endurance.
You may have heard of this zone as being the magical “fat burning zone”. This comes from the fact that in this zone, 85% of calories used are fat.
The reason you shouldn't just stick to this or the first zone is that at 50-70% or your HRM you are not burning that many calories in general,
so even though most of it is fat, you won’t burn as much fat as you would burning more calories at a higher intensity, even though the percentage of fat as fuel isn't as high.
Zone 3: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.
Zone 4: To reach this zone, you’re going to be putting in some effort. Moderately intense cardio or circuit training will put your heart rate in this range and is a good zone for increasing endurance. In this range you will also begin to develop E.P.O.C. (which I discuss in detail elsewhere) and will be difficult to sustain for any extended period of time.
Benefits of this zone also include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.
Zone 5 - Red Line: If you are performing Tabata, circuits, or sprints with max intensity, this is where your heart rate should be. In this zone you are creating great EPOC benefits, as well as killing some serious calories. This level cannot be sustained for much longer than a couple minutes at the low end of the zone, and only for about a minute max at the top of this zone.
Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods and should only train in this zone if you are healthy enough to do so safely. It never hurts to be cleared by a physician to ensure you are healthy enough to push your body to its maximum.
Zone 3: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.
Zone 4: To reach this zone, you’re going to be putting in some effort. Moderately intense cardio or circuit training will put your heart rate in this range and is a good zone for increasing endurance. In this range you will also begin to develop E.P.O.C. (which I discuss in detail elsewhere) and will be difficult to sustain for any extended period of time.
Benefits of this zone also include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.
Zone 5 - Red Line: If you are performing Tabata, circuits, or sprints with max intensity, this is where your heart rate should be. In this zone you are creating great EPOC benefits, as well as killing some serious calories. This level cannot be sustained for much longer than a couple minutes at the low end of the zone, and only for about a minute max at the top of this zone.
Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods and should only train in this zone if you are healthy enough to do so safely. It never hurts to be cleared by a physician to ensure you are healthy enough to push your body to its maximum.
Using Your Body Measurements
First off, lets start with the measurements you will NOT be using -
BMI: What makes this useless as a determining factor for health is that it is very unspecific, since it doesn't account for lean body mass.
Someone who is 250 pounds of solid muscle at 5’6” puts them at a BMI of 40, which by this measurement says this individual is very obese and exceptionally unhealthy.
While this is obviously is not the norm, it shows you the limits of this particular measurement, which is why it is not good for much more than offering you an initial indicator of the health of your weight for your height.
Someone who is 250 pounds of solid muscle at 5’6” puts them at a BMI of 40, which by this measurement says this individual is very obese and exceptionally unhealthy.
While this is obviously is not the norm, it shows you the limits of this particular measurement, which is why it is not good for much more than offering you an initial indicator of the health of your weight for your height.
While we're on the topic of useless, add bodyweight to that list.
Bodyweight as a singular measure is fairly worthless for telling you anything relating to your health, other than what is already apparent.
To be really blunt - if you are 250lbs of fat, you obviously need to work on your health -
but looking in the mirror you probably already knew that. Along the same lines, if you are 250lbs of solid muscle you can tell without getting on the scale that you are doing pretty well.
Now, if you resemble the former, this isn't intended to be an insult, but rather a direct statement of something you probably already know.
Using the scale as a stand alone indicator is useless pretty much for the same reason the BMI is useless - it doesn't tell you what is comprising that weight.
Now, if you resemble the former, this isn't intended to be an insult, but rather a direct statement of something you probably already know.
Using the scale as a stand alone indicator is useless pretty much for the same reason the BMI is useless - it doesn't tell you what is comprising that weight.
Now for the useful measurements -
These are the measurements you will want to assess and track in order to determine your progress.
Probably the first measurement you will want to get is your Body Fat Percentage, not necessarily because it is a great indicator on its own, but because you will need it to get more relevant information later. As explained in the previous section, your BFP is simply a calculation of your total bodyweight that is comprised of fat vs. lean tissue.
The next and probably most important measurement is your LBM: Lean Body Mass is the total amount of weight you carry that isn't fat.
This measurement is useful because it will give you a much clearer picture of the changes that are occurring as opposed to tracking body weight and fat percentage by itself.
The next and probably most important measurement is your LBM: Lean Body Mass is the total amount of weight you carry that isn't fat.
This measurement is useful because it will give you a much clearer picture of the changes that are occurring as opposed to tracking body weight and fat percentage by itself.
Just because you lost weight doesn't mean it is a positive change,
it could have been muscle mass and vice versa - if you have gained weight you may be discouraged, but that weight gained may be muscle. Just because your body fat percentage goes down doesn't mean you are any more fit that you were before, as demonstrated in the comparisons earlier. Figuring your LBM can help clarify if the changes you are seeing are positive, and on track with your goals.
All fitness goals, no matter if you are a bodybuilder, fitness enthusiast, or just starting to get back into shape,
are essentially to lower body fat while increasing or maintaining your lean body mass.
This is what measuring your LBM will tell you. You want your LBM to go up, and your BFP to go down.
This is also a great tool to utilize to track the effectiveness of your chosen diet and exercise regimen. If you are gaining or losing weight, it is hard to tell just from the scale just how beneficial or detrimental those numbers are. By calculating your LBM, you can tell if you are making the progress you want, or if you need to make some changes to get to your goals.
For example, on a mass gain program, it isn't realistic for most people to expect to gain all muscle and no fat. At the most, you want to be gaining at a 1:1 ratio of muscle to fat (1 lb. of muscle for every one pound of fat). Most beginner and intermediate level trainers should be able to do better, gaining at a 2:1 ratio or better (2 lbs. of muscle for every 1 lb. of fat).
When you switch to a cutting program your focus will be on maintaining your muscle gains while losing the fat. Unless you strike gold right out of the gate and you hit on the exact right diet and training program that will quickly take you to desired destination, adjustments will need to be made to maximize your gains.
Without tracking the changes in your LBM you are flying blind when it comes to adjustments, since you can't see weather the weight you are losing is fat, or if you are burning your muscle.
This is also a great tool to utilize to track the effectiveness of your chosen diet and exercise regimen. If you are gaining or losing weight, it is hard to tell just from the scale just how beneficial or detrimental those numbers are. By calculating your LBM, you can tell if you are making the progress you want, or if you need to make some changes to get to your goals.
For example, on a mass gain program, it isn't realistic for most people to expect to gain all muscle and no fat. At the most, you want to be gaining at a 1:1 ratio of muscle to fat (1 lb. of muscle for every one pound of fat). Most beginner and intermediate level trainers should be able to do better, gaining at a 2:1 ratio or better (2 lbs. of muscle for every 1 lb. of fat).
When you switch to a cutting program your focus will be on maintaining your muscle gains while losing the fat. Unless you strike gold right out of the gate and you hit on the exact right diet and training program that will quickly take you to desired destination, adjustments will need to be made to maximize your gains.
Without tracking the changes in your LBM you are flying blind when it comes to adjustments, since you can't see weather the weight you are losing is fat, or if you are burning your muscle.