How to do Heart Rate Training

Aerobic exercise is essential to fitness and health. In the past, how fast to go has been an inexact science. Since the advent of Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) over the last couple of decades, it has become possible for every individual, no matter their fitness level, to exercise at the correct intensity.

The best HRMs on the market use a chest strap to pick up the electrical impulse of the heart beat to transmit to a dedicated wristwatch. Over the last decade this technology has become less chunky and more wearable, and also cheaper. In fact, you can pick up a reasonable HRM for as little as £15 from Decathlon or £25 from Argos. You can get new fangled watches (for instance the Apple iWatch) that uses the wrist pulse (the watch strap) as an indicator of heart rate. There are two current drawbacks for this technology. Firstly, it’s expensive to get an accurate one, and they are usually less reliable than the chest strap variety.

Not everyone likes wearing a chest strap, which I think is why heart rate monitors are still only really used by professionals and keen runners. They’re also not the easiest to work out how to use. Nowhere in the instructions does it say that underwire bras can interfere with the electronic pick up! There is also a knack to getting the strap in the correct position and tight enough. It’s one of those things that once you know how to use, suddenly exercise becomes personally measurable and therefore more engaging. And the fitter you get, the lower the heart rate, so the faster you need to go to get to your target ‘zone’.  This is how to get fit.

I believe that as more people become aware of the benefits of heart rate training in the future, it will become mainstream and something that we track on a daily basis. Heart rate training can tell you a lot about your body. For instance, if you’re feeling under the weather fighting an infection your heart rate will often be higher, so wearing a HRM lets you know you can take it easy and go a bit slower. It’s great if you’re worried about overdoing it, or if you’d like to improve your running endurance and speed.

In fact, I love heart rate training so much, I recommend it for every human body, fit or unfit.