HRM Help

[Kevin Alexander]

Hi Guys

I have just bought a Garmin 800 and i bought it purely for the maps and the statistics of my rides and training but as I got the HRM monitor in my bundle I thought I might as well use that.

My question is how do I know what my HR should be so that I know if im either pushing myself too hard or not hard enough?

Is there an app or a calculator that you can use that will tell you what you HR should ideally be.

Thanks

 

[Dusty Bin]

Do you mean your max HR? You need to test it yourself - don't rely on online calculators or formulas as they can be anything up to 15bpm inaccurate, which makes them fairly worthless for establishing MHR.

Once you know your MHR, you can then work out what your training zones might be.

 

[Biker Joe]

Loads of info here:- http://www.howtobefit.com/determine-maximum-heart-rate.htm

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Thanks Guys,

Will check the site out.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Go all out on two or three occasions and note down the highest you find - mine is 185bpm and everything from that becomes a separate zone to work from:

50-60% of that number = warm-up
60-70% of that number = fat-burn
70-80% = aerobic zone
80-90% = anaerobic zone
90%+ = Vo2 Max.

Some charts give a slight variation on this.

 

[Dusty Bin]

80-90% = anaerobic zone
90%+ = Vo2 Max.

You should not be anaerobic at 80-90% MHR ?

 

[VamP]

From memory you're at threshold at 92%. So yeah that's confoozed.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

You should not be anaerobic at 80-90% MHR ?

Fair enough, without working both out I'm not sure what the difference would be...I've always used this method which may vary to using the reserve heart rate whereby you subtract the resting rate from the max and then take a percentage of the difference and add it to the resting. I've always used a percentage of the Max using roughly the zones I gave.

Sorry if this has confused the OP.

 

[Dusty Bin]

Fair enough, without working both out I'm not sure what the difference would be...I've always used this method which may vary to using the reserve heart rate whereby you subtract the resting rate from the max and then take a percentage of the difference and add it to the resting. I've always used a percentage of the Max using roughly the zones I gave.

Sorry if this has confused the OP.

Well, it has certainly confused me - I don't understand any of what you just said. As Vamp said - up to and around an MHR of 90% +/- you will almost certainly still be primarily aerobic. In terms of not being sure of the difference - once you get past 92% (for example) you will know the difference between aerobic and anaerobic - and at that point, you can turn off the HRM, because it won't be telling you anything you don't already know

 

[Rob3rt]

~90% is definatelly aerobic, I ride 25 mile TT's at around 90% MHR +- 1%.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...v6XMQutzS1WGofw&bvm=bv.54176721,d.d2k&cad=rja

I've always considered, like I say above, that the anaerobic zone lies between 80 and 90%. The chart on the far-right gives these zones.

The Anaerobic threshold is thought to be between 80 and 90%...I didn't just make it up!

 

[Rob3rt]

That chart is very poor!

 

[Dusty Bin]

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CE8QFjAD&url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_exercise&ei=xNJeUuj6HIGQ0AWywIDgDw&usg=AFQjCNGl7jML5gGFoxLv6XMQutzS1WGofw&bvm=bv.54176721,d.d2k&cad=rja

I've always considered, like I say above, that the anaerobic zone lies between 80 and 90%. The chart on the far-right gives these zones.

The Anaerobic threshold is thought to be between 80 and 90%...I didn't just make it up!

To be honest, I wouldn't take seriously any chart that had the words 'fat burn' on it.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Okay, exactly where is the anaerobic zone if as Robert says, beneath 90% is aerobic?

What chart would you use, what system and again where is there any information regarding where the AT anaerobic threshold is, because the only information I can find backs up roughly what I thought - between 80 and 90%?

I'm not saying either of you are wrong by the way...?

 

[Dusty Bin]

Okay, exactly where is the anaerobic zone if as Robert says, beneath 90% is aerobic?

What chart would you use, what system and again where is there any information regarding where the AT anaerobic threshold is, because the only information I can find backs up roughly what I thought - between 80 and 90%?

I'm not saying either of you are wrong by the way...?

In layman's terms, I would define anaerobic as 'unsustainable' - and the threshold for that unsustainability usually occurs beyond about 89-92%, depending on the individual. For instance, I can hold 90-92% for 15-20mins - but I start to fade very quickly if I go beyond 92%. Simply saying anaerobic is 80-90% is too broad to be useful. Charts are not really needed either - once you know where your threshold is, then plan your intervals around it.