As a trainer, I have used target heart rate training off and on with my clients.
I don't use it when I train, even though I probably should. Sadly, numbers just aren't really my thing. Ask any of my clients or classes and they'll vouch for me on that.
Every training session I inevitably lose track of their reps and they will usually A) do more reps than they should, or B) have learned the fine art of self-preservation and have counted the reps and sets themselves and will let me know when they are done.
Another reason I'm not an advocate of target heart rate training is because it is a generic formula and factors outside of your fitness level can affect your heart rate (i.e. medication, caffeine, stress).
So, it stands to reason that if those factors affect your resting heart rate, then your training heart rate will most definitely be affected as well.
With that said, using target heart rate training is a great tool to help people determine whether they are working hard enough, or in some instances perhaps too hard.
Knowing what target
heart rates to train at depends on your goals, but most protocols will recommend 50 to 85 per cent of your maximum heart rate for aerobic training and 85 per cent-plus for anaerobic training (i.e. sprints, heavy weight training drills, HIIT workouts).
You can find your heart rate by using a heart rate monitor, or via your wrist or carotid artery, the latter being a pain in the butt to find mid-workout.
For decades science has told us to use 220 beats per minute as the starting point of target heart rate training.
From there we were instructed to minus our age from the 220 for our ageappropriate maximum heart rate, or what is otherwise known as "peak heart rate" in the industry.
So, every five years our peak heart rate dropped by five beats. It's another reason to celebrate getting older as we don't have to work as hard as our younger self did.
Recent research is now saying this formula is flawed and outdated, and this rings especially true for women.
First off, the equation used to determine peak heart rate is over 40 years old and, second, it is based on a group of subjects that were predominately men.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic recognized the flaws in the formula and began analyzing data from 25,000 patients who took stress tests between 1993
and 2006.
This time they included samples of women, aged between 40 and 89 years with no history of heart disease, and found considerable differences between women and men.
While their data clearly showed that everyone's peak heart rate decreases with age, it actually showed there is a slower decline in peak heart rate in women than in men.
As a result, the old formula of peak heart rate training (220 minus your age) overestimates peak heart rate for younger women and underestimates it for older women.
The researchers' recommendations?
Women over the age of 40 should first subtract 67 per cent of her age from 200, and for men subtract 93 per cent of his age from 216.
For a 50-year old woman that means her new peak heart is: 50 years x .67 = 33.5. Subtract 33 from 200 = 167 peak heart rate.
The old formula would have her training at a peak heart of 170 beats per minute. Now a three-beat difference may not sound like a lot, but it is. You have to work a lot harder to get there and I don't know about you, but I am all for working out smarter, not harder.
PJ Wren is a local personal trainer and writer in the Delta area. You can reach her at www.gofitgals. com.
