Heart Rate Monitor for Cardio Exercises

November 18, 2009 1 Comment
Using a heart rate monitor when doing cardio exercise is one of the best ways to plot your progress. When doing a cardio workout, your target heart rate should be somewhere between 50% or 75% of your maximum heart rate level. Those parameters are known as 'the zone'. Keeping your heart rate at the ideal zone helps you burn the optimal amount of calories, without endangering your heart health.



Calculating Your Maximum Heat Rate

The American Medical Association reports that your maximum heart rate should be around 220 minus your age. If you are 35 your ideal maximum heart rate should be 185 and your exercise heart rate should be somewhere between 93 and 139.

There are various zones when it comes to heart rate. Here are some that you may want to focus on

Warm Up (Healthy Heart Zone) - 50 to 60% of maximum heart rate
• Fat Burning (Fitness Zone) - 60 to 70% of maximum heart rate
• Endurance Training (Aerobic Zone) - 70 to 80% of maximum heart rate
Warm Down (Healthy Heart Zone) - 50 to 60% of maximum heart rate

Other zones include the Anaerobic Zone, used in Performance Training and the Red Line, which should be the maximum heart level zone; most people can only stay at the Red Line for a short time.

Benefits of Using a Heart Rate Monitor

• It Helps Keep You in the Zone
• You Can Monitor Your Progress Better
• It Helps Keep You Safe

The above are some of the top benefits of using a heart rate monitor. First, a wrist or a strapless heart monitor helps keep you in the zone. By doing so, you are burning the calories at the optimum level. Exercising at your targeted heart rate is one of the best ways to reach your goals.

Another benefit of using a heart rate monitor is that it helps show your progress. External improvements usually only occur after 6 or 8 weeks of continuous workouts. Internal improvements, however, occur earlier. With a heart rate monitor you will be able to observe changes in your hear rate. At the beginning, you heart rate may shoot up too fast, but as your exercise more often, your heart rate changes will be much easier to control.

A heart rate monitor also helps to keep you safe. By using it, you will know when to pull back, especially if your heart rate is going past your maximum levels.

Should You Invest in a Heart Rate Monitor?

Yes. Aside from its exercise-related benefits, heart rate monitors also help you keep tract of your heart health as well as the health of the people close to you. You can also benefit from it if you are training for a competition (i.e. marathons) or if you are rehabilitating from an injury.

In addition, doctors and trainers alike advocate the use of a heart rate monitor especially if you will be participating in cardio activities such as

• Cycling
Running
• Swimming
• Skiing
• Kayaking
• Walking
• Hiking
• Climbing
• Cardiac Rehabilitation
• Spinning
• Skating
Elliptical Exercise
Treadmill Exercises
• In-line skating
Health Club Classes

More or less, any activity where you will be using your body will benefit from the use of a heart rate monitor.
  • Kinesiology Tape - January 10, 2012 2:37 AM

    Cardio exercises are the movements that can make the heart beat faster and increases blood circulation in the body. Along with increased heart rate, cardio exercise will also enhance the body's metabolic rate. Thanks a lot.

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