Do you have ten seconds? Are you relaxed? (I get that these questions are relative and are directly proportionate to our human experience, but I digress…) OK, provided you haven’t just gulped down a latte, place your index finger and middle finger on your neck and count how many times your heart beats in ten seconds. I’ll wait…
Now multiply that number by 6. That’s your resting heart rate, albeit a bit rough. I just did mine and it’s 60, which falls in the “Excellent” category for women in my age range. (Before I started my fitness journey, my resting rate was quite a bit higher.) Now, subtract your age from 220. I’ve got 180, which is my maximum heart rate. Again, this is a rudimentary method, as this rate will depend on your age and your fitness level, but now at least we’ve got a basic range to work with.
So, many of us may have done this before and likely know the basics, like the fact that we’ve got to check our heart rate while we exercise to make sure we’re hitting our target and not going above our max. (Target: Moderate exercise intensity is 50-70% of your maximum heart rate and vigorous exercise intensity is 70-85%. My personal target rate for a serious workout is 144.) We may even know that a healthy heart recovers (ceasing exercise to resting rate) quicker than one that’s not accustomed to regular exercise. But how do we use our heart rates to guide our workouts? And what about circuit and interval training?
Get In the Zone
Heart rate training will bring your workout results to another level. Let’s get in the zone – Zones 2 and 3 (60-80% of max heart rate), to be exact. This is a nice aerobic range for those of us who are interested in burning fat and maintaining good cardiac health. Oh, and it’s not a walk in the park! Achieving and maintaining this heart rate is a great way to burn calories because it takes work! Our bodies in this range experience Aerobic Respiration, which means they have sufficient oxygen to power our muscles and then we just exhale out what we don’t need.
Anaerobic respiration occurs during intense workouts (Zones 4 & 5 / 80-100% of max heart rate) when there is not enough oxygen present. When your body doesn’t have sufficient oxygen to supply your muscles’ energy demands, the onus is now put on the muscles who must find another way to get the task at hand done, so they break down sugars, ultimately leading to the production of lactic acid. (Click here for more information on lactic acid build-up in muscles, if you’re interested!)
There is a pervading myth in the fitness industry that lower-intensity aerobic exercises keep you in an ideal fat-burning zone, while anaerobic exercises focus your metabolism on carbs. Although it is true that aerobic exercises burn more fat relative to carbs, high-intensity anaerobic exercises burn more total calories from both sources. Additionally, anaerobic workouts put your body into a period of post-exercise oxygen consumption, where you continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate for hours after you get home from the gym.
~LIVESTRONG.com
On Circuit Training & Interval Training
I’ve heard many people use the terms circuit training and interval training interchangeably, but they’re two different fitness strategies. Circuit training takes the body between aerobic and anaerobic energy systems by interspersing shortened strength training exercises with shortened aerobic stations. Interval Training is a strategy for those who want to train in their peak training zones to optimize fitness results by getting their heart rates up into the high zones, ultimately burning more calories and strengthening the heart exponentially.
People who train by alternately speeding up their heart rate and then slowing it down are getting their heart rate to recover faster by working harder. But, as I’m sure you can surmise, anaerobic exercise is not for the faint of heart. (Sorry. Had to.) Pushing yourself to get your heart into those high zones, especially for novice athletes and people just beginning a fitness regime, isn’t something you can just jump into. It might be best to start off slowly and gradually work your way up. Beachbody’s Focus T25 is a perfect example of mixing circuit training and interval training for the best fitness results!
Ultimately, you can burn fat with both types of training workouts. Where circuit training also increases your muscle mass, interval training improves your endurance, which means your body becomes more efficient at converting both fat and glucose into energy. Mixing aerobic exercise with anaerobic exercise, in a way you feel comfortable and can work out to your full potential, is definitely the way to go!
How to Track Your Heart Rate
Regardless of your choice of exercise and strategy, your heart rate matters. The health of your heart, with the added benefit of burning more calories when you’re in your optimal zone, is crucial. Here are my favorite brands of devices for monitoring your heart rate (in alphabetical order because I dig them all!):
Want my advice?* If you don’t have one already, do yourself a favor and get a great heart rate monitor. Then focus on your heart rate during your workouts. The greater intensity you allow your workouts to reach, the healthier you’ll be. Get your heart rate up into the perfect zone for you, more and more often, and it will recover to its resting rate quicker and quicker, ensuring a stronger heart, greater health, oh, and more calories burned!
*Take heart: All choices and decisions are best left up to individuals, with the expert advice of a physician, dietician, nutritionist or certified health coach.
Studies show that a lower resting heart rate is a strong predictor of longer life.
