Heart Rate Maximum

One of the bits of information people get from running magazines and such, are workouts based on your heart rate. They give you a complicated formula that involves the estimated human max of 220 beats per minute, minus your age and then multiplied at a percentage for light, moderate and hard workouts. Yeah, you can get your pulse when you stop by holding your finger to your neck and then count for a time period and then multiply for a Heart Rate. Without a basic Heart Rate Monitor, you will never be able to get the info you need to make the workouts mean anything. Your heart rate varies with fitness, age, genetics and stress. My heart rate range on the low end is about 40 and around 200 on the high end. This comes from years of exercise but, my heart rate is about 10 beats higher per minute than most charts indicate it should be. The good or bad thing about being out of shape is that you can reach your target heart rate range without much effort. It take about 6 weeks before you can see a change. When you are fit, your heart is more efficient at pumping blood.
The most important function of the Heart Rate Monitor is to SLOW you down. Most people run harder than they need to, they don't give their bodies time to adapt. I try to keep my heart rate in the 70% range for cardio conditioning and fat burning. An 80 % workout take a couple of days to recover from, a 90% workout should only be once a week. Running with a monitor and just keeping track of the time is a much better way than counting the miles. Minutes add up faster than miles :) If you are so inclined, Polar has good monitors and they are compatible with most fitness equipment that is in health clubs. Go out and have a good workout!!