Heart rate monitor

[foreverendeavour]

Never had a heart rate monitor, thinking of getting one, any recommendations?

[Hidden]

Do you think it will help in any way? That's not meant as a leading question by the way. Some people take their stats very seriously, some just seem to get hung up on them for no good reason and it becomes one extra thing to stress about.

I have one. Mine is a chest strap thing that communicates via Bluetooth to a suitable app. I found it a bit rubbish and stopped using it.

[foreverendeavour in reply to Hidden]

I don't know really, I just wondered if knowing its rate would be interesting, or helpful by seeing if it improves. I'm not a gadget person so wouldn't be obsessed with graphs or whatever. However have read that having your heart at a certain rate can be helpful. I'm new to all this (as you can probably guess!), have started running to improve my performance when eventing with my horse.

[Hidden in reply to foreverendeavour]

I wouldn't want to put you off the idea. It's really up to you. But based on everything I've learned/experienced throughout my other training over the last few years, I personally (and it is an individual thing) don't think they're any use at all.

There is an exception. I know people that have to wear them on occasion, just to take some stats, because of an underlying medical condition.

Assuming there is no suspected or diagnosed medical need to keep a watch on heart rate, I think mother nature equipped us with the best monitoring tools we could possibly want. If you're feeling dizzy and faint, flushed, or your vision is playing tricks, you've massively overdone it. If you're breathing hard but still smiling and still thinking clearly, you're getting a good workout. If you just done feel like you're doing anything, then you're probably not doing much for your fitness.

Or more simply, if you feeling like you're pushing yourself but not killing yourself, you're probably doing yourself a world of cardio goodness.

But there's a twist. Your heart rate is not a good measure of progress anyway. Fitness is in my opinion as much in the mind as it is in the body. When you first start a new training regime, many people will make very rapidly progress in the first few weeks then plateau, where no matter how much effort they put in, they don't seem to get any fitter. That's not a physical problem (usually) but a neurological one. Here's how come.

Let's say you start running for the first time in years. It's horrible, painful, and exhausting. By about week 3 it's not so bad. You will have got slightly fitter in that time, but not enough to make a difference as big as you are seeing. What's happened instead is your brain has relearned how to fire the correct muscles in the correct order to run. Having learned that, there'll be a few more weeks of further refinement, along with some physical gains.

But then comes the plateau. The brain has learned how to run. Now any further improvement has to be physical. Except for that to happen, you need to be supplying all the lovely oxygen rich blood needed to promote that development. This is where a problem often occurs. Without a good oxygen supply, the body can not train effectively. Progress slows right down. People get frustrated. They often do one of two things. Either train harder and harder, or lose heart and give up.

The fix is so beautifully simple though. That is to learn to relax. Yogis and tai chi sorts will bang on about breathing (an important and overlooked skill), but we can all breath already. The thing that seriously messes with our breathing is tension. When we relax, we breath big full deep breaths utilising our full lung capacity.

So what's this got to do with heart rate? We all know the heart has to pump blood through our lungs to do the necessary gas transfers to get co2 out and o2 in. If we are tense, chances are that subconsciously we are only utilising maybe 25% of our lungs capacity. If we want to transfer 4 times as much co2 and o2 we have two choices. Either utilise 4 times as much lung capacity by breathing right, or moving blood through the lungs much faster by having the heart pump much faster.

My fitness plateaued. I fixed it literally instantly with the help of my instructor at martial arts. All it took was for him to say 'you're holding your breath when you're concentrating'. Just being aware of it made me focus on it a bit, and I instantly had more stamina. There had been no physical boost in fitness in those minutes.

So this is why I think monitoring heart rate is usually pointless or even counterproductive. The heart knows how to pump blood. It usually won't pump more or less than necessary (there's a big nerve that monitors blood pressure). It will adapt as fast as the rest of you does. It's more the mind that needs the training because our modern world fills it with so much clutter it's sometimes hard for it to function optimally.

[foreverendeavour in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much! Fascinating! What you say makes total sense to me and I now hope I don't get one for my birthday (it was on my pressie list!) as I don't feel the need for one.

The breathing and tension of a rider has a major influence on the performance of a horse, so I am quite clued up about being aware of how I breathe during exertion and under the stress of a competitive atmosphere; being in control of it frequently makes the difference between winning and losing when riding horses. Likewise the ability to utilise one's muscles effectively without tension is vital, you need to be strong but fluid. I have been applying these techniques in my foray into running in the hopes that effective breathing and not having unnecessary tension anywhere will free up as much energy as possible for the immense challenge that running is! My first 20 mins without a break is on tomorrow's agenda and quite frankly I'm terrified! How absurd!

[Hidden in reply to foreverendeavour]

You sound like a true hardcore martial artist

I'm experienced in the equestrian way myself,although it's been a number of years since we kept horses so I'm nowhere near as clued up as you on that front, but I understand what you mean.

[foreverendeavour in reply to Hidden]

Really?! Well I've always hugely admired the martial arts though I have no idea about any of them. Sadly between horses, work and home life there is no time to start such a discipline. Maybe I should quit the horses and take it up..it would certainly be cheaper!!!

[misswobble Graduate]

I can't be bothered with mine either.

[davelinks Graduate]

Many athletes swear by heart rate monitors. Some trainers insist on using them with all their clients. Coaches often put them all their players to monitor everyone's heart rate in real time during training

I've used the one on my Garmin watch with a chest strap, have found it good, work out your maximum heart rate then workout in the appropriate HR zone, it tells you,bleeps at you to remind you if your slacking or overdoing it, but don't use one on c25k..😊

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Mine came with my GPS watch and I use it occasionally to gauge progress and my condition as I age etc. It can provide fascinating info, but can also be frustrating. I have never managed to establish my true maximum heart rate, so using the HRM as a training aid is not really appropriate.

If you are a stats geek....get one, you will love it, but really, the average recreational runner doesn't need one.

[foreverendeavour in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Many thanks. Have decided with everyone's kind input here to save the money, I'm not a tech or stats geek by any means! Just hope I don't now get one for my birthday!!

[Theziggy Graduate]

I have two Heart Rate Monitor Chest Straps that came with my gps watches (one is a spare and is in the box(es) full of never used running fear that OH doesn't know about) and also have a monitor on my fitness bracelet that can continuously monitor my Heart Rate.

And - I have never used any of them - apart from the occasional single use of my fitness bracelet. I know at the gym on the treadmill that the HRM on it records me at about 170 after a (slowish) 5K and after 5 mins walking cooldown it is down by 40 points. I don't use a lot of other features on my GPS watch either as I just want to tun - not look at my watch half of the time.

And don't get me wrong - I am not a Luddite by any means.