You may think that training is
just for athletes. I absolutely believe that with few
exceptions everyone can train to create change which leads to
a good and healthy life. Exercise is as different for
everyone as change is different.
Whether you want to change by
shedding a few pounds or you just want to feel good about
yourself, then here's a way that, if you follow it, you may
end up on the wellness road to a new life.
What I am talking about is
Heart Zone Training, the best approach to all-around fitness
I've found. This isn't a one-size-fits-all concept. It works
for a 50-year-old athlete like me, a 60-year old with a
family history of heart problems, a 70-year old wanting to
improve strength, or an 80-year old who wants to climb to the
third floor of a building without puffing. It works for a
20-year-old who wants to improve their fitness, a 30-year-old
who has become more sedentary from too much time in front of
a computer, and a 40-year-old who is preparing for a second
wedding ceremony and wants to be their best.
Let's take it one part at a
time and first look at those three words: Heart Zone
Training. HEART. That's easy. Your heart's a muscle; you can
strengthen it. It's a use-it-or-lose-it muscle so if you
don't do cardiovascular exercise, you'll lose the hearts
functional ability.
ZONE
A zone is simply a range of heart beats. Recent research has
shown powerful benefits from exercising in several different
zones to get maximum benefit.
TRAINING
Training is the regime of exercising to achieve a goal. It's
different than exercising. When you exercise you are doing it
for the joy and benefit of the exercise. When you train, you
want to accomplish a goal.
Take my 58-year-old friend
Sara whose young grandchildren are really paying attention to
her workouts. Today, I see her reaping the benefits of paying
attention to her body. She looks good, she feels good, and
her annual physical give her straight "A"s for low
blood pressure, low body fat and low cholesterol. She's
running her grand dads around now.
You can have similar results.
It all starts with the beating of your heart.
RATING YOUR
HEART RATE
Heart rates are measured in beats per minute (bpm). Our
ambient heart rate is that measurement when you are sitting,
relaxed, sedentary and it should be around 70 bpm for most
people. In general, the lower your ambient rate, the better.
World-class athletes have ambient heart rates in the 40's and
50 bpm range.
Your resting heart rate is
measured when you first wake up in the morning before you get
out of bed. The lower the number the better. Common resting
heart rate numbers are in the 50-60s but again, those really
fit athletes commonly display resting heart rates in the 30's
and 40's.
Your Maximum Heart Rate (Max
HR) is the fastest your heart can beat for one minute. A
generalized rule anchors your Max HR using a mathematical
formula but it has a lot of error in it because it allows it
to drop as you get older.
In fact, Max HR doesn't
decrease if you maintain your fitness (it does if you become
deconditioned). So using a formula based on age just doesn't
work well enough. If you have to have one then use the one
that we have found to be most accurate:
New
Mathematical Formula Age/Weight Predicted Maximum Heart Rate
210
minus 1/2 your age minus 1% of your body weight + 4 (males)
Let me give you an example. I
am 50 years old and weigh 130 pounds. My formula then would
be as follows:
210 - 25 (50% x 50 years)
minus 1.3 + 0 (female) = Max HR of 183 bpm
That's fairly close (within 10
beats) of my tested maximum heart rate which is 193 bpm.
If you ever go to an athletic
club or gym and see the Max HR charts be cautious. They
aren't very accurate. Maximum heart rate is genetically
determined, it simply isn't going to decrease according to
those charts.
Here are a few tips about Max
HR. It's altitude sensitive; it increases as you go higher.
It also is affected by drugs such as beta blocks and even
antihistamines. It cannot be increased by training and a high
Max HR does not predict better performance.
Measuring
Your Max HR
Important note! Before you self-test, please read the
"Before Your Start" section at the end of this
article
You won't reach your Max HR
with these tests, but they give you a range within which your
Max HR probably lies. First step is to rate your fitness
level as follows:
• Poor shape. You have
not exercised regularly during the last two months.
• Fair shape. You walk a
mile or more or pursue any aerobic activity for twenty
minutes at least three times per week.
• Good shape. You
exercise regularly more than an hour a week or walk or run at
least five miles a week.
The second step is take either
or both of these tests.
TEST
ONE. One Mile Walk Test
Find a track, perhaps at a
local school, and walk four continuous, evenly paced laps as
fast as you can in your current condition. The first three
laps put you on a heart-rate plateau where you hold steady
for the fourth lap.
Determine your average heart
rate for this final lap. Then to predict your Max HR, add 40
bpm if you are in poor shape; for fair shape, add 50; and for
good shape, add 60.
TEST
TWO: The Step Test
Use an eight-inch step. Warm
up appropriately. Then, use this four count step sequence:
right foot up, left up, right down, left down. Counting
"up, up, down, down" as one set and keep a steady
pace of 20 sets per minute.
Measure your average heart
rate during the third minute, then predict your Max HR by
adding 55 bpm if you are in poor shape, 65 for fair shape and
75 for good shape. That number is your predicted maximum
heart rate.
HEART
ZONES
Heart zones, expressed as a
percentage of your Max HR, reflect exercise intensity and the
result benefit. Once you have established your Max heart
rate, we provide a chart to show you your specific zones.
There are five heart zones and they are each 10-% of your Max
HR so just fill in these numbers below:
Percentages Heart Rate
Number
100% Max HR x your
number =
90% Max HR x your
number =
80% Max HR x your
number =
70% Max HR x your
number =
60% Max HR x your
number = _ 50% Max HR x your number =
To determine your zone
just join together the percentages and put them in the chart
below. It's easy and takes just seconds to know your heart
zones.
Zone Number Percentage
Range Heart Zone Range 5 90%-100% - bpm
4 80%-90% - bpm
3 70%-80% - bpm
2 60%-70% - bpm
1 50%-60% - bpm
Inside each zone, there are
different exercise changes which occur as the result of
spending training time "in the zone". Let's go
through each one briefly so you know why you want to train in
the different zones.
Zone
1 THE HEALTHY HEART ZONE: 50%-60% of your individual Max HR
This is the
safest, most comfortable zone, reached by walking briskly.
Here you strengthen your heart and improve muscle mass while
you reduce body fat, cholesterol, blood pressure, and your
risk for degenerative disease. You get healthier in this
zone, but not more fit -- that is, it won't increase your
endurance or strength but it will increase your health.
If you're out
of shape, have heart problems, or simply want to safeguard
your heart without working too hard, spend most of your
training time here. It's also the zone for warming up and
cooling down before and after more vigorous zones.
Zone
2 THE TEMPERATE ZONE: 60% to 70% of your individual Max HR.
It's easily
reached by jogging slowly. While still a relatively low level
of effort, this zone starts training your body to increase
the rate of fat release from the cells to the muscles for
fuel.
Some people
call this the "fat burning zone" because up to 85 %
of the total calories burned in this zone are fat calories
which is equally as important.
Fit and unfit
people burn fat differently. The more fit you are, the more
effectively you use fat to maintain a healthy weight. On the
other hand, perhaps you've been exercising vigorously, but
not losing the weight you expected to. Could be you've been
working too hard and need to drop back to this zone and
exercise longer. To burn more total calories you'll need to
exercise for more time in this zone.
Zone
3 THE AEROBIC ZONE:
70%-80% or your individual Max HR
In this zone
-- reached by running easily as an example -- you improve
your functional capacity. The number and size of your blood
vessels actually increase, you step up your lung capacity and
respiratory rate, and your heart increases in size and
strength so you can exercise longer before becoming fatigued.
You're still metabolizing fats and carbohydrates at about a
50-50 rate which means both are burning at the same ratio.
Zone
4 THE ANAEROBIC THRESHOLD ZONE:
80%-90% of your individual Max HR
This zone is
reached by going hard -- running faster. Here you get faster
and fitter, increasing your heart rate as you cross from
aerobic to anaerobic training. At this point, your heart
cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to supply the exercising
muscles fully so they respond by continuing to contract
anaerobically.
This is where
you "feel the burn." You can stay in this zone for
a limited amount of time, usually not more than an hour.
That's because the muscle just cannot sustain working
anaerobically (this means without sufficient oxygen) without
fatiguing. The working muscles protect themselves from
overwork by not being able to maintain the intensity level.
Zone
5 THE REDLINE ZONE:
90% to 100% of your individual Max HR.
This is the
equivalent of running all out and is used mostly as an
"interval" training regiment -- exertion done only
in short to intermediate length bursts. Even world-class
athletes can stay n this zone for only a few minutes at a
time. It's not a zone most people will select for exercise
since working out here hurts and there is an increased
potential for injury.
THE
TRAINING TREE
Now I want
to put these zones together for you in what I call the
Training Tree. You go up and down the limbs of your new
exercise tree depending on your goals, at your own speed. As
you climb the branches, you'll increase your all-around
fitness and your body will experience wonderful, truly
incredible changes. Here in brief are the different limbs:
*Base
Branch:
As you
exercise here, your workouts will feel easy. Your ambient and
your resting heart rate and blood pressure will drop and
you'll see your body change as you develop your ability to do
continuous exercise time. Stay on this limb for 4-6 weeks of
training time before you move up to the next branch.
Workouts
should be slow and easy and can include walking, biking,
swimming, skating, and circuit training. Aim for three
30-minute workouts a week with about 10 minutes in Zone 1,
Zone 2, Zone 3.
You're
training to develop a base level of strength and endurance
which will sustain a workout without a great deal of fatigue
and muscle soreness. When the routine feels too easy, reach
up and grab that next branch.
*ENDURANCE
BRANCH:
Here you expand on your systems ability to sustain longer
training periods, what we can improved endurance. Your body
can now carry more oxygen to your muscles and break into your
fat storage cells to burn fat calories as it adapts to it's
new workload. You'll find yourself going the same distance at
a lower heart rate -- proof in fact of increasing fitness.
Train here for
four to six weeks. Activities might include brisk walking,
biking, swimming, easy jogging, low-impact aerobics. Aim for
five 30-minute sessions a week. For each workout, spend 5
minutes in Zone 1, 10 minutes in Zone 2 and 15 minutes in
Zone 3.
*STRENGTH
BRANCH:
This adds resistance training which will make you stronger by
increasing the work. For example, add hills as you walk,
start some running, stair climbing or weight training.
Perform four
or five training sessions of 30-40 minutes each week divided
as follows: Zone 1, 5 minutes; Zone 2, 10 minutes; Zone 3, 20
minutes; Zone 4, 5 minutes.
Many people
stay on this branch for maintenance of a healthy, all-around
fit lifestyle. The next three branches are for those who seek
to become high performance athletes, so I'll just touch on
them briefly.
•
INTERVAL BRANCH:
This limb gets you faster by doing "interval
training" which simply means mixing hard training in
Zones 4 and 5 with easy training in Zones 1 and 2.
•
PEAK BRANCH:
This branch is for serious athletes who want to race at their
best. Please refer to Edwards' latest book SMART HEART (206
pages, 1997) for more information on high performance heart
zone training.
•
RECOVERY TRUNK:
I saved this for last because it serves a vital function,
especially for those who climb to the higher branches where
the oxygen grows ever so thin. Here you rest and exercise
simultaneously. By staying in low heart zones for short
workouts, you can recuperate from too much exercise, an
illness or injury that forced you down from higher branches.
I urge you to
cross-train while in each of these zones. This means varying
the demands on your body by walking one day, for example,
biking the next, and swimming another.
My book Heart
Zone Training gives a number of sample training programs for
each branch. It also describes how to maintain a personal
heart Zone Training log where you record your training in
various zones to evaluate your total effort over a period of
time.
MOVE
OUT SLOWLY
Exercise must
fit you as an individual. I'm convinced it's the integration
of the mind, the body, and the spirit that works in the long
in run.
If you've been
working out regularly, you may find yourself reaching for
another level of fitness. If you're a beginner or haven't
worked out for more than two months, commit yourself to the
Base Branch of the Training Tree for just one month.
Remember, the
whole point is to get going. You'll begin to see positive
benefits as you feel more energy and sleep better. I predict
you'll also feel a real boost to your self-esteem that will
make it fun to keep going.
And you might
keep in mind the mantra that my friend Sara recites on those
days when training takes some extra efforts and there is an
addition to the grand kid number. "It's not that I have
to do this," she says. "It's that I can."
SIDEBAR:
BEFORE YOU START
If you have
not been training regularly, answer these questions first:
• Are you
a man over 40 or a woman over 50?
• Have
you ever been told you have heart problems, high blood
pressure, or a bone or joint problem, such as arthritis, that
has been or could be aggravated by certain types of exercise?
• Do you
frequently suffer from chest pains, feel faint or have dizzy
spells?
• Are you
taking prescription medication, such as those for high blood
pressure?
• Is
there another medical reason why you think perhaps you should
not exercise?
If you
answered "yes" to any of these questions, consult
your healthcare provider before you begin training.
WATCHING
YOUR HEART RATE
As you train,
it's important to be able to quickly measure your heart rate.
You can get a rough estimate by finding your pulse in your
wrist or a precise measurement by using a heart monitor.
For the manual
method, take a watch and count for 6 seconds then multiply
your county by ten to find your heart rate. You only need a
watch which has seconds but you can easily be off by 10-20
bpm because of the short time counting interval.
I believe a
heart monitor is the most powerful and motivational piece of
exercise equipment you can own. It consists of a chest
transmitter that you wear and a wireless receiver worn like a
wristwatch.
Ten years ago,
monitors cost in the $500 price range. Today, they cost as
low as $80 -- about the price of a good pair of workout shoes
--. Monitors are readily available in sporting goods stores,
on websites, and through direct mail.
SALLY
EDWARDS BIOGRAPHY
Sally Edwards
is passionate about exercise and she practices what she
preaches. She's a ranked "ultra" athlete who's
finished fourteen Ironman triathlons and numerous other
"extreme" races.
In 1994, she
set the woman's record for the Iditashoe, a 100 mile snowshoe
event in Alaska. In 1995 and again in 1996 she participated
in the 370-mile Eco Challenge adventure race.
This past
August her women's team finished first in the 3,200 mile
cross country bicycle race, Race Across America in 7 days and
22 hours. To celebrate her 50th birthday the next month she
captained a four-person team racing in China in seven sports
including kayaking, off-road inline skating, mountain
climbing and more. In October, she finished her fourteenth
Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii which includes a 2.4 mile swim,
112 miles by bike, then a full 26.2 mile marathon.
Edwards holds
a graduate degree in exercise physiology from Berkeley and a
master's degree in business. She has authored eleven books
and is noted for her inspirational public speaking and
support of charitable concerns , especially The Susan G.
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. A Sacramento, California
resident, she served in Viet Nam with the Red Cross.
