WORKING OUT HEART RATE ZONES AND USING THEM AS A TRAINING TOOL

Transcription

1 WORKING OUT HEART RATE ZONES AND USING THEM AS A TRAINING TOOL The information below will enable you to understand, calculate and integrate heart rate zone work into your training. It is in an effective tool for increasing performance, avoiding burn-out and training effectively and specifically for any chosen event. Every event will have its own specific demands but much of the content of this Saturday s training camp will be focused on endurance. The following information is strongly related to training for endurance. I.e Events over 1hour in duration. 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. Zones that can be used for any discipline. Max Heart rate results will differ depending on the discipline. MAX HEART RATES 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 (220-age) but it has a lot of error in it. The most advanced calculation for determining max heart rate is illustrated below. It is still not as accurate as doing a fitness test. But it comes close. FORMULA FOR MAX HEART RATE The calculation below is the most advanced calculation available for determining max heart rate without doing any fitness testing. You can use this as a reference as the results of this are not normally too far off the mark (i.e +/-5%) Males: 210 minus 1/2 your age minus 12% (0.12) of your body weight (kg s) + 4 Females: 210 minus - 1/2 your age minus 2.2% (0.022) of your body weight (kgs) + 0 EXAMPLE: If I am female and weigh 56kgs and I am 32 years old, then my formula would look like this: Females: 210 minus 16 (50% of 32) 1.23 (0.022*56) + 0 = The end result is still a significantly different result to the standard formula (220- age). In this situation my max heart rate would come out at 188. The above formula provides increased accuracy for working with heart rate zones for your training.

2 %MAX HEART RATE Included in the tables below is an indication of how your max heart rate relates to the percentage of your threshold heart rate. Threshold heart rate refers to the maximum effort you re able to maintain while your body can still remove the lactate acid being used by the muscles. As endurance athletes, we want to go as fast as we can for as long as we can. Therefore staying under or right at the lactate threshold allows us to go hard, but not so hard that we have to stop. This % is not used specifically in the Red Bull Defiance training program, but it is illustrated to give you an understanding of some more in depth training principles. DETERMINING MAX HEART RATE There are two methods of determining max heart rate. One is a calculation and the other is doing a fitness test specific to your discipline. Upper body dominant sports and swimming will indefinantly provide lower max heart rate results, which is why it s important to determine max heart rates in your various sports. This will give you more accuracy within your zones and allow for more effective training and results. Once you have determined your max heart rate within each of your key disciplines, then you will need to multiply that number by the % illustrated within the tables (in decimal format). I.e 68% = So if your max heart rate is 180, then your active recovery %MAX HEART RATE range would be 5 60% of this number. I.e Between (180*0.5) & (180*0.6)= Between beats per minute. DETERMINING YOUR ZONES BASED ON MAX HEART RATES HEART %MAX HEART Perceived Exertion Z <2 Z 2-3 Z 3-4 Z 4-5 Z 6-7 BIKE FITNESS TEST Warm up: Ride for ten minutes at a steady pace and then ride progressively harder and harder for another ten minutes, before spinning the legs out for ten minutes before you start the test. Test: Now pick a section of road (minimum of five minutes long a hill is best) and start off at an intensity you think you can just about hold until the end. Every minute accelerate and ride a little bit harder until you are right at your limit, then try and sprint for as long as your legs will allow. Record your maximum heart rate.

3 BIKE MAX HR TEST RESULT HEART %MAX HEART RUN FITNESS TEST WARM UP: Warm up for 10minutes at an easy and steady pace. Run at a steady pace for 5minutes and then increase speed progressively harder and harder for another 5 minutes, before dialing it back to easy running for 5more minutes before you start the test. TEST: Pick a gentle incline or long section of flat road that will give you minimum 5minutes of consistent running. Start off at an intensity you think you can just about hold until the end. Every minute accelerate and ride a little bit harder until you are right at your limit, then try and sprint for as long as your legs will allow. Record your maximum heart rate. RUN MAX HR TEST RESULT HEART %MAX HEART

4 KAYAK FITNESS TEST RESULT Warm up: 10minute warm up 10minute steady pace, building speed as each minute goes on. Easy paddling for 5minutes 5minutes Test: Choose pace you think you can hold for 5minutes and then progressively paddle a bit harder until you are right on your limit and then sprint for as long as you can. Record your maximum heart rate. KAYAK MAX HR TEST RESULT HEART %MAX HEART WHAT ZONE DO I USE, AND WHEN? As mentioned earlier, each zone has a specific purpose and your body will have a specific physiological reaction to training in a particular zone. ZONE ONE ACTIVE RECOVERY (<68% threshold HR / 50-60% max HR (MHR) Training at this intensity means you can stay active without becoming fatigued. After training hard your body will often go in to shut down mode to try and recover as quickly as possible. This, however, leaves you feeling sluggish. Training in zone one will allow you to keep your legs turning over without adding to your levels of fatigue. When to train in zone one Perfect for when you need to recover form a hard session but don t want to feel sluggish the next day. ZONE TWO ENDURANCE (68-83% threshold HR / 60-70% MHR) I recently covered base training and all the riding described in that article would take place in zone two. Riding in zone two teaches your body to burn fat as a fuel source and encourages your body to produce more mitochondria. The very top of zone two is your aerobic threshold. Therefore in zone two your blood lactate shouldn t be elevated. When to ride in zone two To work on your base fitness. Sessions in zone two can typically last up to six or seven hours for pro cyclists but you don t need to ride for that long to feel the benefit. You would tailer your zone two

5 sessions to about 1.5 times the duration of the even you are training for. ZONE THREE TEMPO (84-94% threshold HR / 70-80% MHR) This zone works on your ability to hold a consistent high pace. When in zone three you will be working hard but comfortably. Most people really enjoy zone three training as they feel they are moving quickly without working too hard. Training in zone three has a lot of the advantages of zone two, however it s a lot more tiring. Therefore, the number of sessions that can be completed in a row, or the length of each individual session, needs to be limited. The biggest reason for riding in zone three is that it stimulates your body to increase the amount of glycogen it can store (in zone three glycogen usage is starting to overtake fat usage as the primary fuel source). When to train in zone three Often periods of zone three are included in a predominately zone two training session. This way a person can earn the benefits of zone three training without the accompanied fatigue. Around three hours is the rough period of time you should be able to sustain in zone three, until your glycogen stores are depleted. ZONE FOUR THRESHOLD (95-105% threshold HR / 80-90% MHR) Zone four works on your anaerobic threshold. Therefore, the zone starts just below a persons anaerobic threshold and stretches to just above. This allows a person to push up their anaerobic threshold using longer intervals and pull up their threshold by training using shorter intervals. Training in zone four produces a great deal of lactic acid and therefore zone four actually gives the greatest stimulus to increase the number of mitochondria in the muscles. When to train in zone four Training in zone four is very fatiguing and therefore can only be done for limited periods. More often than not zone four training is done in intervals with a period of recovery between efforts. You should be able to maintain zone four for between ten minutes and one hour. Zone four training tends to be integrated into a training program after a month or more of base aerobic and endurance conditioning. ZONE FIVE VO2 (>106% threshold HR / % MHR) This is the intensity you can hold for three to eight minutes. Training in zone five is very fatiguing and these are typically leg-burning efforts. In shorter efforts your heart rate may not have time to respond to the effort and your maximum heart rate may actually be after you ve reached the top of a climb whilst training. This is the limit to which heart rate zones are usable as after this efforts will either be too short for heart rate to respond to, or you will simply reach your maximum heart rate. Training in this zone works on your cardiac output how much and how quickly your heart can pump blood to where it is needed in the muscles. When to train in zone five This is typically the zone you will be training at when going as hard as you can up a small climb or starting an event with a fast/sprint like start. Zone five training is often used to prepare for an event in the last block of training.