Listen To Your Heart

I remember when I was a kid, I'd sometimes do aerobics with my mom. Hooked On Aerobics, it was called. I remember there were three ladies in the show, each on a platform. High Effort, Medium Effort, Low Effort. You picked one to follow, based on your level of ability. Leotards, tights, leg warmers, head bands--they had everything that was cool in the mid-80s.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is the breaks we would take to check our heart rates. There was a pause in the routine, during which we were instructed to keep our feet moving, find our pulse, and count the beats until they said stop. Then we'd look on the chart to determine if our heart rate was too low, too high, or right on. And then we would get back to the aerobics, adjusting our level of work as needed to stay in that target heart rate zone.

That was kind of cool. I looked forward to the breaks, to tell you the truth. =)

But really, taking a break to track your heart rate was an interruption to the workout. And I don't know about you, but when I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll. I don't want to have to stop or slow down right when I'm at the top of my game.

I have enjoyed tracking my heart rate when I'm on a cardio machine at the gym that has that feature. It's cool to let the machine do the figuring for you, so you don't have to stop and count. And although it's better than the old way of stopping and counting, sometimes I just didn't want to have my hands holding on to the sensors of the machine.

That's why I think it's awesome that modern technology has provided us with state of the art heart rate monitors that will not only track your heart rate, they'll count your calories burned as well! Some come with all kinds of other bells and whistles, too--like stopwatch, time of day, calendar, alarm, nightlight--even gender settings, so it can calculate correctly for men and women.

I mean, check this baby out:

Seriously, the people who come up with this kind of stuff are amazing.

So...tracking heart rate is nice, right? But why is it so important?

Tracking your heart rate helps you monitor your cardio vascular fitness, and set the right kinds of training goals. There are so many factors that can influence your workout, that just how you feel or how long you go are not necessarily accurate ways to measure how you are doing.

Being able to continuously track your heart rate helps you avoid over training, which can lead to injury, and under training, which can get in the way of you meeting your maximum performance potential.

If you are a runner, using a heart rate monitor during a race can help you pace yourself and stay on track, despite the distractions (or lack of) along your race course. This can provide a major advantage that you would not ordinarily have, allowing you to keep your pace steady to avoid running out of steam too early, and to stay motivated throughout your race.

Training with a heart rate monitor is a great way to go.

What do you think?