Target Heart Range and Monitors

If you are going to be serious about mountain biking and your health, you should go get a heart rate monitor right now. These days it normally takes the form of a band worn around the chest under your shirt. The transmitter is wireless and the receiver can be a mountain biking computer or even a watch! Paying careful attention to you heart rate and understanding how it affects your performance is key to maximizing the benefits of your exercise sessions and maximizing your output.

Exercising within your target heart rate will maximize your ability to perform, burn fat, and improve your condition. You'll have maximum strength and endurance, maximum use of internal stores of energy such as fat, and maximum health benefits and conditioning. Sounds like something you want to have?

Let's start with a basic formula everyone has seen. 220 minus your age is supposed to equal your MAX heart rate and apparently you should NEVER go over it. Let's take me for example. 220 minus 34 is 186. So I should never get my heart over 186 bpm. Let's take it one step farther. Supposedly, we should also subtract another 25 percent to establish the lower target heart rate and 15 percent to establish the upper target heart rate. That puts me at 140 to 159bpm. So, according to this theory, as I exercise I should be above 140 beats per minute and below 159 bpm to stay within my target heart range and NEVER go over 186 under any circumstances.

I find these numbers to be very unacceptable.

It should be obvious that according to this mode of thinking, EVERYONE that is the same age has the same target heart range. A habitual non-exerciser might not even be able to exercise without having cardiac arrest using this formula, while an athelete would probably fail to break a sweat. We need a better way to define target heart rates and here it is.

The Karvonen Formula is a much more effective method for determining your target heart range.

The Karvonen Formula factors in your resting heart rate, therefore, you’ll need to determine your resting heart rate by doing the following:

Prior to getting out of bed in the morning (or if you are the kind of person that gets scared out of their wits by an alarm in the morning, try at night after you are relaxed in bed), take your pulse on your wrist or on the side of your neck.

Count the number of beats, starting with zero, for one minute. If you don’t have a stop watch or a second hand in your bedroom, you can measure the time by watching for the number to change on a digital alarm clock.

To help assure accuracy, take your resting heart rate three mornings / evenings in a row and average the 3 heart rates together.

Now, another element in finding your training heart range is determining the intensity level at which you should exercise. As a general rule, you should exercise at an intensity between 50% - 85% of your maximum heart rate (advanced athelete such as Lance Armstrong go up to 90% and higher). Your individual level of fitness will ultimately determine where you fall within this range. Use the following table as a guide for determining your intensity level:

Beginner or low fitness level . . .50% - 60%
Average fitness level . . . . . . . . 60% - 70%
High fitness level . . . . . . . . . . . 75% - 85%
Advanced fitness level. . . . . . .90%+

Now that we’ve determined and gathered the information needed, we can pull the information together in the Karvonen Formula:

220 - Age = Maximum Heart Rate
Max Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate x Intensity + Resting Heart Rate = Training Heart Rate

Let's take me for example again, I'm 34 yrs old, have a resting heart rate of 65 and consider myself to be very fit (intensity level will be 75% - 85%.) Now my target heart range is 155 -168 beats per minute:

Trialsman's Minimum Training Heart Rate:
220 - 34 (Age) = 186
186 - 65 (Rest. HR) = 121
121 x .75 (Min. Intensity) + 65 (Rest. HR) = 155.75 Beats/Minute

Trialsman's Maximum Training Heart Rate:
220 - 34 (Age) = 186
186 - 65 (Rest. HR) = 121
121 x .85 (Max. Intensity) + 65 (Rest. HR) = 167.85 Beats/Minute

This sounds a lot more like it. But it still isn't right. Let's refine it even more.

Try talking while exercising. This is useful to determine your comfort zone of aerobic intensity.
-If you are able to talk completely normally while exercising in this range, consider increasing your limits a few beats per minute.
-If you are able to talk completely normally while exercising in this range but your heart rate is high, this can mean your lungs are more efficient than your heart. This will take some training to correct.
-If you have a strong breathing pattern and can talk somewhat normally during your workout without a great deal of strain, you’re most likely in your comfort zone. Generally, this is where you want to train at.
-If you are panting and your heart rate is in your target range, consider lowering your limits a few beats.
-If you are panting and your heart rate isn't very high, it's possible your heart is more efficient than your lungs, again this will take some training to correct.

One more thing. Ask yourself this question, "how hard am I exercising?". Simple as that. After you do the above calculations, after you take into consideration how hard you are breathing, take this final item into consideration. "How hard am I exercising?" This is very similar to above, but centers more around how you feel about your exercise and not your breathing. If you feel good, the ride is good, breathing is good, energy is good, and yet you are at the max for your target heart range, again consider modifying your range a few beats per minute higher. The opposite applies as well.

So what target heart range do I set my monitor for? Remember my range is supposed to be 156 to 168. However, I find that mountain biking in that range is not challenging, I don't feel like I'm really exercising. I actually set my heart rate monitor to min. 170 and max. 185. The 170 is to keep me on my toes on days I am not self-motivated to ride, because the monitor beeps if I go under. I generally automatically ride around 178bpm without looking at the monitor. When I do sprints or hard climbs, I may go over 185 for a few seconds, and the monitor signals to me with a different beep and I know to take it a little easier for a few minutes.

There is a great deal more to cover under this topic, as it is largely not understood. We'll leave off here and take up again in the Intermediate area. If you are interested in learning in detail about how using a heart rate monitor can help you perform to your peak, what it all really means, and how your body works to do exercise, jump on over to this article (not available yet).