Cardio
Personal trainers have the need to justify their existence. But especially in the area of cardio vascular training you do not need one. What you do need is a good heart rate monitor (like the one below). Why? Because if you work outside your ‘cardio’ heart rate zone you are either wasting your time or you are burning sugar or worse: your muscle tissue.
The body does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat in the ‘fat burning zone’ or at lower intensities. But, at higher intensities, you burn a greater number of overall calories which is what you should be concerned about when trying to lose weight.
In order to figure out which zone you’re in, you first need to figure out what your own target heart rate is. You can do this by using the Karvonen Formula. You can also use any number of target heart rate calculators to get your heart rate zone, but many of them do not incorporate your resting heart rate (which makes it a bit more accurate).
Below is an example of the Karvonen formula for a 23 year old person with a resting heart rate of 65 beats per minute (*to get your resting heart rate, take your pulse for one full minute.):
220 – 23 (age) = 197
197 – 65 (resting heart rate) = 132
132 * 65% (low end of heart rate) OR 85% (high end) = 85.8 OR 112.2
85.8 + 65 (resting heart rate) = 150 112.2 + 65 (rhr) = 177
The target heart rate zone for this person would be 150 to 177
Click on the image to learn moe about heart rate monitors!
