Target Heart Rate
 

When working on machines (bike, elliptyical, treadmill) doing some cardio exercises, you are always given a number as a target heart rate. Me being 26, is usually 155. Now, is there a rule of thumb of how long it should take to reach this target heart rate? How long I should continue to exercise once the target heart rate is achieved? Exactly what is the purpose for benchmarking a heart rate while exercising?

everyone is different. unless you've had extensive testing done, nobody can tell you anything about what your target HR should, or should not be.

read this: http://peakcentre.ca/Five_Rules_of_H...Monitoring.htm

Depends are what you are trying to obtain. Certain rates are for body builders while others are for marathon runners.

When I'm jogging I reach my Max HR within 5-8 minutes. On my stationary bike its more like 10 minutes. I think its task-specific how fast you get to your desired HR.

Read up on it...there's a whole science to this stuff.

1. There is no rule of thumb for how long it should take to reach your target heart rate. It all depends on the intensity of your workout. Higher intensities will get there faster. And given that your target is about 80% of your maximum (based on your numbers), I'd say your getting up there in intensity.


2. How long you continue to exercise once that target is achieved is totally up to you, and depends mostly on your goals. Generally, lower intensity exercise (say... 60% of your target heart rate) will require a longer amount of time to burn the same amount of fat. But as for a set amount of time, it all depends on how much you want to burn. But don't go so long that you hurt yourself.


3. The purpose for benchmarking a heart rate is mainly for telling the difference between burning fat and just burning calories. Just because you're exercising doesn't mean you're burning fat. When you exercise, your body starts burning calories, but the calories that you burn are generally from the carbs that are already in your system. So if you don't get up to your target heart rate, you're basically burning water weight and ultimately slowing down your metabolism. In order to burn calories from your stored fat, which is what most people are really trying to do when they exercise, your body needs to process oxygen. You need a certain amount of oxygen to start burning fat and your target heart rate is simply a way of measuring this. It's a general tool that tells us where you will be breathing hard enough to get the amount of oxygen you need running through your system to burn fat.

^^^ :sure:

It's true.


There is also one school of thought that suggests you include your resting heart rate when calculating you target heart rate zone. So instead of just subtracting your age from 220 to get your maximum, then taking the 60-90 percent of that to get your target, you would instead subtract your age from 220, then subtract your resting heart rate, and then take the percentage, and that would give the net increase in heart rate that you need to achieve. It's said to be more accurate for finding your fat burning zone. :shrug:


Example:

220 - 26 (age) = 194
194 - 65 (resting heart rate) = 129
129 * 60% (low end of target heart rate) OR 90% (high end) = 77.4 OR 116.1

77.4 + 65 = 142 <--- this is the point where you start burning fat, and the highest percentage of calories burned are from fat
116.1 + 65 = 181<--- this is top of your heart rate zone where you're burning the highest overall number of calories and fat calories