Measuring Your Heart Rate & Tracking Your Workouts
Keeping track of your workouts is a great way to make them more purpose driven, efficient, holds you accountable and honest. Whether your goal is to get stronger, improve your endurance, lose some weight or reduce back pain, a workout log is key to the planning, organising, measuring and understanding of your fitness and overall goals.
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A workout log book, smartphone or a wearable, are all great options to track your progress, how much you lift, how far you run and if you are in a positive or negative routine. If you use Apple devices, you can easily log your workouts and health data to the Apple Health app. This includes your heart rate, height, weight, daily steps and workouts.
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For adults it’s recommended you get 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. We advise engaging in muscle-strengthening activities two or more days a week minimum.
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Heart Rate
Exercise intensity refers to the degree of difficulty experienced during exercise. A simple method for measuring exercise intensity (especially for aerobic workouts) is to use the heart rate.
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The average adult resting heart rate (RHR) is 60-100 bpm.
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Resting heart rates can vary tremendously among individuals and factors like gender, stress, hormones and medication can affect. Fit individuals tend to have a lower resting heart rate, sometimes as low as 40 bpm. Inactive individuals can often have high resting heart rates, sometimes over 100 bpm.
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Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) Exercise intensity for aerobic work is generally expressed as a percentage of your MHR. It's the maximum number of times in one minute that your heart can contract when exercising.
You can use the below formula to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR):
220 - your age =
If you are 35 years old, your MHR is 185
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Target Heart Rate (THR)
Your target heart rate is between 50% and 70% of your maximum heart rate. You should aim to exercise with your heart rate between these two figures. To work out your target heart rate, multiply your maximum heart rate by 50% and 70%. Example: To work out the target heart rate for a 35 year old: 185 x 50% = 92 bpm
185 x 70% = 129 bpm A 35 year old person should aim to exercise with their heart rate between 92 and 129 bpm.
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Optimum Training Zone
To work your heart and lungs efficiently and to burn fat you need to aim to work at between 65 to 85 % of your MHR.
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To train in your optimum training zone for your goals you simply multiply your MHR calculation.
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A 35 year old's MHR is 185 beats per minute (bpm).
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65% of 185 (0.65 x 185) is 120 and 85% of 189 (0.85 x 185) is 157
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Measuring Your Heart Rate
You can measure your heart rate manually, by simply taking your pulse, the talk test or RPE (scale of perceived exertion). These all track the exercise intensity be that for cardio or strength goals.
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The idea behind the talk test or RPE is that the harder you work, the more breathless you become and the harder it is to talk. The idea is to rank your intensity on a scale of 1 to 10. One is no effort while 10 is sprinting for your life, maximum effort. You want to stay somewhere between 5 and 9 depending on the workout you're doing.
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Simply ask yourself if you can speak comfortably during your chosen activity. If the answer is yes, you're at a low intensity. If the answer is no, you're at or above a Level 5 on the RPE scale - it's that simple!
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A fitness tracker or smartwatch helps to take the guesswork out of monitoring your heart rate or level of intensity. Another advantage of using these devices to find your target heart rate is that they can be easily updated by the manufacturer to match the current research-backed zones.
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Tracking Your LDM Workouts
We often get asked which is the best setting to set your smartwatch to?
Try selecting 'Open Goal', or 'Functional Training' for LDM Sculpt, Sculpt & Stretch or Barre. LDM Shape Changer or Cardio the 'High-Intensity Interval Training' option is best suited.