If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you may have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has grown in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to a boom in wearable technology that makes it easy to track your heart rate.
heart rate zone Reflects different levels of intensity during aerobic exercise. Most often it’s based on a percentage of your maximum heart rate (the highest heart rate your heart can achieve in one minute).
But what are the different heart rate zones and how can you use them to optimize your workouts?
3 zone model
There are several models used to describe heart rate zones, but the most common models in the scientific literature are: 3 zone modelHere, zones are classified as follows:
- Zone 1: 55% to 82% of maximum heart rate
- Zone 2: 82% to 87% of maximum heart rate
- Zone 3: 87% to 97% of maximum heart rate.
If you don’t know your maximum heart rate, you can calculate it using: this equation: 208 – (0.7 × age). For example, I’m 32 years old. 208 – (0.7 x 32) = 185.6 Therefore, the expected maximum heart rate is approximately 186 beats per minute.
There are also other models used to describe heart rate zones. 5 zone model (As the name suggests, it has five different zones).these model They mean almost the same thing and can be used interchangeably in most cases.
What do the different zones include?
The three zones are based on your personal life. lactate thresholdThis represents the point at which exercise intensity transitions from primarily aerobic to primarily anaerobic.
aerobic uses oxygen It helps your muscles work and allows you to continue for long periods of time without getting tired. However, anaerobic exercise uses stored energy to fuel exercise. Anaerobic exercise also produces metabolic byproducts (such as lactate) that increase fatigue. This means that anaerobic exercise can only produce energy for a short period of time.
On average, lactate thresholds tend to plateau 85% of maximum heart ratethis varies from person to person, higher for athletes.
In a three-zone model, each zone is described at a high level. 1 of 3 types of training.
zone 1 It refers to high-volume, low-intensity exercise, usually performed at a slow pace well below the lactate threshold, for long periods of time. Examples include jogging or cycling at a gentle pace.
zone 2 Threshold training, also known as tempo training, is a medium-intensity training method performed at (or near) your lactate threshold for a moderate period of time. This is running, pedaling, or riding a bicycle at a speed that makes it difficult to speak complete sentences.
zone 3 It primarily describes methods of high-intensity interval training performed at intensities above lactate threshold for shorter periods of time. For example, a circuit-style workout that involves 30 seconds of intense exertion followed by 30 seconds of rest would be in Zone 3.
to keep balance
Maximizing your endurance performance requires a balance between training enough to elicit positive changes while avoiding overtraining, injury, and burnout.
Zone 3 is thought to provide the greatest improvement; maximum oxygen uptake – One of the best predictors of endurance performance and overall health – Also one of the most tiring. This means you can only do a limited amount of work before it becomes too much.
Training in different heart rate zones improves performance slightly different physiological propertiesTherefore, by spending time in each zone, Various benefits For performance and health.
So how much time should you spend in each zone?
largely elite endurance athleteRunners, rowers, and even cross-country skiers tend to spend the majority of their training (about 80%) in Zone 1, with the rest split between Zones 2 and 3.
Elite endurance athletes do a lot of training and need to do most of it in Zone 1. Otherwise, you risk injury and burnout. For example, some runners accumulate. more than 250 km per weekall performed in zone 2 or 3, it is impossible to recover.
Of course, most people aren’t professional athletes.of who For adults, we recommend 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week.
If you look at this in terms of heart rate zones, you can think of training in zone 1 as moderate intensity, and zones 2 and 3 as intense training. You can then use heart rate zones to make sure you’re exercising to meet these guidelines.
What if I don’t have a heart rate monitor?
If you don’t have access to a heart rate tracker, that doesn’t mean you can’t use heart rate zones to guide your training.
The three heart rate zones described in this article can also be prescribed based on sensation using a simple tool. 10-point ratingHere, 0 indicates no effort and 10 indicates the maximum amount of effort that can be produced.
In this system, Zone 1 is 4 out of 10 or lower, Zone 2 is 4.5 to 6.5 out of 10, and Zone 3 is 7 out of 10 or higher.
Heart rate zones aren’t a perfect measure of exercise intensity, but they can be a useful tool. If you don’t want to care about heart rate zones at all, that’s okay. The most important thing is to just start moving.
hunter bennettExercise Science Instructor, University of South Australia
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
