© by Sally Edwards

There is no one-size-fits-all universal training method. Rather, exercise must be individually tailored to fit you. And that’s just what heart zone training provides - a completely personalized exercise program that works for all people and all activities. It works for a 50-year-old professional athlete like me, a 60-year old with a family history of heart problems, a 70-year old wanting to improve strength, or an 80-year old who wants to climb to the third floor of a building without puffing. It works for a 20-year-old who wants to get fitter, a 30-year-old who has become more sedentary from too much time in front of a computer, and a 40-year-old who is preparing for a second wedding ceremony and wants to be their best. It’s a one-program-fits-all hearts way toward wellness.

Let's take heart zone training one part at a time and first look at those three words: Heart, Zone, and Training.

HEART

That's easy. Your heart's a muscle; you can strengthen it. It's a use-it-or-lose-it muscle so if you don't do cardiovascular exercise, you'll lose some of the hearts functional ability. It’s the most important muscle in your entire body. It should be treated that way.

ZONE

A zone is simply a rang of heart beats. Recent research has shown powerful benefits from exercising in several different zones rather than one target zone to get maximum benefit in the least amount of time.

TRAINING

Training is the regime of exercising to achieve a goal. It's different than exercising. When you exercise you are doing it for the joy and benefit of the exercise. When you train, you want to accomplish a goal like get fitter, feel better, improve your health, lower your blood pressure.

You can train smarter and get more benefits if and when you start using the beat of your heart.

RATING YOUR HEART RATE

Heart rate is a measurement tool to help in determining the health of your heart. The index is beats per minute (bpm). Some heart rate numbers are better than others. For example, you want to have low resting and low ambient heart rate measurements. You want to have high heart rate numbers if you are training hard and you want to know what your sustainable heart rate values are as well. You have a maximum heart rate, a delta heart rate, and an anaerobic threshold number. There are ways of measuring these values accurately and continuously and to so we use a heart rate monitor.

The tests to determine how fit your heart muscle is are relatively easy and they don’t take a lot of time. After taking some of them you’ll want to re-test yourself to see if your training program is getting you cardiovascularly fitter. If you ever see any of the older wall charts about heart rate especially the ones that set your heart zones for you, be cautious. They are assuming that you are "typical" or average and few of us fit that category.

THE FIVE HEART ZONES

Heart zones are all expressed as a percentage of your maximum heart rate (Max HR). They reflect exercise intensity. By training in each of the five different zones you’ll realize five different result. Using your heart beat, you’ll set each of these zones at 10% of your Max HR. Here’s the new training chart that shows you how:

(insert HZT chart here)

Along the top, select the number which corresponds to your Max HR and then train on different days in one or more of the five different heart zones. This is called "time in zone" training and here’s what happens in each of them:

Zone 1 THE HEALTHY HEART ZONE: 50%-60% of your individual Max HR

This is the safest, most comfortable zone, reached by walking briskly, swimming easily, doing any low intensity activity including mowing your lawn. Here you strengthen your heart and improve muscle mass while you reduce body fat, cholesterol, blood pressure, and your risk for degenerative disease. You get healthier in this zone, but not more aerobically fit -- that is, it won't increase your endurance or strength but it will improve your health.

Zone 2 THE TEMPERATE ZONE: 60% to 70% of your individual Max HR.

It's easily reached by going a little faster like increasing from a walk to a jog. While still a relatively low level of effort, this zone starts training your body to increase the rate of fat release from the cells to the muscles for fuel. Some people have erroneously called this the "fat burning zone" because up to 85 % of the total calories burned in this zone are fat calories. Rather, we burn fat in all zones.

Zone 3 THE AEROBIC ZONE: 70%-80% or your individual Max HR

In this zone -- reached by running moderately as an example -- you improve your functional capacity. The number and size of your blood vessels actually increase, your your lung capacity and respiratory rate, and your heart increases in size and strength so you can exercise longer before becoming fatigued. You're still metabolizing fats and carbohydrates but the ratio has changed - about a 50-50 rate which means both are burning at the same ratio.

Zone 4 THE ANAEROBIC THRESHOLD ZONE: 80%-90% of your individual Max HR

This zone is reached by going hard -- running faster. Here you get faster and fitter, increasing your heart rate as you cross from aerobic to anaerobic training. At this point, your heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to supply the exercising muscles fully so they respond by continuing to contract anaerobically. This is where you "feel the burn." You can stay in this zone for a limited amount of time, usually not more than an hour. That's because the muscle just cannot sustain working anaerobically (this means without sufficient oxygen) without fatiguing. The working muscles protect themselves from overwork by not being able to maintain the intensity level.

Zone 5 THE REDLINE ZONE: 90% to 100% of your individual Max HR.

This is the equivalent of running all out and is used mostly as an "interval" training regiment -- exertion done only in short to intermediate length bursts. Even world-class athletes can stay in this zone for only a few minutes at a time. It's not a zone most people will select for exercise since working out here hurts, there is an increased potential for injury but you burn lots of calories, mostly carbohydrates.

THE TRAINING TREE

Now you understand that we use the beat of our heart as the source of determining how hard we exercise. Most people have been using how they feel or they might use how fast they ride or run. With the technology of a heart rate monitor, you don’t have to guess any longer but rather you can train precisely. To do this we use the analogy of climbing up a tree called the Training Tree.

You go up and down the limbs of your new exercise tree depending on your goals, at your own speed. As you climb the branches, you'll increase your all-around fitness and your body will experience wonderful, truly incredible changes. The different training limbs like the different heart zones are based on the benefits you receive when you are training on that limb and from top to bottom are as follows: base branch, endurance branch, strength branch, speed branch, peak branch, racing branch (and of course the recovery branch).

(insert the Training Tree here)

My book Heart Zone Training and my just released SMART HEART, High Performance Heart Zone Training each give a number of sample training programs for each branch. It also describes how to maintain a personal Heart Zone Training log where you record your training in various zones to evaluate your total effort over a period of time.

Exercise must fit you as an individual. I'm convinced and so are thousands of others who train using this technological approach that it will lead to your integration of your mind, your body, and your spirit into a wellness exercise program that works. You'll begin to see positive benefits as you feel more energy and sleep better. I predict you'll also feel a real boost to your self-esteem that will make it fun to keep going.

Sally Edwards is the author of 18 books on health, sports, and fitness including several best sellers such as The Heart Rate Monitor Guidebook and Heart Zone Training. She is one of America’s leading fitness experts, a professional triathlete, and a keynote speaker. She can be reached through her website: www.heartzones.com.

Learn to use your heart rate monitor!