On the 2nd Day of Christmas My Trainer Gave to Me…..

Are you exercising hard enough? Or maybe even too hard? So often clients are surprised when they discover exactly what they’ve been doing!

An inexpensive Heart Rate Monitor helps you calculate where your “work zone” is so you can adjust your workout according to your personal heart rate and goals. The instructions that come with your monitor will walk you through calculating your resting rate, fat burning rate, anaerobic zone, etc. plus help you figure out how to work towards-and most important, achieve-your goals.

Many times I suggest a heart rate monitor if a person is new to exercise, overcoming, or still struggling with, some health issue, or taking medications that affect their heart rate. This is a great aid for me as the trainer because it allows me to see how fast they can increase their heart rate and how long it takes it to return to normal. (typically the faster it returns to your normal state, the fitter your heart is). It also shows me when too much is enough and I need to back off some...temporarily :)

Another way to use a monitor is to create your own interval workout based on your numbers. Bring your heart rate into your work zone then add instensity (think burpees) and bring the rate up to near anaerobic (It’s ok to be in the anaerobic zone for a short time) then reduce the intensity and bring it back to normal. Then repeat as many times as you can :)

An extra bonus!! if your monitor calculates your calories too, it can be sooo motivating to know that you just burned 400 calories! WhooHoo! Makes you want to workout all over again, right?

I have suggested purchasing a heart rate monitor to so many people that I really should be getting a commission from those companies. Think they’d agree to it???