Using your heart rate for your training is a good way to gauge intensity for the session. This can be useful as it can allow for more of a tailored session, allowing you to work within your own limits of fitness. Not only does it allow you to gauge your intensity but it allows you to receive a desired physiological benefits from your session. For this reason each one of your sessions may have different heart rate zones to hit depending on the intent of the sessions and depending on what the desired benefits for the athletes are. All of the zones are calculated in relation of your maximum heart rate (MHR). To calculate MHR it is 220- age (in years). (Ullah, Khan, Gul and Ullah, 2022)
What are the benefits?
- Allows for you to manage load to ensure that you are not overtraining and therefore reducing your risk of injury.
- By targeting a specific heart rate zone it will ensure that you are receiving the desired outcome from the session. This can be useful for training for desired energy systems to improve aspects of your performance like lactate threshold and aerobic base etc
- It allows for a more personalised training intensity so you are able to complete the desired session effectively.
- For more endurance based sports it allows you to have better pacing as you will be more aware at what pace you can sustain aerobic exercise without going into zone 4/5 and causing fatigue too early.
(Ullah, Khan, Gul, and Ullah, 2022.)
What are the zones and how long do I spend in them?
Zone 1 (60-72% MHR) 1-6 hours
Zone 2 (72-82% MHR) 1-3 hours
Zone 3 (82-87% MHR) 50-90 mins
Zone 4 (88-92% MHR) 30-60 mins
Zone 5 (93-100% MHR) 15-30 mins
(Seiler, 2010)
