HOW TO FIND YOUR SAFE TRAINING ZONE

How many times in our lives have we woken up and decided that today is the day to get fit?  We leap out of bed, pull on our trainers and head outside, full of hope and enthusiasm, only to drop out a few months later (if you haven’t already done so after the first 5 minutes!).  Sound familiar?  If you feel exhausted instead of energised, if you struggle for breath, if you aren’t achieving the results you had expected, perhaps you are not exercising in your training zone.  This is at best ineffective and at worst dangerous. 

So what is a training zone and how do we find it?  You need to decide what your goals are and determine your general fitness levels in order to select the most appropriate zone.  In order for exercise to be effective, we need to get our pulse rate up to between 60% and 95% of our maximum heart rate minus our age.  If you are a beginner or simply want to work on your stamina, you would take the lower percentage.  If you are fit and want to perhaps improve your speed, you would want to work towards the upper limits.  If it falls below 60%, we may not get the results we would like; work too hard and the consequences could be very serious indeed for an unfit, overweight, older person.  So it’s a very useful tool indeed. 

Find your training zone to make your workout safe and effective

The easiest calculation to use is to take Maximum Heart Rate as 220 (210 if your are unfit) minus your age.  Multiply the result by the percentage you have decided will give the results you require.  For example, an unfit, overweight 35 year old would be aiming to work at 60% to begin with:

MHR = 210 – age 35 = 175 x 60% = 105 bpm (beats per minute)

A fit 26 year old who wants to work on speed  would be training at 85% at times: 

MHR = 226 – age 26 = 200 x 85% = 170 bpm

It isn’t necessary to buy a heart rate monitor.  You can just pause for 15 seconds, take your pulse and times by 4.  If you are struggling for breath, check your pulse: you may well be working too hard!  However, although one guideline states that you should be able to hold a conversation, I would say only just.  If you can chatter away continuously for 20 minutes, maybe it’s time to speed up a bit.

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