Tis the season: hearts are everywhere. Chocolates and love notes aside, let’s use February to talk about how to protect your heart: and no, we don’t mean swiping left or sliding into DMs. Your heart is one of the most essential parts of your body, and the first step is understanding exactly how heart rate zones work.
Knowing your heart rate zones is a great first step in understand how hard you are working, and how your body is responding to your workout. Your heart rate might be much different from the person next to you depending on age, gender, fitness level, and individual variations,and that’s ok. A good start is to find YOUR Maximum Heart Rate, using this simple formula: 220 minus your age. Once you have that figured out,every workout will fall into one of the 5 zones.
Zone 1 is you just existing. As you start the class and gradually warm up, you’ll find that your heart rate rises gradually as you get warmer and warmer, moving you into Zone 2. Think about using Zone 2 during your warm up before the real work begins. When doing a steady workout, you might have aimed for Zone 3 and stayed there for the duration if your time on the treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike. HIIT workouts are going to demand frequent bursts into Zone 4 and sometimes short ventures into Zone 5 before coming back down for a rest. Hit that interval hard, take abreather as your heart rate comes down, then get ready for more intervals working back into these high zones.
As you get into the workout and work your way into these high zones, pay attention to your breathing, the pounding of your heart,the searing in your muscles. Listen to what your body is telling you, and push yourself into that zone that is just gets you uncomfortable.
The great news is that HIIT workouts are great for your heart and body! Like revving the engine on a car, these ensure that your body gets to experience the whole range of intensity levels that steady endurance alone can’t offer. And as you get fitter, the same intensity workout will start to feel that little bit easier and you can push yourself harder!
Stay tuned for the next of our Protect Your Heart series: the best foods for heart health.
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Catalyst Fitness member James Thompson is a 4-time National Championship- winning rower who competed for the Canisius High School, West Side Rowing Club, and Cornell University teams. He currently competes as an elite level cyclist with the Shickluna Bikes/Catalyst Fitness cycling team.
