I’m an MD physician and I completely agree with you, Coach. The heart rate is affected by a myriad of bio-environmental factors including (but not limited to): ambient temperature, body temperature, humidity, infection, immune responses (eg to pollen, pollution, etc ), bowel and bladder fullness, OTC and prescription medications, proximity to eating, amount of eating, types of food eaten (take HR before and after a spicy enchilada as proof), physical stress, emotional stress and worry, sleep and rest, etc. There are literally dozens and dozens of real life aspects that affect HR beyond simple instantaneous physical effort (as the HR strap and watch makers wish for us to believe). It kills me to see my running friends on #Strava tracking their workout heart rates like a stock broker tracks the Dow Jones Industrial average, and then beating themselves up for having a “poor workout” when their HR was elevated…likely simply because they didn’t pee before the workout! Thanks, Coach Travis. Appreciate your wisdom.
I've found heart rate zones to be really useful as a way to manage my effort level for each session. I know I can maintain a zone 1 or 2 heart rate pretty much indefinitely (until my butt gets sore from the seat). Zone 3 is hard for me but I can maintain it for about an hour. What seems to work the best for me is I'll row at a pace that's better than my PR for the first 10 mins or so and then decide based on how I feel at around the 10 minute mark whether I'm doing a zone 1, 2, or 3 workout. If I'm tired or sore I'll do a zone 1. If I feel good, zone 3. If I'm not too sore but not feeling great then zone 2. Usually that allows me to do at least 1 hour 7 days a week and usually 2 hours. Most of my sessions end up being zone 1 or 2, but I'm seeing pretty consistent gains with all 3 so far. When I first started, before I had a heart rate monitor, I would just go as hard as I could every time and I struggled to do more than 3 or 4 hours a week because I was just too sore all the time. I find heart rate to be a much more accurate estimate of my effort level than spm or pace.
HR training is tricky as profiles aren't as easy to generalize as the monitor companies would like you to think. You can train your aerobic system fine at conversational pace in rowing, but you will not perform as well in competition because you are not used to producing a high force per stroke. If competition is your goal, I would recommend developing an understanding of UT2 and using that as your foundation. I have plenty of videos on here that describe that training zone.
I’ll let Travis advise, but in the meantime start collecting data on your heart rate during standard types of exercise. Take your resting heart rate every morning.
What I did to estimate mine was to set up a high intensity interval workout with short rest breaks. Go close to all out for about 250 meters, rest for 60 seconds, repeat til you feel like you're about to die. Record the highest number you see on the erg. In my case I also assumed that since I'm out of shape, I probably wasn't pushing myself to the absolute limit so I added 10 and rounded up. So the formula says I should be at 172 max. Highest number I saw on the erg with a HIIT workout was 179. So I guestimated it at 190. Also, from what I've seen on a lot of the heart rate training pages for runners, at zone 1 you should be able to do the entire workout with your mouth closed, only breathing through your nose. At zone 2 it should be difficult to carry on a full conversation but short phrases are doable. At zone 3 you can't really talk, you're working too hard, but you should still be able to go for an extended period of time (like an hour or so). Zone 4 and 5 is where your muscles start really burning and you can't maintain that pace for long distances. You're probably in zone 4/5 if you're doing a PR 2k pace.
@smh Heart rate zones need to be reverse engineered based on individual training data. Accumulate time and HR data in each training zone and then determine your typical ranges for each. Then moving forward you will be able to use that information as a baseline for evaluating performance and detecting anomalies.
Basically, it takes time for heart rate to reflect the intensity of the training. The lactate takes time to accumulate and the body takes time to react. All the biological/chemical processes are not instant. Even after a proper warm-up, one's lactate level at the start is still quite close to the minimum. The heart rate will still increase quite a bit from, for example, the tenth minute to the last minute for a 30-minute session even if one keeps the same split/intensity. I personally use my feeling to roughly estimate my training intensity so that I have a general idea of the split for each of my training zones. Then I compare the heart rate curves over the whole training session across multiple same-type training sessions to fine-tune my plans and to evaluate if I have improved or not. Now the weather is getting warmer and sometimes quite humid, and this impacts the heart rate a lot. So I started to record temperature and humidity as well, at least I will get something to compare to next year at the same time.
Your heart rate should be a check on your training, not a guideline. You need to collect data for several months while training in each zone and then you can extrapolate what your typical range is for each category.
Doesn’t make much sense to me. A video that leaves you wondering what you are supposed to do after all this. Apart from the fact that the formulas work pretty well for most (and don’t pretend to be right in all cases) you make statements that are just strange. You say for example that training in heat will raise your heart rate for a given level of output. Everyone knows that. However, you seem to conclude that as a consequence your heart rate zone shifts upward to correct for the heat. Really? Isn’t the whole idea that heart rate measures effort or the demand on your cardiovascular system? As heat increases the effort required at a given pace why would you adjust the heart rate zone? Logically you keep the zone as measure of effort unchanged but you slow down your pace because you expend the same effort at a slower pace as you do at a higher pace in colder weather.
Training adaptations are made at specific blood lactate concentrations, not heart rates. Using HR to target blood lactate concentrations while training has limited utility unless one is very familiar with their own specific heart rate profiles. Trying to standardize heart rate profiles for either small or large groups of individuals (much less the general population) is a fools errand.
![UNDERSTANDING UT1 STEADY STATE [FOR ROWING] and How to Execute a UT1 Training Session](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gaZudbfGjmQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Yes! I’m 74. Prior 4:09 miler pro cyclist. Max HR now is 186. I can exercise for an hour at 300 watts. So you are so so right
I’m an MD physician and I completely agree with you, Coach. The heart rate is affected by a myriad of bio-environmental factors including (but not limited to): ambient temperature, body temperature, humidity, infection, immune responses (eg to pollen, pollution, etc ), bowel and bladder fullness, OTC and prescription medications, proximity to eating, amount of eating, types of food eaten (take HR before and after a spicy enchilada as proof), physical stress, emotional stress and worry, sleep and rest, etc. There are literally dozens and dozens of real life aspects that affect HR beyond simple instantaneous physical effort (as the HR strap and watch makers wish for us to believe). It kills me to see my running friends on #Strava tracking their workout heart rates like a stock broker tracks the Dow Jones Industrial average, and then beating themselves up for having a “poor workout” when their HR was elevated…likely simply because they didn’t pee before the workout! Thanks, Coach Travis. Appreciate your wisdom.
All them reasons listed are the reasons why HR is the best way of measuring training
@@jjjjames5824 You be you
I've found heart rate zones to be really useful as a way to manage my effort level for each session. I know I can maintain a zone 1 or 2 heart rate pretty much indefinitely (until my butt gets sore from the seat). Zone 3 is hard for me but I can maintain it for about an hour. What seems to work the best for me is I'll row at a pace that's better than my PR for the first 10 mins or so and then decide based on how I feel at around the 10 minute mark whether I'm doing a zone 1, 2, or 3 workout. If I'm tired or sore I'll do a zone 1. If I feel good, zone 3. If I'm not too sore but not feeling great then zone 2. Usually that allows me to do at least 1 hour 7 days a week and usually 2 hours. Most of my sessions end up being zone 1 or 2, but I'm seeing pretty consistent gains with all 3 so far. When I first started, before I had a heart rate monitor, I would just go as hard as I could every time and I struggled to do more than 3 or 4 hours a week because I was just too sore all the time. I find heart rate to be a much more accurate estimate of my effort level than spm or pace.
HR training is tricky as profiles aren't as easy to generalize as the monitor companies would like you to think. You can train your aerobic system fine at conversational pace in rowing, but you will not perform as well in competition because you are not used to producing a high force per stroke. If competition is your goal, I would recommend developing an understanding of UT2 and using that as your foundation. I have plenty of videos on here that describe that training zone.
Does temperature and humidity have a significant affect on HR Zones? -Chris
HR will rise with both temperature and humidity given consistent effort. Another reason standard HR training guidance is misleading.
Travis is absolutely right about max heart rate calculators. The popular 220- your age puts me at 155 max heart rate. That is bogus.
Sure, but that doesn't really help anyone does it. How should I determine my zones instead?
I’ll let Travis advise, but in the meantime start collecting data on your heart rate during standard types of exercise. Take your resting heart rate every morning.
What I did to estimate mine was to set up a high intensity interval workout with short rest breaks. Go close to all out for about 250 meters, rest for 60 seconds, repeat til you feel like you're about to die. Record the highest number you see on the erg. In my case I also assumed that since I'm out of shape, I probably wasn't pushing myself to the absolute limit so I added 10 and rounded up. So the formula says I should be at 172 max. Highest number I saw on the erg with a HIIT workout was 179. So I guestimated it at 190.
Also, from what I've seen on a lot of the heart rate training pages for runners, at zone 1 you should be able to do the entire workout with your mouth closed, only breathing through your nose. At zone 2 it should be difficult to carry on a full conversation but short phrases are doable. At zone 3 you can't really talk, you're working too hard, but you should still be able to go for an extended period of time (like an hour or so). Zone 4 and 5 is where your muscles start really burning and you can't maintain that pace for long distances. You're probably in zone 4/5 if you're doing a PR 2k pace.
@smh Heart rate zones need to be reverse engineered based on individual training data. Accumulate time and HR data in each training zone and then determine your typical ranges for each. Then moving forward you will be able to use that information as a baseline for evaluating performance and detecting anomalies.
Basically, it takes time for heart rate to reflect the intensity of the training. The lactate takes time to accumulate and the body takes time to react. All the biological/chemical processes are not instant. Even after a proper warm-up, one's lactate level at the start is still quite close to the minimum. The heart rate will still increase quite a bit from, for example, the tenth minute to the last minute for a 30-minute session even if one keeps the same split/intensity. I personally use my feeling to roughly estimate my training intensity so that I have a general idea of the split for each of my training zones. Then I compare the heart rate curves over the whole training session across multiple same-type training sessions to fine-tune my plans and to evaluate if I have improved or not. Now the weather is getting warmer and sometimes quite humid, and this impacts the heart rate a lot. So I started to record temperature and humidity as well, at least I will get something to compare to next year at the same time.
Good info but what do I do now? How do I determine my zones?
Your heart rate should be a check on your training, not a guideline. You need to collect data for several months while training in each zone and then you can extrapolate what your typical range is for each category.
Doesn’t make much sense to me. A video that leaves you wondering what you are supposed to do after all this. Apart from the fact that the formulas work pretty well for most (and don’t pretend to be right in all cases) you make statements that are just strange. You say for example that training in heat will raise your heart rate for a given level of output. Everyone knows that. However, you seem to conclude that as a consequence your heart rate zone shifts upward to correct for the heat. Really? Isn’t the whole idea that heart rate measures effort or the demand on your cardiovascular system? As heat increases the effort required at a given pace why would you adjust the heart rate zone? Logically you keep the zone as measure of effort unchanged but you slow down your pace because you expend the same effort at a slower pace as you do at a higher pace in colder weather.
Training adaptations are made at specific blood lactate concentrations, not heart rates. Using HR to target blood lactate concentrations while training has limited utility unless one is very familiar with their own specific heart rate profiles. Trying to standardize heart rate profiles for either small or large groups of individuals (much less the general population) is a fools errand.
Absolute bollocks