How Your Heart Rate Indicates your Body's Level of Fitness

Have you ever wondered how your intensity level is helping your fitness goals? It's a matter of the heart.

You determine the intensity level of a workout by monitoring your heart rate. Your heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute. Working out with a high heart rate over long periods of time leads to overtraining. If you are a beginner, it could be dangerous. Working out with a low heart rate renders your session ineffective. Working out within your target heart rate maximizes your efforts. The latter leads to achieving your fitness goals faster.

First, determine your resting heart rate. You do this first thing in the morning. Feel your pulse either on the neck or wrist. Count the number of beats you feel for 60 seconds. You can count for 30 seconds and multiply it by 2. Use this number as a guide to determining your max heart rate.

Your max heart rate is 220 minus your age. Let's use a 36 year old man, as an example. 220 - 36 = 184bpm (beats per minute). Now use that number to determine your target heart rate.

Your target heart rate is a range of numbers that reflect how fast your heart should beat when you exercise. This number is a percentage of your max heart rate. Use the following chart as a guide:

Target Heart Rate (%)	Level of Intensity	Working Zone
50 - 59	Low	1 - Gray
60 - 69	Low - Moderate	2 - Blue
70 - 79	Moderate	3 - Green
80 - 89	High	4 - Yellow
90 and up	Very high	5 - Red

Use that target heart rate to perform for a certain timeframe. This puts the energy pathways into play. The body uses 3 energy pathways when performing physical activity. For instance:

• 0 - 10 seconds, your body uses the phosphagen system

• 11 seconds to 2 minutes, your body uses the anaerobic glycolytic system

• Over 2 minutes, your body uses the aerobic glycolytic system

I covered these energy pathways in another article. Check out How Training the Right Energy Pathway Helps your Fitness Goals to learn more.

Experts associate levels on intensity with each energy pathway. Phosphagen system is for high intensity activity. The anaerobic glycolytic system is for high and moderate intensity activities. The aerobic glycolytic system is for moderate and low intensity activity. Work in these energy pathways based on your training intent or fitness goals.

Let's use my current workout plan as an example. I am undergoing the 10 x 10 workout plan by Vince Gironda. This workout is an upper and lower body split every other day for 5 days. This means I workout my upper body on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I workout my lower body on Tuesday and Thursday. And I rest on Saturday and Sunday. I perform 10 reps for 10 sets on each exercise. I perform one exercise per body part. My goal is muscle definition by dropping body fat.

The strategy of the workout plan is to have little to no rest between sets and exercises. This means less than 10 seconds. Once fatigue sets in though, I increase my rest time to no more than 30 seconds. This starts to happen around the eighth set. This means that I work my aerobic glycolytic system the most. Each workout lasts from 20 to 40 minutes. I do not rest long enough for my anaerobic glycolytic system to recover. Here are my stats from my last workouts:

Body Part	Average Heart Rate	Total Time	Total Calories
Upper body	117bpm	36:22	156
Lower body	133bpm	23:51	205

For context, I use an Apple Watch to track my movement activity.

As you can see, I burned more calories with a higher heart rate in less time. Still, I am working in the blu and green zones described above. This means I am working at a low to moderate and moderate ranges of my max heart rate. I expect for these numbers to increase as I adjust one component of the F.I.T.T. principle each week. Read How to Look Fit and Feel Great using the FITT Principle in your Next Workout Program to learn more.

And there you have it. This a way to match your target heart rate with an energy pathway to maximize your results in the gym. You will also prevent overtraining and injury.

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References:

1. Editorial Staff; All About Heart Rate (Pulse); heart.org; https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/the-facts-about-high-blood-pressure/all-about-heart-rate-pulse; Last reviewed 31 July 2015; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

2. Editorial Staff; Target Heart Rates Chart; https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/target-heart-rates; Last reviewed 9 March 2021; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

3. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Target Heart Rate and Estimated Maximum Heart Rate; https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/measuring/heartrate.htm; Last reviewed 14 October 2020; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

4. Danielle Tworek; Is a High Heart Rate Budding Exercise Good or Bad?; livestrong.com; https://www.livestrong.com/article/542697-is-a-high-heart-rate-during-exercise-good-or-bad/; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

5. BikeHike; Quick Answer: What Happens if your Heart Rate is too High During Exercise; https://bikehike.org/what-happens-if-your-heart-rate-is-too-high-during-exercise/; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

6. Bindu Nambiar; Use your Energy Systems for Better Performance; bodybuilding.com; https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/3-basic-energy-systems-provide-secrets-allow-trainers-to-perfect-goal-oriented-exercise.html; Published 21 September 2021; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

7. Office of Public Health and Science; Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-10/CommitteeReport_7.pdf; Published June 2008; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

8. Dr. Ayla Donlin; Here are the Benefits of Training at Various Heart Rate Zones; Fitness Business Association; https://member.afsfitness.com/content/here-are-benefits-training-various-heart-rate-zones; Last accessed 9 March 2022.

9. Johns Hopkins Medicine; Understanding your Target Heart Rate; https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/understanding-your-target-heart-rate; Last accessed 10 March 2022.