Hi All
I?m new to HIIT and heart rate monitoring and need some advice.
I?m 30 and fairly unfit. My BMI is nearly 25 so I?m not grossly overweight but could do with shifting a stone. I can go on the cross trainer, bike or rowing machine for 30 minutes at a moderate pace/intensity and feel ok at the end. My resting heart rate is 68 BPM. I checked this manually so I know my HR monitor is accurate and working correctly. I have a Polar H7 Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Sensor Set which I use with my iPhone.
Using the American Cardiology Association guidelines my maximum HR should be 187 and using the 220-age rule it?s 190. Very similar.
If I use 190 as my MHR I get the following:
% of MHR HR
100 190
95 181
90 171
85 162
80 152
75 143
70 133
65 124
60 114
55 105
50 95
45 86
40 76
I?ve read that when doing HIIT you should aim to do sprints between 70-90% of your MHR (the lower end if you are more unfit) and that after this you should wait for the HR to return to the 60-65% zones as active rest (if I?m correct this is where you reduce intensity/speed but keep moving whilst the HR is declining). The problem is that when I?ve done a sprint I can?t get back down to the 60-65% zones whilst still moving ? I?m going so slowly that the machine keeps telling me to pedal faster so that it stays on! I can get down to around 70-75% easily within about 30-60 seconds but to get to 68-69% takes 4-5 minutes of recovery and moving ridiculously slowly. Am I doing something wrong? Is this just because I?m new to HIIT and as I get fitter my HR will come down quicker and stabilise at the 60-65% zone?
Also the Polar app splits your workout into fat burning and increasing exercise tolerance depending on the % your HR is at. Fat burning for me is a HR of less than 132 (~70%) but at that HR I don?t even feel like I?m working out. I also have the same sort of issue when I do the sprints I can easily get my HR up to 170 (90%) and always hit 180 (95%) at some point in the sprint. Although this is very taxing it takes about 40 seconds of a 60 second sprint to start feeling like it?s hard work. I could go much faster (I would die and feel sick but isn?t that what they say for HIIT? Go as fast as you possibly can?) but my HR is already sky high?!
Is all of this just because I?m unfit or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks in advance!
I?m new to HIIT and heart rate monitoring and need some advice.
I?m 30 and fairly unfit. My BMI is nearly 25 so I?m not grossly overweight but could do with shifting a stone. I can go on the cross trainer, bike or rowing machine for 30 minutes at a moderate pace/intensity and feel ok at the end. My resting heart rate is 68 BPM. I checked this manually so I know my HR monitor is accurate and working correctly. I have a Polar H7 Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Sensor Set which I use with my iPhone.
Using the American Cardiology Association guidelines my maximum HR should be 187 and using the 220-age rule it?s 190. Very similar.
If I use 190 as my MHR I get the following:
% of MHR HR
100 190
95 181
90 171
85 162
80 152
75 143
70 133
65 124
60 114
55 105
50 95
45 86
40 76
I?ve read that when doing HIIT you should aim to do sprints between 70-90% of your MHR (the lower end if you are more unfit) and that after this you should wait for the HR to return to the 60-65% zones as active rest (if I?m correct this is where you reduce intensity/speed but keep moving whilst the HR is declining). The problem is that when I?ve done a sprint I can?t get back down to the 60-65% zones whilst still moving ? I?m going so slowly that the machine keeps telling me to pedal faster so that it stays on! I can get down to around 70-75% easily within about 30-60 seconds but to get to 68-69% takes 4-5 minutes of recovery and moving ridiculously slowly. Am I doing something wrong? Is this just because I?m new to HIIT and as I get fitter my HR will come down quicker and stabilise at the 60-65% zone?
Also the Polar app splits your workout into fat burning and increasing exercise tolerance depending on the % your HR is at. Fat burning for me is a HR of less than 132 (~70%) but at that HR I don?t even feel like I?m working out. I also have the same sort of issue when I do the sprints I can easily get my HR up to 170 (90%) and always hit 180 (95%) at some point in the sprint. Although this is very taxing it takes about 40 seconds of a 60 second sprint to start feeling like it?s hard work. I could go much faster (I would die and feel sick but isn?t that what they say for HIIT? Go as fast as you possibly can?) but my HR is already sky high?!
Is all of this just because I?m unfit or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks in advance!