Get a jump on using your heart rate monitor by making it easy – follow the simple steps listed below. Learn what the heart rate numbers mean by putting it into context – knowing your heart zones. Use the Heart Zones Training program (see chart below) to maximize your benefits and minimize your time.
Strap Up
Here are the steps to donning the new tool for success and taking your first peak through the window of your physiology. The view is into your most important muscle, your heart. It’s one of the most incredible windows you will ever look through.
Step 1. Discover what’s in the box
Your monitor is packaged with a user’s guide, with a chest strap that gets connected to a transmitter that broadcasts your heart rate in beats per minute to a receiver or heart watch. All of this and more is included with your purchase, so spend time to carefully examine the parts and read your owner’s manual.
Step 2. Put on the Transmitter
Attach the elastic strap to the receiver unit. They are connected together by inserting the ends of the elastic strap into the openings in the transmitter strap. Next, put the receiver with its elastic strap around your waist and tighten it. Then, pull out your shirt and slip the transmitter and strap up so it is centered on your chest at the height of your heart, just below your nipples. Pull the transmitter away from your chest and moisten with water the sensor pads or electrodes which are touching your skin and on the back side of the transmitter.
Step 3. Put on the Receiver
Put on the receiver unit just like you would any sports watch. Tighten it so it is comfortable. Because your tool is digital, you do not need to check that you are near other people with monitors, or other forms of interference such as high voltage power lines, televisions, mobile phones, or other sources of electromagnetic disturbances.
Step 4. Start the Monitor
Most monitors start by pushing a button on the receiver until you see a heart-shaped icon on the display. Wait until you see this heart icon start to flash which means the monitor is “on” and receiving data from the transmitter.
Step 5. Use your Monitor Now
Now that you have a number on the receiver display, you are set to go. You can start to use your monitor immediately because you are in communication with your heart. But, don’t you want to know what this number means?
+ Digital heart rate monitor receivers lock-in on a unique signal. They do not “cross talk” or pick up signals from other monitor users. However, if two individuals start their digital monitors at the identical same time, it is possible that they will lock in on only one signal, not two distinct signals. To prevent this situation, start your monitors seconds apart.
10 Things to Do
Now that you have your tool comfortably strapped on and working properly, there are a few interesting things you can do to observe your heart’s response. There are three principal areas of health that you can manage with the tools: emotional, metabolic, and physical activities.
Here is a list of 10 different quick activities to show you what happens to your heart and your tool as they start their “conversation,” the language of the heart:
10 GETTING STARTED ACTIVITIES
Activities |
Type* |
Description |
Your Heart Rate Response |
1. Stand Up |
Physical |
Stand in place for 2 minutes and record your “standing heart rate” number. |
bpm |
2. Sit Down |
Physical |
Sit quietly for 2 minutes and record your “sitting” or ambient heart rate number. |
bpm |
3. Lie Down |
Physical |
Lie down quietly and record your “prone” or lying down heart rate number. |
bpm |
4. Laughter |
Emotional |
Read the cartoon section of your paper or a joke book that makes you
laugh out loud. |
bpm |
5. Friends |
Emotional |
Call a friend who you dearly love on the phone and share with them how much you care. |
bpm |
6. Food Cravings |
Emotional |
Eat one of your favorite and soothing emotional foods that calm you down: chocolate, potato chips, energy bar, etc. and measure your heart rate 5 to 10 minutes after ingestion. |
bpm |
7. Get Warmer |
Metabolic |
Put on a heavy jacket and pants and wait for 5 minutes as your body responds to an increase in your internal, thermal temperature. |
bpm |
8. Before and after a meal |
Metabolic |
Measure your heart rate just when you are hungry and again after you
have eaten a large meal. What is the heart rate difference? |
Before: bpm
After: bpm |
9. Coffee and Soda |
Metabolic |
Eat any food that has caffeine or other stimulant in it. Measure your heart rate each one minute after ingestion for 10 minutes. |
bpm |
10. Walk |
Physical |
Take a five minute walk and at the end of the walk record your heart rate. |
bpm |
*There are three types of Heart Zones Training activities: emotional, metabolic, and physical.
As a quick FYI, there are a few things that first-timers notice about using their monitors. Here are a few tidbits of advice on what is going to happen.
DO’S AND DON’T
1. DON’T |
Compare your number with others. Each heart is unique and responds to each person’s individual physiology. |
2. DON’T |
Think there is one right number for each activity. A higher number is not better than a lower heart rate number. There is actually a range of numbers that fit into your own unique “norm.” |
3. DON’T |
Ask yourself the question: “is this good or bad?” There is no good and bad heart rate responses. The answer to that question is “it depends.” |
4. DO |
Experiment with your new tool and try different activities and see what happens. |
5. DO |
Have fun with the tool. |
6. DO |
Show it to a friend and tell them about it and what you have learned. |
What Do the Numbers Mean?
A heart rate monitor is not a speedometer telling you how fast your heart is beating. Rather, it is telling you how much total at-the-moment stress or load that your heart is experiencing. That’s why the only way to know what your individual heart rate numbers mean is to put them into context. To do this you need to know the one important number that is set by your genetic tendencies: your unique maximum heart rate.
Measure Your Maximum Heart Rate
When your heart is beating at its fastest, that heart rate number is called your maximum heart rate. Everyone’s maximum is different and there is no mathematical formula to calculate it. When you know your maximum, you can set your heart zones. Your program gives the numbers their meaning.
To measure your estimated maximum heart rate take these two tests and then add the estimated maximum heart rate numbers together and average them. This is called a “sub-maximum’ test because you are going to stay below your maximum heart rate and estimate your maximum heart rate from the results.
About Sally Edwards
Sally is the founder and CEO of Heart Zones USA, the training and education company committed to getting America fit. From the time she ran the 1984 Olympic Marathon Trials using her heart rate monitor, Sally has been at the forefront of a revolution in fitness training. Never one to trust in guesswork, Sally combined her Master's degree in exercise physiology with her experience as a professional athlete and created the Heart Zones Training System.
One of the founders of the sport of triathlon (and a Triathlon Hall of Fame inductee), most of Sally's recent races have been performed in her role as the National Spokeswoman for the Danskin Triathlon Series. Sally has finished every Danskin Triathlon (as of 2006, 17 years worth) dead last, as the "Final Finisher," inspiring more than 200,000 other women to make it across the finish line in front of her.
A prolific author of more than 20 books and 300 articles on fitness and sports, a motivational keynote speaker, and (with a second Master's degree in Business Administration) an entrepreneur, Sally is committed to helping others improve their health, fitness, and finish by listening to their hearts. Her most recent book title, Heart Zones Cycling published 2006 by Velo Press is for the avid cyclist who wants to train to go faster and further.
To learn more about Heart Zones Training and using a heart rate monitor visit www.heartzones.com
To learn more about Sally Edwards respond to her blog at www.heartzones.com/blog
Sally lives in Sacramento, Calif.
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