01/02/2022
Why bother to do cardiovascular training? Most importantly because it improves the health of your heart. It also increases your endurance and allows you to train harder for longer. The concept behind Cardio training is very simple - you just have to raise your heart rate above resting. But how much above resting? It’s surprising how many get this wrong and waste their time doing ineffective cardio.
Clearly then you need to know what’s happening to your heart rate during exercise. To be able to do this you should invest in a reliable personal heart rate monitor. I recommend the inexpensive York HR monitor, which is available for around £22 from ebay. Importantly it picks up the heart beat signal using a chest strap. Keep away from using the so called ‘smart watches’ that detect your heart beat from the wrist, this technique is unreliable at training heart rates.
In my next post I will explain how to get the best out of your heart rate monitor, and how it can be used to track your fitness improvement.
