Welcome to the April 2004 edition of The Heart Zones e-Newsletter
copyright: Heart Zones, your source of heart rate training information

1. April Sweat-ness Brings May Fitness
2. Bike Shop Know How
3. NEW! Sub Max Circuit and Testing & Measurements Postcards
4. Cyber Dieting and Heart Zones Corporate Fitness
   
   and...
   
   
5. Web Special: "Health in a Heartbeat": by Dan Rudd and Sally Edwards
6. Heart Zones offers the Official Training Program for the DANSKIN Season
7. Save the Date! Heart Zones International Conference in Chicago for 2004
8. Heart Rate Variability Measurements May Save Lives
   

Yep, swim suit season is coming upon us. This is a time when some of us begin to start feeling a bit insecure about our bodies. Challenging stereotypes and expectations about what a fit body looks like is an important first step in fostering a better body image for yourself. But also, focusing on your fitness - your efforts at activity, rather than fat and losing pounds is another key factor with issues regarding body image. Seems like when most people decide to buckle down to “get in shape”, the focus is on calorie counting. Certainly healthy eating and not obsessing over food is important, but how about focusing on activity?

Let’s take a look at the Heart Zones Training Point System. Basically, instead of tracking how many calories you consume, the HZT Points System helps you become aware of how much activity time you are accumulating. It is relatively simple – for each minute you spend in a zone you multiply the time (minutes) exercising in that zone with the number zone that you are in. Example: 10 minutes spent in zone 3 would be 30 pts (10 x 3 = 30).

How many points should you look at accumulating? The answer depends on what your fitness level is and naturally how much time you have available. If you exercised 5 times per week for 40 minutes each session, spending 30 minutes of the 40 minutes in Zone 3 – The Aerobic Zone (70-80% of your maximum heart rate) with the remaining 10 minutes in Zone 2 – Temperate (60-70% of MHR) and Zone 1 – Healthy Heart (50-60% of MHR) as your warm up and cool down, you would have approximately 525 points for the week. Naturally if you added time to your workout or spent time at a higher intensity (zone) you would bank more points.

So here is the deal everyone – “April sweat-ness brings May Fitness”. Lets get some activity time under your belt! In time you will have more energy, get fitter, achieve health results like better blood pressure and lower resting and ambient heart rate numbers AND yes, a reduction in overall body fat will occur. Learn more about Heart Zones Training Points in any of our books.

http://www.heartzones.com

A local bike shop now learning about Heart Zones asked us "What are the most frequently asked questions about the Heart Zones Training System?" After answering, (those answers are below), I reversed the question to them – what are the most frequent issues/questions that bike mechanics deal with? Their response is below.

It is really helpful if people just know some basics about their bike.

Do the tires have a presta valve or a schrader valve? Schrader valves are similar to valves found in automobile tires, whereas presta valves are thinner and have a small nut on its end that must be loosened while the tire is being inflated. Knowing what size tube your tire takes is as simple as looking at the outside rim of your bicycle tire. Air is free but bike mechanics really appreciate it when you don’t pull a “all I need is air, but while you are at it, I need ….”  Knowing how many gears you have just takes you counting the number of gears you have in front and multiplying that with what you have in back. And finally, the inexpensive bikes that you might have purchased at a garage sale for a good deal or at one of your favorite all around department stores doesn’t mean that it is great quality. Bike mechanics can fix just about anything, but for a price that often exceeds the value of the bike. Their advice – invest more money up front with a bike that will last.

Oh, and the 3 most frequently asked questions on Heart Zones Training?

1. Is my maximum heart rate 220 minus my age? No, your maximum heart rate is genetically determined, performing a maximum heart rate test or a series of sub-maximum tests can determine your individual maximum heart rate.

2. Can I train to get my maximum heart rate higher? No, your maximum is a fixed number, regardless of a high or low number it has nothing to do with athletic ability or performance.

3. If I exercise at too high an intensity will I not burn any fat at all? No, you may burn less fat, however, you can expand your fat burning range by spending time in all of the zones.

The Heart Monitor Guidebook is an excellent reference for learning all about heart zones training, and if by chance you are not a “newbie” with your bike, take a look at 3 excellent books for indoor and outdoor cycling training. In particular The Heart Rate Monitor Workbook for Indoor Cyclist has 50 written workouts complete with heart rate graphs and instructions for great rides indoor and outside!

http://www.heartzones.com

Rob Kerr, President of Heart Zone Activities, along with Sally Edwards have developed a set of sub max circuit postcards and testing and measurement postcards. Each packet comes with a set of 10 cards detailing the instructions and formula’s for each activity. Check out a sample of the cards at:

http://www.heartzones.com
/images/cardsample4.pdf

More and more workers are using their office computers to access diet Web sites according to Websense Inc., a San Diego-based provider of employee internet management solutions. The company recommends allocating a designated amount of time each day (e.g., 30 minutes) for employees to surf the Web for weight management sites. It is believed that allowing staff to occasionally visit these sites can boost employee morale and improve health and possibly even increase overall productivity.

This is exciting news to Heart Zones, as we have developed “Corporate Partnerships” for Corporate Fitness. The program provides for more than just health incentive programs for groups, but rather an opportunity for individuals to learn about fitness and health with the support of their company either through having direct flex time to workout or through some type of incentive for them to belong to a gym. Learning to use a heart rate monitor in company seminars and workshops also helps boost consistency and adherence to a workout program. To learn more about our Corporate Partnerships and/or to explore how your company can host a Corporate Fitness Program, contact Jessica Menendez, President of Heart Zones Coaching and Software – jessica.menendez@heartzones.com

Have you heard? Heart Zones has a new book out, "Health in a Heartbeat" by Dan Rudd and Sally Edwards! This 6-week Heart Zones Program to Emotional and Physical Fitness will help you develop your personal, emotional, and physical fitness training plan. This month only for $9.95.

http://www.heartzones.com

Heart Zones offers the Official Training Program for the DANSKIN Season, providing 5 different training programs for women preparing for a Danskin Sprint Distance Triathlon this summer.

Team Danskin Training: This is training twice a week with other women on a “team” (in select cities) led by a certified triathlon coach.

Women in Training: A full-day clinic to a weekend menu of workout options and workshops led by Sally Edwards.

Phone Coaching: This is an 8 week training program for your skill level with a certified triathlon coach who provides weekly telephone consulting for motivation and individualizing the program.

E-Coaching: Women can track their training progress with easy to use web-based training software with tools such as online discussion group forums, nutrition tracker and the option of having the supervision of an E-Coach.

E-Mail Training: This is an 8 week e-mail training program written by Sally Edwards. Women receive four e-mails per week which include a training plan, workouts for the week, tips, motivation, and articles.

Training for any event is KEY and Heart Zones is excited to be a part of the Danskin Triathlon! These training programs are also available to others not necessarily training for the Danskin. Information is on the front page of the Heart Zones website: http://www.heartzones.com

Danskin Triathlon 2004 Race Dates

http://www.heartzones.com

Heart Zones has selected Naperville, Illinois as the city and Edward Hospital (http://www.edward.org/services/edwardhospital.asp) Edward Health and Fitness (http://www.edward.org/fitness_centers/fitness.asp) as the venue for our Third Annual International Fitness Training Conference.

Naperville is 35 miles west of downtown Chicago in the western suburbs.

Mark the dates on your calendar – October 1st through October 3rd - for workshops, seminars, certifications, a town meeting on Emotional Fitness Training, workouts, awards celebrations. Join and meet other teachers, fitness professionals, therapists, athletes, weight management folks and recreational enthusiasts who will be attending.

For all Heart Zones events with dates, places, and specific offerings go to the Heart Zones website: http://www.heartzones.com
/seminars/index.shtml

How do you tell a healthy heart from one that could stop without warning?

By measuring variations in the length of the heartbeat, according to a team of researchers in Greece. The finding could provide a way to screen for people at risk of sudden cardiac death. Such people's heartbeat often looks perfectly healthy by conventional criteria. Even a person's ECG, or electrocardiogram, can look normal for much of the time. Standard approaches to analyzing ECGs tend to focus on the peaks and troughs of the trace.

Instead, Panayiotis Varotsos of the University of Athens has been studying the variation in the length of time it takes for the heart to complete one beat.

The amount of variation in the rate of heartbeats is already used to measure aerobic fitness, with more variation meaning a fitter heart. However, for Varotsos the crucial test is the variation in the length of each beat, and whether this variation is random. He adapted equations he had previously used to describe physical systems such as earthquakes to predict that, in a healthy heart, these variations will have some degree of order. But if there is something wrong with the heart, it should disrupt that order, making the variation more random. To test the theory, Varotsos and his colleagues analyzed 95 sample ECGs taken from public databases of people with various heart conditions and 10 from healthy patients. He found that the beats of the diseased hearts varied more randomly. Varotsos says the method could be used as an initial screen to flag all types of heart problems. But so far no method has stood up to scrutiny in clinical trials.

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If you would like to contribute to the newsletter content, or have ideas, questions, or concerns for us to address, please contact the editor by email at: jessica.menendez@heartzones.com

copyright: Heart Zones
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http://www.heartzones.com

Phone: (916) 481-7283
Fax: (916) 481-2213
Mailing address:
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The Heart Zones e-Newsletter is a Heart Zones publication
Publisher: Sally Edwards
Editor in Chief: Jessica Menendez

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