Welcome to the november 2005
Heart Zones e-Newsletter
copyright: Heart Zones USA
Trusted source for training and fitness and sports performance with heart
- A New Way to Estimate Your Maximum Heart Rate Anchor Point
- 2005 Award Winners – Zoners of the Year
- WEB SPECIAL: Hot New Tracker from Timex: The Data Recorder 2 (free)
- MotionBased Sells-Out to Garmin
- Why Was This 86 Year Old Man Searched At Airport Security?
- Heart Rate Intensity Gauges for Group Exercise
- Want a Heart Zones Display Banner: only $49
- Lyle Nelson’s Keynote Address at the Heart Zones Conference 2005: C.L.E.W.
AND ...
1. A New Way to Estimate Your Maximum Heart Rate Anchor Point
No formula exists today that is accurate enough to predict maximum heart rate. Rather, there are several relatively accurate sub-maximum tests (below maximum heart rate) that you can take to estimate your true maximum heart rate.
Many of those sub-max tests are provided to you for free from the Heart Zones Training Center on the HeartZones website:http://www.heartzones.com/trainingcenter/SubMaxTesting.
At the Heart Zones Conference 2005, Carl Foster, Ph.D. Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and current President of the American College of Sports Medicine offered a new way of estimating what he coined as the “virtual maximum heart rate”. Carl serves on 6 editorial boards, is a reviewer for 19 different journals, has 114 peer reviewed published research articles, and has contributed 57 different book chapters. He’s one of the world’s leading experts. From his award winning work as an applied research exercise physiologist, he has determined that it provides the most accurate assessment of virtual maximum heart rate.
We are coining the test “The Foster Virtual Maximum Heart Rate Test.”
It is a relatively simple test and subsequent calculation:
Step 1. Measure your first ventilatory threshold (VT1) and
Step 2. Divide that number by 80% (0.8).
What is ventilatory threshold? How do you measure VT1? The answer and the testing protocol to estimate virtual maximum heart rate is provided to you as Addendum A to this E newsletter. Scroll to the end and read the article, “Measuring Your Virtual Maximum Heart Rate.”
Visit the Heart Zones store and purchase the Sub-Max Test Cards which provide you with eight different 10 minutes assessments to estimate your maximum heart rate. Great for PE teachers, personal trainers, or your own personal workouts: http://www.heartzones.com/store
2.2005 Award Winners – Zoners of the Year
The University of Denver hosted the fourth annual Heart Zones Conference 2005 as a 3-day weekend event that showcased the latest in training and education for schools and health clubs and for sport specific applications: triathlon, swimming, cycling, walking, stretching, pre-sport conditioning, and running. Saturday night, October 15th featured the awards celebration for those individuals who demonstrated outstanding performances in taking Heart Zones Training to heart.
Congratulations to this years Zoner Award winners 2005:
Karen Tusting (Benicia, California)
Territorial Growth Winner of the Year: Grew her Northern California Territory
Joy Hermsen (Santa Rosa, California)
Accomplishment of the Year – the Heart Zones Training Center
Annie Hoskinson (Denver, Colorado)
All Around Winner: Team Danskin Training Coach, athlete, Hosted the Conference 2005.
Derrick Milligan (father) (Chicago, Illinois)
Grew the Heart Zones Family
Kathy Tossas (mother) (Chicago, Illinois)
Grew the Heart Zones Family
Gina Lardon (Austin, Texas)
Developed Team Danskin Training into Coaching Certification
Mandy LeBlanc (Sacramento, California)
Rookie of the Year: Launched a Group Training Program in Women’s Triathlon in her first year.
A “tracker” is a tool that keeps track of your training in real time – while you are doing the workout. A tracker stores that data for later download into a PC. Some trackers are built inside the watch monitor while others (like the Timex Data Recorder) are external devices.
Paul Bernstein, brand manager for the Timex Health and Fitness Group explains the differences in their Data Recorder: “The Data Recorder 2 is for the Bodylink GPS 3D System which requires a special sensor to gather position and navigation data (latitude, longitude, and altitude) while the Data Recorder 1 is for heart rate and distance-speed without position or navigation.”
You might ask, why purchase a tracker? Paul quickly answers “To capture and analyze and analyze all of your heart rate, and speed-and-distance data (including latitude, longitude, altitude for some models) for your workouts. With a tracker, GPS 3D provides data that allows you to map your route and then can look at the route map for heart rate data and splits as small as ¼ mile and as large as a mile.”
Is it more than eye candy? Sure, its eye candy but you can use this information to measure your fitness improvement and to be accountable for your training. Plus, with the new Timex Ironman Target Trainer heart rate monitor (reviewed in October 2005 E Newsletter) you can turn on features like ascent and descent rates (good for skydiving and skiing). The Heart Zones Web Special this month ($43.05) is the new Timex Data Recorder 2, which comes packaged with software and USB cable to download to a PC.
Free with the purchase of a new Bodylink system ($239)
To view product details go to: http://www.heartzones.com/store/
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MotionBased, the Marin County, California web software company that provides free/fee mapping and heart rate translations for your DASH! and GPS monitors, just announced that it is selling the company to Kansas City-based Garmin. Makes sense for both companies, especially Garmin. Launched on the web in 2004, MotionBased has grown to become the most popular USA site for downloading Garmin and Timex GPS monitors. Use your Timex data recorder or other tracker device, upload to MotionBased.com and you can view your data, store it on the web, and share it with others. The software system analyzes the data to calculate time, distance, speed, elevation, and heart rate. MotionBased displays this information through charts, illustrations, reports, and a variety of map representations including street, photo, topographic, and elevation maps as well as the popular Google Earth service to visualize your personal training activity.
At Heart Zones USA, we like the company and use its products. We like the MotionBased folks – a lot.
To Aaron Roller, MotionBased’s co-founder and CTO and his team of MotionBasers - Congratulations! from everyone at Heart Zones USA.
http://motionbased.com/info/newsletter/view.mb?tile=info.newsletter.index#1
Paul Camerer (aka Pinkhouse of the Sacramento, California Pinkhouse Gym) is an avid 86-year old (well he turns 87 next month) ultra marathoner, athlete, and human. Pinkhouse was passing through airport security on his way to the Heart Zones Conference 2005 when he sent off the alarms passing through airport security. He was stopped him for further screening. What set off the alarms that lead to his being searched? His heart rate monitor transmitter belt!
For the past 15 years, Pinkhouse has been an avid heart rate monitor aficionado. On this trip, he wanted to wear it to record his heart rate while flying to Denver. Alas, he didn’t know that the transmitter strap would set off the alarms!
It is coming : A new technology for Heart Zones Cycling.
Using Activo heart rate intensity gauges may change indoor cycling completely. Designed for indoor cycling, you put on a transmitter belt, enter your transmitter numbers when you enter the room, and wirelessly communicate your personal heart rate workout data as it is projected on a screen next to the head rider. The system provides instant feedback which allows all riders to train on the basis of their individual capacity and training goals.
The Intensity Gauge heart rate system is a new and effective way to introduce people quickly to the principles of Heart Zones Training, by displaying the essential three pieces of data, continuously and individually while riding together as a team or a group.
7.Want a Heart Zones Display Banner: only $49
Here’s a way to show your true colors – fly the Heart Zones Training system by snagging one of our new banners for your club, school, or workout locations. This is the perfect way to let everyone know that you lead the Heart Zones Training system in your coaching, workshops, workouts, or as the best way to do cardiovascular training.
Size: 32” x 42”
Colors: Black background with red and white logo
Features: Grommets on each corner for easy display
Fabric: Cotton-poly sheen fabric with finished stitching
Use: Ideal for hanging in the group exercise room or for any workshop or presentation on Heart Zones Training
Price: $49
Lyle Nelson, Olympian and author, received a standing ovation after his keynote address at the Heart Zones 2005 Conference titled “The Power of Inspiration: The Spirit of Champions”. Lyle introduced the participants to some of the events that lead to the limitation on performance – in life and in sport. During that presentation, Lyle spoke to the four words that spell C.L.E.W: Courage, Love, Energy, and Wisdom.
Lyle donned a small, heavy backpack when he walked on stage, saying that its contents were cutting into his back and most of all, slowing his performance. Then, with wisdom and with love, with courage and with energy he revealed the contents of his backpack – rocks that each had inscribed with the limitations. For an excerpt of his speech, go to the Addendum B at the end of this issue and read what Lyle says can provide you with the Power of Inspiration.
ADDENDUM A
Measuring Your Virtual Maximum Heart Rate - The Foster Test©
Sally Edwards, Heart Zones USA. All rights reserved.
Want to know your true maximum heart rate without having to go to exhaustion?
Take the Foster Virtual Max Test.
Want one of the most accurate ways to assess it and barely be out of breath?
Take the Foster Virtual Max Test.
Would you like a way to anchor your heart zones on max without having to go there?
Take the Foster Virtual Max Test.
The new Foster Virtual Max Test does all of this.
Let’s begin with a few definitions so we are all on the same playing field. Then, you may take the Foster Test to measure your Virtual Maximum Heart Rate.
One of the Heart Zones Training systems is to anchor training zones on maximal heart rate. But, in older, less fit, less athletic individuals, measuring maximal heart rate directly may not be much fun. It may also carry a certain amount of risk, as studies have shown that unaccustomed heavy exercise can provoke a heart incident in sedentary people. Virtual maximum heart rate is the highest number of beats per minute that your heart can contract, without having to go there to measure it. It is virtual. It is an estimate of what your true maximum heart rate would be, without going to fatigue, going to the max.
Carl Foster, Ph. D. University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, designed this test after years of research into the measurement of the ventilatory threshold breathing responses that has become a useful heart rate marker.
Ventilatory Threshold One (VT1): The threshold is approximately 80% of maximum heart rate in most individuals. This ventilatory response or effort is associated with the lowest heart rate number where speech is first not-comfortable’. Above this point the physiological effort of ventilation increases disproportionately to exercise intensity.
There are advantages of using ventilatory or breathing responses as a way to measure virtual maximum heart rate. Again, according to Foster, “It has the advantage of still being in the safe zone, so you aren't going to start killing off the 'dumplings' during evaluations. VT1 anchors the bottom of Zone 4 at a defined 80% so it is accurate.”
How accurate is it to say that this threshold heart rate number “where speech isn't 'comfortable', Ventilatory Threshold One (VT1), is at 80% of true maximum heart rate? According to Foster, “It is within spitting distance of laboratory tests for the first ventilatory threshold.”
The Essential Question: Can You Speak Comfortably?
The Foster Virtual Max Test uses a speech provoker which must be spoken OUT LOUD. He uses the “Pledge of Allegiance” as the speech provoker because it is a 31 word paragraph and is familiar to most people in the American culture. If that particular paragraph isn't to your liking (the use of the name of the deity in the Pledge, written circa 1892, causes problems for some groups); then you can use a similar length paragraph that you can put on a cue card.
The “Pledge” may actually be a little short, with about a 50 word paragraph being ideal. Any word sequence works if it meets these requirements: must be at least 30-50 words in length, memorized, and different syllables in the phrase such as in poetry, songs, or other word texts.
It’s easiest to perform the test on a treadmill or calibrated exercise cycle because you can regulate the workload more accurately. Put on your heart rate monitor and turn off the alarms (audible or visual). As in all exercise activities, warm up adequately before beginning the test. Each exercise stage in the test is 2-minutes in duration. Using a count up timer, at the end of each 1 minute and 30 seconds introduce the speech provoker by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (or alternative paragraph) aloud. Then answer the question: Can you speak comfortably?
There are only three acceptable responses to the question: “Can you speak comfortably?”
Question: Can you speak comfortably?
Answer |
Explanation |
Threshold Marker |
Heart Rate Number |
| Yes | The person has not reached their Ventilatory Threshold One (VT1). This intensity level still elicits a positive response – “Yes”. You can recite the Pledge of Allegiance without undue stress on your breathing pattern. The heart rate number at the last measurement before response “I am not sure” or “uncertain” is called “last positive”. This is the last heart rate intensity before crossing over to the non-aerobic effort levels. |
Last positive |
Last Positive Heart Rate Number |
| Uncertain | Not sure if you can talk comfortably. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is more difficult than the last time you answered the question. Also known as “equivocal” or on the verge of not being able to talk. |
Ventilatory Threshold One |
VT1 Heart Rate Number |
| No | Can not talk comfortably. Called the negative stage. Typically this is at or above 90% of maximum heart rate. This is an intensity level associated with the first inability to produce comfortable speech. You cannot recite the Pledge of the Allegiance without labored breathing. Not recommended for beginners, unfit folks, or returning to fitness individuals. |
Ventilatory Threshold Two |
VT2 Heart Rate Number |
So, what is happening, physiologically? Basically, as exercise intensity increases, ventilation increases in a linear manner until you reach a certain intensity level called the “cross-over” point. At the cross-over intensity level the ventilatory demands are greater than the ability of the delivery system to meet those demands. At this intensity level, at this heart rate marker, ventilation increases exponentially rather than linearly. This intensity level, this cross-over point, is nearly identical to the lactate threshold intensity level. At the point that ventilation crosses over from linear to exponential is known as Ventilatory Threshold (VT). As Carl Foster explains, “The discontinuity of linearity in either blood lactate accumulation or ventilatory patterns during incremental exercise represents a convenient marker of exercise training intensity.”
The Test Protocol for the Foster Virtual Max Test
Though the explanation you just read may be way more behind-the-scenes than what you want to know, it should serve as an explanation that ventilatory patterns during stages of progressive increased exercise intensity serve as a simple way to calculate your maximum heart rate. When you know your maximum heart rate, the anchor point for your five heart zones, you can accurately define your training zones.
There are 10 Steps to the Foster Virtual Max Test and setting your training zones as follows:
THE FOSTER VIRTUAL MAXIMUM HEART RATE TEST
This assessment is based on finding two different talk thresholds known as VT1 and estimating maximum heart rate from the heart rate numbers associated with changes in breathing response to increased intensity.
Step 1. Warm up adequately for 3-5 minutes.
Step 2. Each stage is 2-minutes. Starting at a heart rate of 120 bpm increase effort or intensity by 10 bpm for each 2- minute stage.
Step 3. One-minute and 30 seconds into each 2 minute exercise stage, recite the Pledge of Allegiance out loud.
Step 4. At the final moments of each stage and after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance out loud, ask this one question: Can you speak comfortably?
Step 5. There are only three allowable answers : Yes, Uncertain, No
Step 6. Record the heart rate that corresponds to "yes" and "Uncertain"
Step 7. Continue to increase your exercise effort steadily until you cannot say ‘yes’ then stop the test.
Step 8. Cool down adequately.
Step 9. Calculate your Virtual Max heart rate by dividing the heart rate number from Step 6 that corresponds with “Uncertain” in Column (C) by 0.8 or 80%.
Step 10. Set your five training zones each 10% of your Virtual Maximum heart rate.
Example: Column B heart rate that corresponds with “Uncertain” is 150 bpm. Divide 150 bpm by 0.8 to get 187 bpm. This is your virtual maximum heart rate. 150/0.8 = 187 bpm or your virtual maximum heart rate.
Final Note: According to Foster, there are a few tricks to making the Virtual Maximum Heart Rate Test more accurate:
1. Do the test at least two times. It can be done on the same day. Take at least a 10 to 20-minute break between the two tests.
2. Use an easy to control medium – a cycle ergometer or treadmill for example. You can control speed and gradient increases more precisely than walking-jogging-running outside where you must estimate your effort levels rather than using electronic dash board information.
3. Use a Heart Zones Training certified trainer who has experience with the assessment and knows the protocol to facilitate the test in order to eliminate error.
4. If you are a multi-sport athlete, do the Foster Test in each sport activity because maximum heart rate is sport specific.
Copyrights: All written materials including text, graphs, charts, images, templates, and designs are the property of Heart Zones USA. All rights are reserved. For permission to use Heart Zones USA trade names, trademarks, and copyrights, send a written request to Heart Zones USA.
ADDENDUM B
The Power of Inspiration: C.L.E.W.
Lyle Nelson’s Keynote Address at the Heart Zones Conference 2005
C.L.E.W. stands for Courage + Love + Energy + Wisdom. If we radiate a full spectrum of these four words, it adds up to peace--what the world really needs more of.
The most limiting rocks, in my opinion, include:
1. Procrastination: causes our subconscious to focus on nagging little issues that could be easily dispensed.
2. Living beyond our means: turns our focus onto surviving instead of thriving
3. Regret: focus is on mistakes of the past instead of opportunities of the future
4. Negative self-talk: Downsizing and drowning the greatness within us.
5. Worry: focus is on what can go wrong; instead of what can I do to make things better.
6. Pretending to be someone we aren't: includes building public persona different from real us.
("Save energy, be yourself." or "Be yourself, because you will never be anyone else."7. Borrowing Pain. Living someone else’s misery. We can sympathize and support without living another's troubles. Example: if someone is sad/angry, becoming sad/angry usually magnifies their sadness. This is prevalent in medical field, especially nurses. They absorb too much of hurt around them.
8. Unclear Life Purpose: Life is going by without us seeing where and why we are going.
Love,
Lyle Nelson
Author, Spirit of Champions
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Heart Zones USA : Trusted source for training and fitness and sports performance with heart
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Heart Zones
2636 Fulton Avenue Suite #100
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Publisher : Sally Edwards, the Head Heart
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