Welcome to the December 2004 edition
of The Heart Zones e-Newsletter
copyright: Heart Zones, your source of heart rate training information
- Knowledge is Power: New Years Resolutions
- “Once-A-Year Warriors” Caution
- E-Mailbag: Which Book do I get for the Holidays?
- Technology Advances: New Monitors for a New Age
and...
- Multi-Format DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER and HEART RATE MONITOR
- Health Club Madness Begins
- WEB Specials EXTRAVAGANZA! The January BLOW OUT SALE
1. Knowledge is Power: New Years Resolutions
It’s just about that time of year when planning personal and professional goals for ourselves is the topic of conversation. It is also the time of year where we dig into promises of not over doing it for the holidays with excess food and little activity. In fact most years, fitness tops the New Year’s resolutions list over career or family related goals. It begs the question as to why do we continue year after year to strive to adhere to weight loss or better physical fitness goals. Besides the common complaints of running out of motivation or time for keeping up with our health and fitness routines, what else could be a common denominator that we can predict NOW to help us avoid classic pitfalls?
Here is my thought after doing a random survey taken from fellow passengers on airline flights between Alaska and New York this past month: We lack KNOWLEDGE. The seven people I interviewed exercised 3 to 5 times per week. None of them were familiar with heart monitors but all were familiar with the zone screen on the equipment they used. None of them understood the difference between age predicted maximum heart rate vs. genetically determined or tested maximum heart rate, but all stated that it was a good idea to monitor exercise intensity. However, none understood the basic meaning of zones, other than to stay within the “prescribed zones” indicated for them! Most picked up information about health and fitness through magazines, some hired a personal trainer to help them jump start their program and all were watching their carbohydrate intake.
Startling don’t you think? Here is why I think a lack of information, of education, is the common denominator for keeping us from reaching our goals. After each interview, I gave a very simple "cliff notes" version of the importance of using a heart rate monitor. I explained the difference between age predicted maximum heart rate and genetically determined or tested maximum heart rate and how using testing and measurements you could quantify progress. In the end, all but one agreed that if they had had more knowledge about how to train using heart zones, they would have either attained their goal or at least been more motivated.
So, that’s my two cents – knowledge gives you power (and to be fair, this exercise was a great way to pass time on 5 legs of flight from Juneau to New York!)
Whatever your New Years resolution may be, remember that stating a goal is the easy part – identifying obstacles, listing tasks, taking notes and establishing due dates is the work. Let Heart Zones know if we can help with your goals, your knowledge base, and your resolutions! www.heartzones.com
2. “Once-A-Year Warriors” Caution
Tis the season for winter activities and rituals like hunting and hiking to winter getaways. Last year in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 3 hunters died the first day of hunting season. No, hunting does not cause heart attacks; heart attacks in hunters are triggered by the same factors that can stop the hearts of people shoveling snow. Risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure and inactivity can become increased liabilities in freezing weather, especially when hiking with heavy equipment or dragging a 120-pound dead deer.
Statistically, people who don't exercise on a regular basis but have underlying risk factors can trigger a heart attack by subjecting themselves to sudden, rigorous exercise. Health professionals don’t know all the reasons people die from sudden cardiac arrest or heart attacks but they can identify the risk factors involved. Certainly age, gender and genetics play a role, but diseases of the heart and blood vessels are the nation's number 1 killer. Also, men are more likely than women to have attacks under age 75. Sometimes, the victim appears healthy but has underlying problems that have not produced symptoms, such as chest pains and cold sweats. Heart specialist Dr. Peter Puleo, at St. Luke's Hospital, Fountain Hill says an irregular heartbeat or partially clogged artery to the heart might become a bigger problem, especially when cold constricts the blood vessels or the excitement of seeing a big doe or buck makes the heart beat faster. A study done by Sue Haapaniemi, an exercise physiologist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. monitored the heart rates of 25 male hunters in 1994 and 1995 and concluded that "buck fever" combined with strenuous hunting activities could lead to a heart attack. Cold weather, hilly terrain, smoking, heavy drinking and a high-fat diet also contributed to the findings. Each hunter wore a small heart monitor that recorded the heart's electrical activity as well as changes in rate and rhythm during six activities: walking, sighting a deer, shooting and missing, shooting and hitting, gutting an animal, and dragging a carcass with an average weight between 100 and 120 pounds.
The hunters were often unaware of what was happening with their hearts during these activities. "One described the stress level of gutting a deer as 'nothing,' not knowing that his heart rate was nearly at 99 percent of maximum." The hunter also was taking beta-blocker drugs to reduce maximum heart rate and blood pressure.
So, think outside your fitness and health box and consider the health of friends and family who may be “one-a-year” warriors and help them with a training schedule to ensure a safe hunting or hiking excursion. Picking up and reading a copy of one of the best books on the topic, “Heart Zone Training” by Sally Edwards and a heart rate monitor to compliment a gift for hunting may make your gift special, if not important. It may save your life or that of a buck or doe hunter friend of yours.
FROM a Zoner in Ontario, Canada:
Hello, I am a man of 47 years and weigh 414 pounds, 5' 10 and half inches. I bought a heart rate monitor Polar A-5 model and I bought the book Fit And Fat (2003) by Sally and Lorraine today. As a new fitness enthusiast, I am wondering if the book will give me enough information as to how to operate and work my heart rate monitor...in other words...is there a need to buy the Heart Zone Training Book or another book published several years ago? Will this book give my all the info I need to know how to operate and work the monitor to get me started and to take me to the higher level of fitness as I progress?
Fit and Fat stands on its own in terms of providing you with information on how to get fit, and you should not need a previous publication to begin maximizing the benefits of your heart rate monitor for physical, metabolic, and emotional fitness. The emphasis in the book is on using your monitor for weight loss and maximum fat burning. Be sure you have your doctor’s permission before you really begin ramping up your exercise protocol. When you are ready to add some resistance training to your schedule, I would recommend getting some assistance from a trained fitness professional to ensure proper technique and application for the principles of strength and functional training. As you progress, you would enjoy and learn even more, plus keep yourself motivated, by reading The Heart Rate Monitor Guidebook (2002). It is a bit more technical than some of the earlier editions, however, it is a valuable resource. This publication is available only through Heart Zones.
The Polar A-5 comes with a decent user’s manual that tells you how to push the buttons but doesn’t tell you much more than that. A user guide is just that – how to program but not use your monitor. A word of caution on the calorie function in this or any monitor, the calorie calculation from a workout should only be used as a measure of “workload” and not as a measure of how many actual calories you have expended. The errors for calories burned using any piece of exercise equipment is +/- 30-40 percent. People are often confused with the calorie function as they think if it says they burned 500 calories they can go out and eat 2 chocolate bars. NOT the case! Using caloric count as a measure of workload can easily assess which workout resulted in greater or less physical stress but doesn’t really measure calories burned. Use this function to measure what is valuable to measure – training load.
Sally Edwards and Alinda Perrine have written an easy to read user guide about heart zones to compliment the user guides of these monitors. I’ll give the first 10 folks who email me their postal addresses a free copy address of Heart Zones Tools for Success: the Timex Heart Rate Monitor. More questions on monitors?
Email Jessica@heartzones.com or visit www.heartzones.com
A monitoring and display technology could help athletes optimize their training without the need of conventional, bulky strap-on sensors and wrist displays. Instead, the athlete wears a spectacle form-factor display incorporating everything required to monitor and display key biometric parameters and training targets in real time. The goggles are suitable for swimmers and the smart spectacles suit distance runners and cyclists.
Developed by UK firm Cambridge Consultants and given the working name “Technospecs”, the device is said to exploit sophisticated sensors that measure core parameters such as heart rate and blood oxygen levels and then deliver this data to the Technospecs. These are essentially a compact form of the head-up displays originally developed for jet fighter pilots and more recently employed in certain prestige car models to project travel information onto the windscreen.
The enabling technology behind the Technospecs includes the miniaturization of optical and sensory electronics; mechanical engineering to optimize the positioning and stability of the sensors, electronics and battery; and signal-processing techniques to produce reliable measurements from a moving, sweating athlete.
The company says it is currently in discussions with companies in the sports industry regarding transferring the technology to commercial products. The technology could also be extended outside of sport into, for example, the safety-critical monitoring domain. This could include blood oxygen level monitoring for mountaineers, skydivers and pilots at high altitude. Stay tuned to your Heart Zones USA e-Newsletter for development of new technologies for monitoring fitness training – including distance, speed, and location monitoring.
COOLNESS, coolness, coolness!
Check this out and stay tuned for a review on this little gadget! The Digisette Dual Sports digital audio player and heart rate monitor is an exciting new evolution in portable audio and fitness training. It combines a state-of-the-art digital music player/FM radio with a wireless heart rate monitor!
Check it out at: http://www.digisette.com/en/products/dualsports.asp
Okay, for some of us, it is ALMOST time to get back into our routines, be more disciplined, retaliate with fitness and activity after various different kinds of indulgences during the holiday season - however you see it – going to the gym should include some basic principles:
1. If you are new to the health club arena, inquire whether or not you will receive a heart rate monitor as part of your membership. (Yes, Heart Zones believes that EVERY club should provide a heart rate monitor to you to use during all of your workouts – that should be a standard when you arrive at the club – a towel and a monitor to use).
2. If heart rate monitors are available at fitness classes or are encouraged, find out if the trainer understands the basic principles of heart zones training (i.e., how to assess maximum heart rate, measure your current fitness level, and how to set your zones). The bottom line, here is that if your trainer or club is using age predicted maximum heart rate from formulas as the foundation for determining heart zones, then you are better off buying a heart rate monitor on your own with one of Sally Edwards’ books and skipping monthly dues – in the long run, you will get fitter on your own by understanding Heart Zones training and probably save some money!)
3. Ask the question to your health club: Can we get training in Heart Zones in our club? (We offer a number of workshops, seminars and customized packages for clubs who want to provide heart rate monitors, get continuing education credits for staff and/or simply provide a member service of education and training! Tell your club to contact your e-newsletter editor: Jessica@heartzones.com)
If you are going to invest time, energy and money into getting healthy and fit – ESPECIALLY at a health club for which you are paying monthly dues, part of your member benefit should include heart rate training. Remember, KNOWLEDGE is power! Good luck and seek us out for help! We are here to support you and your fitness training. www.heartzones.com
In January, we will be offering our annual New Year to Fitness Sale. Pick up monitors, books and accessories and incredible prices! Why, because maybe you didn’t get EVERYTHING you wanted for Christmas, and well, because we want to be with you every step of the way in your journey to better health and fitness in 2005. Join the family of Zoners who get healthy and fit with a training system that gets you results for a lifetime! Go to the Heart Zones website from January 1- 31st get our best at the lowest prices – BLOW OUT PRICES – for 30 days!
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The Heart Zones e-Newsletter is a Heart Zones publication
Publisher: Sally Edwards
Editor in Chief: Jessica Menendez
PLEASE forward this e-mail to friends and colleagues who are also interested in fitness and sports training using the heart. THANK YOU!