Cathe or educated crowd - heart rate monitor really necessary?

[jazz]

Dear Cathe or educated crowd,

I'm very confused on this. I don't use a monitor. I had one once and returned it - I spent too much time worrying about getting into the right zone than working out.

I go by perceived exhertion and when I'm doing an Imax or an interval workout I pretty much feel like I'm in the correct zones when I'm supposed to be.

I have my cardio in categories and pretty much know by how I feel which workouts are steady state, low heart rate etc.

I'm confused about interval training - will I still be getting the benefits of interval training by using percieved exertion or do I need to get a monitor?

For what it's worth - I'm not training for any marathons or anything, I'm just trying to stay healthy.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[clareMc]

No, a heart rat monitor is not necessary, only useful to some. I have never used one nor needed to. I can tell from my bodily signs and from my pulse what my degree of exertion is and how much fuel I have left, how much more I can gun it or if I teporarily need to take it down a notch.

Sounds to ne like you found it more of a gimmick than a help and you are perfectly fine without it.

Clare

 

[jazz]

Thanks clare.

I feel so much better now.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Jazz! While I know some experts swear by them, I don't believe they are necessary. They put too much "science" into the workout. I like to use perceived exertion and rely on listening to my body. I think the HR monitor makes you too fixated on it and you lose the "fun" and or flow of the workout. If you enjoy a HR monitor and it gives you incentive or helps you keep to your goals, then by all means, enjoy it and continue to use it. But if it is doing the opposite, then I wouldn't suggest using one or needing one.

 

[jazz]

Thanks Cathe. Now I feel extra confident.

May I make a small suggestion for future workouts?

Would you maybe put in a heart rate check like you have in the Wedding video and a couple of your older workouts?

I think it would be helpful to keep us on track, plus it makes a great stopping point for water breaks.


Thanks again for your great workouts and motivation.

 

[sarahinva]

I just wanted to put my $.02 in here because I ended up spending quite a bit of money (to my pitiful teacher's salary) on one a few months ago. While I DO like to keep track of my calories burned, etc., I think I end up NOT getting as good of a workout when I use it. I'm always fussing with it ~ trying to keep it from slipping from under my chest when I go into squat thrusts in BootCamp, for example. For some reason, I always find myself looking down at it too much, almost obsessively. I ended up using it once for each workout, just to get a general idea of how many calories I burn during each particular workout. Now it just collects dust like so many things around my house!

Sarah

 

[lfcjasp]

OTOH, I really like mine...at least when I turned off the sound. The beeping while warming up and cooling down got on my last nerve, not to mention the beeping if I wasn't working hard enough during the workout itself. And I have to work pretty hard now (mostly during low impact cardio...and I don't wear it during strength workouts...only during cardio). The monitor is great to help me keep up the intensity of walking workouts or low impact routines; it's less necessary during step workouts, but they do help me not go too high (anaerobic). I can't tell much from perceived exertion rate.

Definitely a YMMV, personal preference thing.