MILO BRYANT: Intro to training by heart rate

So, I'm in a gym the other day, and the following conversation takes place on the treadmills:

Guy: "While you run, grab those sensors. They'll tell you your heart rate."

Gal: "OK, where do I keep it?"

Guy: "Oh you want to keep it above 90 percent."

Gal: "For the whole 5 miles? Why?"

Guy: "You want an ‘A' don't you? Ninety percent is an ‘A' in fitness."

Gal: "I want an ‘A plus.'

Guy: "Well, keep it at 95 percent."

You can't make up stuff like that. And I know some of you are cringing right now - much the way I did when I heard them. But that's obviously what some folks know about heart rate training.

Numerous books have been written about heart rate training, which is what "Guy" was explaining horribly. I'll list a few at the end of this column. I know I won't do them complete justice, but I'm going to take the next couple of weeks to discuss the topic. Today, I'll define it as best I can and talk about its importance.

Next week I'll talk about some ways to figure out your target heart rate and use it to train more efficiently.

Those who go into gyms and get on treadmills, bikes or elliptical trainers often see in front of them a colorful graph with some variation of the words "target," "heart," "monitor," "zone," "rate" and "maximal." Those words are accompanied by percentages, and all that can be overwhelming.

Let's begin to understand what it all means.

The heart rate is the number of contractions, or "beats," the heart has in one minute. The heart rate changes and adapts to the body's need to distribute oxygenated blood. The lower the heart rate, the less oxygen the body needs to function efficiently.

Heart rate training is a methodical and scientific way of improving cardiovascular fitness. We take a percentage of our maximum heart rate and use that to guide the specifics of our training.

Most fitness professionals agree that there are four or five primary heart rate training zones: the recovery zone (50-60 percent) the efficiency zone (60-70 percent), the aerobic zone (70-80 percent), the anaerobic zone (80-90 percent) and the red-line zone (90-100 percent).

The lower percentages equate to endurance events. The higher percentages - which are why the above conversation was cringeworthy - equate to short bursts of energy. There is little, if any, possibility of "Gal" running five miles at 95 percent of her maximum heart rate. However, there's a strong possibility of her running 50 yards at that level.

Red line a car for five miles. See what happens.

Understanding our limits is important for safety reasons as well as for figuring out how we can increase them.

Now, the books:

- "Total Heart Rate Training," by Joe Friel

- "Precision Heart Rate Training," by Edmund Burke

- "Heart Zone Training," by Sally Edwards

Understand, though, that these books are not for the beginner.