Heart Rate Recovery and Fitness
May 15, 2009 by mariamonet
Filed under Stay Active
The best way is to race and see how much faster you become. However, you don’t need to do that. You can also use a simple test called Heart Rate Recovery. Tim Noakes, a former marathon runner, followed competitive bicycle racers through a four-week very-intense training program and showed that a simple test that can be done by anyone, Heart Rate Recovery, was as accurate as a measurement of improvement as more sophisticated and expensive tests, such as peak power output, VO(2max) or a 40-km time trial (European journal of applied physiology. March, 2009;105(5):705-13.)
This test should be done only by people who have no hidden heart disease, since exercising to your maximum can cause a heart attack in people who have damaged hearts.
Exercise as hard as you can, close to the fastest your heart can beat, for at least a few minutes. Use a heart rate monitor to check your pulse just before you stop and then again one minute later. If you are fit, your heart rate will drop 30 beats or more in the first minute. As your level of fitness improves, your heart rate recovery increases also.
Taken fr: drmirkin.com
