Heart Rate Training: The New Healthy

While reading Rich Roll‘s book, Finding Ultra, I became highly intrigued with his “zone 2” training. Rich seemed to achieve superhuman feats while attributing his success to a healthy vegan diet and strategic heart rate training.

Photo Credit: Zach Dischner

Rich Roll has recently reached enormous fame in the endurance community, especially among vegetarian athletes. Rich is most well-known for completing the UltraMan (a double ironman) and the EPIC5 (five Ironmans in one week).

In addition to the ultra-healthy raw vegan smoothies that Rich slams on a daily basis, he also effectively trains in his optimal heart zone. This powerful combination allows Rich to exercise at a high intensity for many hours in a row and recover quickly to do it all over again.

BIG Benefits

Heart Rate Training (HRT) has many potential benefits including avoiding over training, tracking your progress with easy-to-understand data, and letting you know when to push harder.

The best part is that as you train you should be able to get better results without working harder. For example, you could lower your marathon time from 4 hours down to 3:30, with the same effort.

I recently finished reading a phenomenal book on this topic that I highly recommend: Heart Rate Training by Roy Benson and Declan Connolly. It’s a little dense and the authors love to use big scientific words, but it’s extremely helpful and it explains all of the fun details I don’t have time for here.

The Basics of Heart Rate Training

HRT is a strategic method to measure exercise intensity to achieve your customized goals. As you train, monitor your progress, and improve over time, your heart will be able to deliver more oxygen-rich blood to your muscles faster and more effectively.

Monitoring your heart beats requires a heart rate monitor, which usually includes a chest strap and a watch. The prices vary considerably, which is why the previous link is for the cheapest one I could find on Amazon. This is the monitor I currently use and I think it’s fantastic.

After buying a heart rate monitor, you would then need to calculate your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). Your MHR is the fastest your heart beats while exercising at your maximum intensity.

A rough estimate of your MHR is 220 – age. I am 28 years old, so mine would be 192 with this formula. However, a running test that I completed revealed my MHR as 194.

To complete your own running test, simply sprint around a track 3-4 times with a 2-minute break between each lap. Monitor your heart rate at the end of each lap. By the end of the third lap you should be thoroughly exhausted and be able to see that your heart simply will not beat any faster.

Heart Rate Training Zones

HRT is broken down into two basic groups: aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen). Aerobic exercise includes long slow distance events like marathons. Anaerobic exercise includes short bursts of energy like in weight lifting and sprinting.

Using the MHR that you calculated from the running test, you would then set your athletic goal and train in one or more of the four zones.

The 4 Zones of Heart Rate Training

1. Endurance (less than 75% of MHR) ::: the ability to travel from Point A to Point B no matter how much you have to slow down. This is the aerobic foundation zone for all athletic activity. In this zone you will burn the most fat, run without getting tired, and feel the best after you finish a workout. In a nut shell, it’s a nice, slow, easy pace.
2. Stamina (75-85% of MHR) ::: the ability to go from Point A to Point B without slowing down. This is the “zone 2” that Rich Roll talks about in his book. This is the best aerobic zone to be in while running an endurance race like a marathon, triathlon, or ultramarathon.
3. Economy (85-95% of MHR) ::: the ability to go at race pace while using the least amount of oxygen and energy. This is ideal for a faster pace during a shorter race (5k, 10k, or possibly a half marathon.)
4. Speed (95-100% of MHR) ::: the ability to go at top speeds for short periods of time. This is perfect for weight lifting, short sprints, and explosive activity. This is the final stage of training and is completely anaerobic exercise.

Where Do You Start?

1. Buy the book, Heart Rate Training.
2. Buy a heart rate monitor.
3. Calculate your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) with a simple running test.
4. Choose a training plan. Everyone should start in the endurance zone and build slowly over time. There are great training plans in the book I mentioned earlier.
5. Start training and tracking your results. Run, bike, swim, or exercise while wearing your monitor and recording all of the data.