Heart Rate Training Zones

Hey this is just going to be a short tutorial on Heart Rate Zones.  Its just so anyone who is also thinking of taking on a bit of weightloss or is just generally exercising for fitness can see the different zones that can be worked in.

Ok so what are the different heart rate zones?

Warm-up/Cool Down Zone — below 50% of your maximum heart rate. This zone is the easiest to achieve, and can usually be hit by walking briskly.  If you stay solely in this zone, you can reap benefits of decreasing body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol.  85% of the calories burned in this zone are fats!

Fat Burning – 50-65% of your maximum heart rate.  85% of the calories burned in this zone are fats.

Endurance Training – 65-85% of your maximum heart rate.  Your cardiovascular and respiratory system will improve when you exercise within this zone.  It will increase the size and strength of your heart.  50% of the calories burned are from fat.

Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) – 80-90% of your maximum heart rate.  You will improve your VO² maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and, consequently, your cardio respiratory system.  You will also get a higher lactate tolerance ability, which means that your endurance will improve and you will be able to fight fatigue.  Olympic athletes typically exercise within this zone. 15% of the calories burned are from fat.

Maximum Effort – 90-100% of your maximum heart rate.  This zone will effectively only be able to be sustained for a very short period of time as your muscles will be working anaerobically 
So folks those are your zones.  You can see that ‘fat burning’ occurs at lower intensity due to the bodies systems but at the end of the day a calorie is a calorie whichever zone you are working in.
Anyway I will leave you with that as food for thought.  If you have any questions you can comment on here or pm me on Facebook or just give me a call if your lucky enough to have my number :-P

Next micro topic I am going to look at will be on Heart Rate recovery.  This is often overlooked but is a good indicator of how fit you are.

Sidenote:  Useful for cyclists link;

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/heart_rate/heart_rate_zone_calculator_abcc_bcf.html

Getting on it....

Hey folks.  Had a good week this week in more ways then one.  Firstly the weather has been great for cycling and has generally lifted the winter blues away psychologically to.

Exercise:

Cycling:  37.5km done this week commuting

Half Day Paintballing

Wattbike session: 10km

Swimming: 20 lengths (approx 1/3 of a mile)(Sprint intervals)

I finally came to the end of Lent on Friday night and proceeded to let the King of Beers back into my life along with some Aero shots (thanks Christina!) My intentions where to drink Vodka and Diet Coke but it didn’t pan out that way as I love cold Bud.  I think I came out of the night on equal terms though after 2 hours dancing (well my version of dancing anyways) and if laughing counts as calorie burning then I was definitely knocking calories off at a rate of knots.

No takeaways to report this week and a reduction in treats so that side of the bargain has been successful.  I will do a monthly way in to show my progress (or lack of it) so that will act as a motivation to me to.

Throughout this week I’m going to start looking at heart rate and training zones and put some sort of overview along with the blog next week so watch this space!

Have a good week!

Midweek Video Blog...Take One!

Hey folks, midweek experiment here.
Apologies for the weird facial expressions and the constant making sure my iPhone hadn't fallen out of my hands with my eyes lol.
Also it wasn't clear there but i will be out Friday night i'm just hoping to avoid the kebab etc so if you see me heading towards anything remotely foody tell me off!  Also i will be on vodka and diet coke to try and minimise calories from that!

Cheers all

Motivation

SO how did I do this week?  Not great.  The exercise hasn’t started yet and there where two takeaways involved.  Why I hear you ask.  I really don’t know is it because I’m weak willed or just kitchen lazy… the answer is I am not sure at all.  I am aiming for a session on the wattbikes on Thursday before work and have a full day paintballing on Friday.  There is even mention of a single speed bike session over the weekend.  This is on top of what will hopefully be 3 trips to and from work (tyres permitting :-P).

On the food side its not looking great I cant seem to get in a groove.  I know I can change habits I did with alcohol from drinking two-three times a week at Uni to easily coping without drink for Lent and not really drinking much at all for the past few years.  The odd glass of wine or beer here and there but nothing on the scale of m uni years.  I think the main thing with food is taste for me.  The bad stuff tastes good and the good stuff tastes ok depending on what you have. 

So again this week I will try to abandon takeaways and make sure I eat healthily.  Easier said then done as the Mrs is going away for a few days so that to my feeble food orientated brain is an invitation to eat takeaways.  I am going to try planning out my weeks food and sticking to it!

See you in a week!

Stepping Up

So week one of the blog has passed.  You will see I have made two posts this week.  That is just because it’s the start I will try and keep it to one post a week from here on in.

I want to talk about how I’m going to achieve my goals and objectives this week.  I have set the challenge of losing 7 stone to myself which would take me down to 13 stone (for those of you not good at maths I weigh 20 stone at the moment).  My current BMI (Body Mass Index) is 33.19 this puts me in the category of obese (You can work out yours using this tool http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx).  That is a category I don’t want to be in.  Heart Disease amongst other things is increased when obese. 

So how am I going to tackle this.  I currently work shifts at a leisure centre.  Now you’re thinking how the hell can you be 20 stone and work at a leisure centre.  It’s a fair point but the last thing I want to do after an 8.0 (Avg) hour shift is go in the gym or for a swim there.  I could go for a workout before work or a swim and this is what I am going to start doing.  I already cycle to work (8km there and back) so that’s a good start and I am going to do 45 minutes in the gym twice a week to start with.  I will mostly be working on 15 minutes cardio, stretching and major muscle groups.  Exercise programme to follow!

Demons

Hi folks,

Firstly thanks for the tremendous response and encouragement you’ve all sent.

So I want to discuss my motivation behind this journey.  I hit 30 last year and my little girl Evie will be two in July.  She is my primary motivation for wanting to get fit so that I can do anything she needs me to do and so that I see her grow up and become the fine young lady she is looking to be developing into.

For those of you who know me there are probably two sets of you.  Those of you who remember me pre being overweight and those of you who know me now in my current body shape (obese).  I think that the first 18 years of my life where I was fit and active can be re-achieved with effort and a little determination.

So I entitled this blog post Demons.  You’re probably asking why.  The reason is I want to discuss the reasons why I am at this point and why I continue to sustain this weight. 

From a very young age I have always been very interested in food and had an almost insatiable appetite.  I put this down to the fact that I was exercising a lot pre 18 years old.  It would have been five times a week with football the main occupier of the five with a little running.  It has never been about alcohol really for me I can take it or leave it but food is the issue here.  From the age of 18 years onwards, when I went to University in Bolton, takeaways have played a large part in my diet anything from McDonalds to Pizza’s.  This is obviously not healthy and up to now I would say hand on heart I eat at least 2-3 takeaways a week.  This is going to be an area I really need to focus on and change.  One it will aid really quickly the weight coming off and two it will mean more money in my pocket.  Portion size is my other issue here it’s something I need to reduce drastically.  I’ve always eaten like I’m exercising 5 times a week even after I stopped doing this at 18 and this is another area I can monitor pretty easily.

Challenge this week (and going forward):  1 Takeaway or even better none and measured portion sizes

Current Weight:  20 stone

To be continued...

Hi all,

So this is the start of a two year long process for me.  I have two major aims and objectives to be fulfilled withing the next 24 months.  These are

1. To lose 7 stone in weight
2. To complete an epic challenge (Something on the bike as yet to be determined)

I used to be fairly fit before i went to University and let myself go a lot.  I put this down to pure laziness and to much drink and bad food with very little exercise.  8 stone later and i think damn why did i do that.  I know its going to take me sometime to lose the weight in a healthy and sustainable way but i think i am now ready to make that effort.

I intend to keep a blog which hopefully i will update every week.  I am also proposing to keep a photo journal on here but i will have to work this out :-))  so if you are squemish i wouldnt bother with that part of it.  I may even put some video together but we'll see.

Thanks all

James