Shore Fit
By Bonnie Dodd-Miller
One of the top fitness trends for the last few years has been and continues to be, wearable fitness tracking devices. These have many uses that promote a healthy lifestyle. They even tell you when it’s time to stand because you’ve been sedentary too long. There are so many to choose from! Two of the most popular devices are from FitBit and Apple. If you’re a savvy fitness enthusiast, you’ll know how to use such technology to maximize your performance.
Fitness Watches can tell you how many calories are burned during a workout. These are all specific to your very own height, weight, gender and age. If you want to achieve a certain amount of steps, that’s also something that is tracked through fitness watches. Sleep can be monitored, indicating how much sleep you actually get and how many times you wake during the night. I use my watch to achieve a daily goal of 60 minutes of exercise and a calorie goal of 600 calories burned.
Fitness watches track your heart rate. Monitoring your heart rate or your rate of perceived exertion is not only important but great for motivational purposes as well.
The heart rate monitor, built into these types of watches, allows you to learn, grow, and improve your understanding about how your body responds to exercise. It is great for reflection and comparison, so that you can monitor how one workout varies from another.
By becoming familiar with your heart rate during a specific workout you’ll see from session to session if you are improving and pushing yourself as hard as you should. You’ll learn when you can push harder, and when you need to recover during the workout. You´ll also be able to detect early warning signs if something is wrong with your health or your stress-levels.
You won’t see the increased heart rates as much in yoga as you would in a high intensity workout. It is particularly valuable if you’re a fan of high-intensity interval training. I’m a big fan of this type of training. You get more bang for your buck in less time.
In a group fitness workout everyone is doing the same thing and experiencing the togetherness, yet it leaves a lot of room for personal variation. I may be using a much heavier weight than Susie or Joe which makes it personal for me and my results may be different as a result. The beauty of it is that everyone is different and that goes for their fitness levels as well, which is ideal even in a group setting. A great instructor will always provide you with modifications and adjust the intensity by choosing easier or harder options depending on your training objective.
The idea that more is better and that your heart rate should be high throughout a workout is a huge misconception. There is a bigger picture and that lies in how you’re feeling (rate of perceived exertion) with what your heart is telling you (heart rate). It’s such a great tool and gives you knowledge about your own body. You should use your heart rate as just one tool to train smarter.
Maximum heart rates vary a lot. This is individual because our ages and fitness levels vary from person to person. The rule of thumb which is 220 minus your age is your maximum heart rate. It’s your job to control and adjust your workout intensity. It should be based on your individual threshold and daily capacity, not always your maximum heart rate.
Mix it up and do a variety of workouts. It’s the combination and the cross training that will really have your body responding and always guessing. Heart rate training is wonderful to keep you in check with your body and make sure you’re not over doing it. In the event of overdoing it, you’ll know when to back off especially if you are familiar with your own maximum heart rate. Be in tune with your own body and do not compare yourself to the person next to you. Fitness tracking devices are a great tool to help you achieve your goals.
Bonnie Miller is certified fitness instructor at the Ocean City Aquatic and Fitness Center and the JCC in Margate. She is a mom of three and resides Somers Point.
