How important is it to monitor your heart rate during exercise?

Do you measure your heart rate when you exercise? We think you should, but not for every workout you do. 

There are many ways to assess your performance when you train, the most common is RPE or rate of perceived exertion. Your trainer may ask you, how does this feel, how hard out of 10 do you find this. This is a great way to quickly assess how hard you are working, or not as the case may be. You can measure your fitness levels by timings and counting, if you ran that 5K in a fast time than before, or you managed to do more push ups in 1 minute, you get the idea. The most effective way to work rate has to be the Heart Rate Monitor. 

A good way to know your maximum heart rate is by this: 220 - your age. So if you were 20 years old, your Max heart rate is.....200! 

Heart rate zones: 
Moderate - 50-60% MHR
Fat Burning Zone - 60-70% MHR
Aerobic Zone 70-80% MHR
Anaerobic Zone 80-90%
Max - 90-100%

Looking after your heart is number 1, so if you are new to exercise, you don't want to go near the Max HR. If you want to burn fat, then stick at around 60-70% and do it for longer. 

Here is the leading heart rate monitor on the market, get one today and train smart.