Heart Rate Talk!!

It’s spring time in socal, which means running season is in. Aspiring 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon runners are hitting the streets with their running shoes on! I personally think it’s awesome. People chose to run more for a lot of reasons from weight loss & stress relief. Then there’s the whole “runner’s high” which is a real thing. If you’ve followed my previous blogs you know I’ve run a few marathons. And transitioned my own experiences and added some education. Now I’m a personal trainer(fast forward).

Clients come in with a lot of questions. These days it almost seems like were putting cardio in the basement. So lets be clear,CARDIO is GREAT!

BUT!!

Strength Train- prioritize this. Lift heavy as much as possible once able to without risk of injury(once you’re in the proper training phase. Hire a qualified fitness professional/ highly recommended).

Now lets talk heart rate.:

Our heart’s 4 chambers(atriums / ventricles) have blood pass through them as we send nutrients to our body. Our pulse rate (that little bump on our wrist/ neck is a wave of blood getting pumped out of our heart. Generally speaking , the lower our heart rate is, the healthier the heart is.

Cardio is great for our heart health, which is why endurance athletes have lower resting heart rates. Generally speaking , the lower resting heart wave we have the better for our overall heart heart(slow down, that doesn’t apply across the board).

Others factors can impact our heart rate:

* Dehydration: less water = thicker blood — — -> harder to pump blood out. Think about oil viscosity.

* Blood pressure: Higher blood pressure can / will make the heart work harder in position of laying down vs standing.

* Sleep, stress, hormonal factors that are ultimately the cause of a chain of events in our lives.

A healthy resting heart rate is around 60–80 beats per minute. Increase your cardio output? And you’d likely see a low resting heart rate. And if you like cardio, do more . If you like running and taking group fitness classes, I love it!

So how do you begin improving your resting heart rate? Start by thinking about yourself, prioritizing your own health.

At Equinox on the Miracle Mile our our precision run/ walk coach, Jennie Maurer teaches a great class on building endurance which helps improve heart rate by taking members through various heart rate tempos, incline and decline rates on treadmills. Alternating between the low intensities and high intensities over a period of time helps build cardio endurance. At a certain point, the lower intensities feel easier. At. that point we’re challenged To build more endurance.

Then theres the resistance training factor. As my Coach Chris Hitchko at Show Up Fitness taught us trainers:

• Optimize tension-lift heavy
• Progressive Overload
• Metabolic stress

Both cardio & resistance training builds a healthier heart in the long term for our lives as muscle moves our bones, & the old ticker has to pump blood oxygen and nutrients to our bodies.

And if we aren’t moving the heart isn’t working very much. Aside from that, we naturally lose the cells that replace damaged muscle as we age(those being satellite cells). So strength training is equally important, just like cardio is to building endurance(ie lift heavy weights).

Ultimately, move more, sleep more, stress less= healthier resting heart rate.

Happy heart health Sunday to ya!!