Sunday, March 31, 2013

TRAINING IN HEART RATE ZONES TO BURN FUEL MORE EFFICIENTLY

ZONE  1- Typically your warm up or recovery zone.  Burning mostly fat, secondary sugar. Should feel comfortable and easy.

ZONE 2- A zone to develop your aerobic capacity. Burning mostly fat, secondary sugar. You are teaching the body to burn fat here. You can talk to your neighbor but your body has an urge to go faster.

ZONE 3- This is a zone to be in to burn the most fat and sugar. This is where you are building your aerobic endurance. You feel heat in the muscles, its tough, but you can work through it. You notice your breathing has sped up possibly and you’re teaching your body to go longer and stronger.

Anaerobic Threshold- This is the line where your body shifts from burning fat to burning more sugar. Your breathing is more labored, your mouth may open and you may only be able to speak a few words to your neighbor. This is the line on our fitness level that we want to push up to be able to stay in zone 3 longer and be able to burn fat longer.

ZONE 4- Heavy breathing, very difficult. We have reached the other side of that Anaerobic Threshold line and we are pulling it up at this point to be able to increase our time spent in Zone 3. We are mostly burning sugar here, and can only stay in this zone for short bursts before looking for a way out. Great for training for races. 

Heart rate monitors are great to wear especially during a CYCLE class, due to its constant movement. When you reach your anaerobic threshold you can see what your heart rate is. When you pass AT and reach a point where you can only sustain for no more than 60 seconds and as little as 20 seconds you will realize your maximum heart rate and can work from there.
Resistance training/weight training is great for developing efficiency in higher caloric burn. 1# of muscle burns 30-50 calories whereas 1# of fat burns approx 3 calories.

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