Exercising by Heart Beat

Normally one would want to exercise with some repeatable routine. Some go for fixed time. Others go for distance. More health conscious people will want to stick to an exercise/training routine depends on the type of exercise done.

I usually go for speed based exercise as I do walking and cycling. Recently, I am obsessed with heart beat based exercise. It is not scientifically proven but based on the ample talks about lowering heart beat, a controlled heart beat during exercise moves one towards lowering it. It will be good for controlling hyper tension, high blood pressure.

Before launching on the methods used to keep heart beat within a range during exercise, it will be good to about the basis of heart beat measure. According to scientific figures, the maximum heart beat a human can have is 220 beats per minute (BPM). Individual person's maximum heart beat is 220 - number of years of your age. People who exercise constantly will have their maximum heart beat considerably higher than normal people's heart beat.

Minimum heart beat depends on individual. Some athletes have resting heart beat around 40 BPM. Most people's heart beat is between 60 - 100 BPM. Children aged 6 -15 is around 70 - 100 BPM.

My range of heart beat I want to control while walking is 99 - 108. It is at the lower end of medium exercise range. The reason is to avoid excessive sweating. It is not easy to control the heart beat at this range as any lower than 98 BPM means I am out of medium exercise range. This is especially true if I don't do warm up before walking. It tends to fluctuate very much till the body is warm up.

Monitoring heart beat while cycling is a bit dangerous. However, all vehicle drivers including motor-cyclist have to keep monitoring their speed while driving. Their speed is very much higher. Just ensure that the coast is clear before you take a peek at the heart beat monitor. I only do it while cycling on long stretch of PCN or cycling path.

Depending on the type of cycling done, the heart beat range can be different. Usually, if I want to go for speed, I abandoned heart beat monitoring. Just go fast till your limit. On the other hand, for standard exercising, I go for 155 plus minus 10. It is at a comfortable heart rate without stress. Coincidentally, 155 is my maximum heart beat (theoretically).  Individuals must try and error to find a comfortable cycling speed for themselves.

At 155 BPM the speed of travel is basically below the 25 KPH limit of PCN. It is therefore safe and within the regulation.

GARMIN Connect has a stress measurement statistic page. It is to show how often you get stressed. My stress region is generally non existing except at the beginning  and end of exercise. It could be a result of my method used but there is no proof and I don't bother to prove it.

Below is a typical walking speed and heart beat chart.