It is also a prominent goal for sports training. Consequence of an effort provided by the heart in activity as at rest, a heart rate that is not normal can be the cause of several pathologies.
So how do you calculate the correct heart rate? How to properly apprehend it in an athlete? How to optimize it?
What is a normal heart rate?
Number of heart beats or pulses per minute, heart rate is measurable by the pulse, the wrist or the side of the neck. To find out, just count the number of beats per minute.
However, are there any standards that should not be exceeded?
Before talking about standards, it is important to specify that everyone has their own heart rate.
At the same time, resting heart rates vary with age. For an adult, for example, the average frequency varies between 60 and 80 beats. Therefore, below 50 beats, the subject is diagnosed as suffering from bradycardia; and above 110 beats, it is called tachycardia.
It is important to specify that the heart rate at rest is not the same over a period of 24 hours. Many factors cause its changes and significantly influence the heart rate. Among which we can note hormones, stress, bodily, physical or sporting efforts. Even air temperature tends to alter heart rate.
The heart rate in an athlete, what are the limits?
For athletes, the parameters change, because the more a heart is trained, the more it performs. As a result, with each heartbeat, a significant amount of blood is distributed.
With more muscular walls and larger chambers, a trained heart needs to beat less often to pump the same quality of blood and lower resting heart rate.
In fact, athletes, at rest, have a lower heart rate than sedentary people. This is normal and means at the same time that to carry out physical activities, the heart of an athlete gets less tired than a person who does not practice sport.
So the resting heart rate for high-level athletes can go up to 35 beats per minute, without too many health disadvantages.
And what about your Maximum Heart Rate?
The FCM is an indicator that measures the maximum number of beats your heart can sustain in 60 seconds. It’s kind of a physical limit, a threshold that your heart can withstand.
The method for calculating it is as follows:
HR max = 207 – 0.7 x age
Therefore, the heart of a 27-year-old athlete should make 188 beats per minute. This corresponds to the following calculation:
(= 207 – (0.7 x 27))
How to optimize your endurance in training?
In order to keep a better endurance in training and to always optimize it, here are some practical tips:
The first piece of advice is to be consistent in your approach. For example, you have to go for a run regularly in order to accustom your body to training. Quite the opposite for irregular people, because during this time the body does not adapt and always returns to the starting point.
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Gradually increase the pace
It is a utopia to want to be efficient overnight. And the best way not to get discouraged is to constantly increase the pace and distance of the race.
For example, increase 10 min each workout and measure your ability to adapt to this small increase. These additional minutes must also be the equivalent in terms of distance traveled.
