Total Heart Rate Training: Customize and Maximize Your Workout Using a Heart Rate Monitor

by Joe Friel

TRAIN SMARTER WITH THE NEWEST HIGH-TECH HEART RATE MONITORS
Whether you are just starting a fitness program or are an experienced athlete, you can greatly benefit from paying attention to your heart rate during exercise. Heart rate serves as a window into the body, giving you minute-to-minute feedback on your physical condition based on all the factors affecting it—exercise intensity, diet, temperature, humidity, altitude, fatigue, and more.
Total Heart Rate Training

•Heart function during exercise
•How heart rate monitors work
•Simple ways to use a heart rate monitor
•Advanced heart rate training techniques

With Total Heart Rate Training , you can design a personalized program that practically guarantees you’ll achieve your fitness goals. You’ll be able to determine the precise and optimal heart rate for each day’s workout by using your heart rate monitor to keep you on target. It’s like having a personal trainer telling you when to go harder and when to back off.
This book also shows how powermeters and accelerometers enable you to compare your body’s input, as measured by heart rate, with its output-power or pace. It’s a combination that allows you to train at your peak for that competitive edge.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fitness, Health, Sports, Cycling, Science

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dimitri Trofim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book written by Joe Friel, the author of the 'The Cyclist's Training Bible', 'Triathlon Training Bible' and many other well-known books is focused mostly on the one aspect of the training process: heart rate. This topic is studied in the book from all possible points of view and in depth. You read about history of the heart rate monitor, formulas to estimate maximal heart rate, ways to measure your personal lactate threshold with an explanation of what that is and why it is important, different heart rate training zones and finally how to build the training process around it.
Beyond that the importance of training periodization is explained.

I liked a lot the idea of the six different physical abilities, among which three are basic - endurance, force and speed skill - and three are advanced - anaerobic endurance, muscular endurance and power.
First train the basic, then the advanced.

While the author tries to be sport discipline agnostic, it surely feels like he had endurance sports in mind, especially triathlon. I don't find this emphasis not bad, because that is my exact sport of interest, but for someone, who is more interested in rowing, triathlon examples might be not that interesting. Though there are even some data and recommendations especially for rowing as well as for many other sport disciplines.

The most interesting thing that I found in the book (and why I think I would return to it again from time to time) is the final chapter 'The Total Heart Rate Training Program'. This chapter describes in a very detailed way how to build a personal annual training program(ATP) based on your goals and abilities taking into account ideas related to the heart rate described before.

What is different in the approach provided in that book is that the starting point of the ATP (annual training program) is a training volume that is measured in hours, not in miles as in many other training methods, especially for running.

There are 168 hours in a week and that is what you should always keep in mind.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, but, technical, lots of details. I refer to this book every season for my running and cycling event training. Best tip, know your zones and know your max heart rate.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

EXERCISE RESPONSE--Just as with RHR, as your aerobic fitness develops, your body's muscles' ability to pull oxygen out of the blood improves, and so your heart rate decreases at any given level of work output below the max. This drop in exercise heartrate is another good indicator of improving aerobic fitness.
Early in a workout your heart rate responds more slowly to increases in intensity than it does late in the workout. For the first min or two of the firs interval, heart rate rises slowly. As the workout progresses, the heart beats faster earlier in the interval.

Heart beats fast at a higher RPM.

As we age our maximal heart rate declines.

MISCONCEPTION: TO LOSE WEIGHT, EXERCISE IN THE "FAT BURNING ZONE"--Let's say for example, that there are two 150-lb people, each with 30 min to exercise. One walks and the other runs. Our walker covers 2 miles and burns about 200 calories. Of these, 70% came from fat, for a total of 140 FAT calories uses. The runner covers 3 miles in the same 30 minutes and consumes 330 calories, with 60% of them derived from fat--FAT calories uses 198! The higher-intensity exercise increased the amount fat burned by more than 40%!

MISCONCEPTION: THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING IS TO INCREASE HEART RATE-- The purpose of training is to get more OUTPUT (power or pace) for the same INPUT (heart rate).

LACTATE ACCUMULATION--As your body uses carbohydrate to create energy, it releases a by-product inside the muscle cell called LACTIC ACID. This soon begins to seep out of the muscle cell into the bld stream and in doing so CHANGES ITS COMPOSITION BY GIVING OFF HYDOROGEN IONS. This hydrogen, NOT THE LACTATE, is what causes the burning sensation in your muscles at high effort levels. LACTATE IS ACTUALLY A BENEFICIAL SUBSTANCE AND IS USED BY THE BODY TO CREATE MORE ENERGY SO THA EXERCISE MAY CONTINUE. IT'S THE HYDROGEN THAT IS THE REAL ACIDIC CULPRIT. The more intense the workout, the greater the amount of lactate released into the blood--and thus the more hydrogen ions. If lactate level decrease then can assume fitness has improved.

LACTATE THRESHOLD (LT)--the level of intensity at which you being to "redline." or the effort above LT is so difficult that you find it difficult to continue.

HEART RATE ZONES
zone 1: active recovery--PURPOSE (actively recover from previous hard training) DURATION(allday)
zone 2: aerobic threshold (AeT) P (build aerobic endurance) D (<12 hrs)
zone 3: tempo P (challenge aerobic system) D (<8 hrs)
zone 4: sub-lactate threshold P (improve acid tolerance for long endurance) D (<3 hrs)
zone 5a: lactate threshold (small zone) P (build LT performance) D <1 hr)
zone 5b: aerobic capacity--at the upper end of this zone you are at your aerobic capacity and can only maintain the effort for a few minutes. P (THIS ZONE IS MOST EFFECTIVE FOR IMPROVING AEROBIC CAPACITY). It maximally stresses the aerobic system, but you also have a great recovery cost. D (<20 min)
zone 5c: anaerobic capacity P maximally challenge anaerobic system D (<2 min)

MUSCLE TYPES-- Type 1-RPE 1 or 2 or lifting light weight, TypeIIa- RPE 3 or more, heavier weight,
Type IIb-When you are sprinting all out or trying to set a personal best in weight lifting, you are using ALL THREE muscle types.
TYPE IIA FIBERS ARE RECRUITED AT ABOUT YOUR AeT heart rate- low end of zone 2.

GROWTH HORMONE--maintaining, or even increasing naturel levels of GH has a positive effect on athletic performance. GH is released in pulses during an immediately following exercise, and especially during sleep. GH levels steadily decline at about age 25 so the older you are the more important it is to promote GH production. The following have been effective in increasing GH:
EATING FAT-especially monounsaturated (olive oil, nuts, avocados) and saturated meats
PROTEIN--TAKING IN PROTEIN IMMEDIATELY AFTER EXERCISE ALONG WITH CARBOHYDRATES (previous statement is true, BUT, as protein in the diet goes up GH production declines)
EXERCISE INTENSITY-exercising in zone 5 causes the pituitary gland to release more GH than does exercising in the lower HR zones
WORKOAD VARIETY- change things up INCREASE THE TRAINING WORKLOAD EVERY 3 WEEKS OR SO.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels like a pretty thorough explanation of how to work with a heart rate monitor to improve the efficiency of workouts. My main complaints are that the workouts listed are very generic, essentially outlines of workout ideas, while more concrete plans for any specific activity are available on a website and must be purchased (where the website has changed since this book was published and the workout plan prices are something like 3 or 4 times the cost of the book that I thought would include those workout details); and most of the explanations are centered on race preparation, with general fitness preparation for recreational athletes like me just occasionally mentioned.

A third thing to mention is that because this is an older edition of the book, it doesn't have much useful info about newer heart rate monitors. I can't tell you if there is a newer edition, and if there is whether it covers the newer tech in any useful way.

In the end I'd say the book gives lots of useful guidance and makes it possible to figure out training plans for athletes in numerous sports, it just does it in a way that makes you try to figure out a fair amount of how to approach things. For some readers that may be a plus, but I was hoping for some more explicit guidance.

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The youngest was doing some serious training and asked me to research. So, I did. Bought one and used it for a while. Personally, I think it's for the serious athlete or someone with a heart condition that needs monitoring. But then again, I'm a bit of a Neanderthal on the digital age.

[Thor K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to resist highlighting more than half

Very information dense. I learned a great deal and will continue to return to this book as I design my future training plans.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenomenal reference to return to again and again.

[Jason Comely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some useful nuggets of information that made me a more informed runner. More here than I needed though, and the chapter on heart rate monitors is badly outdated.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of what you think you know about heart rate training is probably false. Those charts at the gym that tell you to calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220? Bogus. The charts are based on a small study that's subsequently been shown to be inaccurate for the majority of people, author Joe Friel writes in this slender but densely-researched book. In fact, although maximum heart rate refers to the maximum beats your heart is capable per minute, this number is going to vary depending on your sport. A runner's MHR is higher than a swimmer's.

Friel goes on to debunk many commonly held beliefs about our heart rates - things I've read online, seen posted in gyms, and heard from trainers. His graduate-level study, three decades of field work, and in-depth review of the latest scientific literature inform "Total Heart Rate Training," a great book for athletes of any skill and experience level.

If you just bought a heart-rate monitor and want a work-out routine to start following, this book is bound to be a disappointment. At a minimum, Friel asks you to spend 40 minutes in the gym determining your lactate threshold, then a few hours with pencil and paper customizing a plan based on your fitness level, your sport and your specific goal.

It may take longer to complete the training plan than to read the book, and the process can be tedious and frustrating. If you think about it, though, we're all different enough that anyone who promises a one-size-fits-all workout plan is almost certainly glossing over a few things. If you stick with the plan Friel helps you develop, he promises you'll become a fitter and faster athlete. You don't have to be a serious athlete to benefit - I'm a slow runner, with no illusions that I'll ever be anywhere near the front of the pack. But you do have to be serious about athleticism.

I'm impressed by how much I learned from this book, and am keeping it in my gym bag as a constant reference.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit dry - it reads kind of like a textbook - but I suppose that's not a bad thing when you're crunching out heart rate data and analyzing it. I enjoyed reading the science behind heart rate training (including the refresher on how the heart actually works - seems I forgot some of my grade school biology lessons). The only thing I would have changed was the planning section of the book. It is designed for an annual training plan, but I am not a professional athlete. I don't plan my fitness in annual cycles. I plan my training based on upcoming races - maybe 4 months at a time. So the annual charts were basically useless to me, and there wasn't much info on how to tailor the data to a shorter time span. That said, it provided plenty of information on how to set target heart rates to train for different types of events, so I used that instead. The sample training plans were not very useful, for the same reason, but the verbiage in earlier chapters explained the process of heart rate training well enough that I was able to construct a training plan of my own from it.

[John Drexler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read other training books that primarily approached the topic from a pace/speed perspective, but I seem to fall more in line with the HR perspective, especially since I live in a very hilly area. This addresses all aspects of training, and hopefully it will give me a better idea of how to maximize my training on a limited schedule. Yes, this book does seem to read more like a textbook, but I'm a nerd, so it works.

[Wilfredo Malazarte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good coverage on using heart rate zones to monitor your training. I really liked the training triad concept the author used to explain which skills/qualities to emphasize during workouts. I also liked the chapters on periodization/peaking as well as creating a training plan.

I would have liked to see more examples and fleshed out explanations but given the book was under 200 pages, there's still plenty of content here for athletes to work with before having to turn to other texts.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed info and training plans for athletes including the use of a heart rate monitor. I appreciated the completeness of the heart rate info. The training plans and details are for a more serious competitor from the younger generation. I still liked the book, taking the heart rate info that I wanted and skipping over the road to greatness training plans.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Understandably, the general concept of HR-based training has taken a back-seat to power-based training, so it would be unfair to judge this book against the modern standard.
It’s surprising how often you can substitute the word “power” for “heart-rate” and still learn an amazing amount of information.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

have not started, but on my deck.

[Daniel Panev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite disappointing. If you could read any of the "Training Bibles" or "Going Long" you can safely ignore this one.

[Even · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book, but it feels like Friel is mostly repeating himself... Again...

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great beginning and advanced knowledge on Heart rate training. A beginning athlete won't find this useful. This is a book for serious fitness nerds.