Why Monitor Your Heart Rate While Running?
Running is a cardiovascular workout that offers numerous health benefits. These include weight loss, muscle toning, increased endurance and even digestive regulation. However, in order to reap those benefits, you have to make sure you are staying within the desired heart rate zone while running. It might seem like enough just to get off the couch and start running. Well, it is enough, but when you start setting goals, you have to start putting your body in the right place to achieve them. Heart rate monitors can help.
When you run, your heart rate is an indication of what sort of benefits your body is gaining. Now, it is important to workout your optimal heart rate with a doctor, so learn what is slow, medium, high and red lining for you before you decide where you need to run. If you run on the low end, you are increasing cardiovascular activity, burning some fat and teaching the muscles to use their resources. The next level is your desired heart rate, which will get your lungs working with the rest of your body and make you stronger. Anything higher than this zone is training your muscles to tolerate increased levels of lactic acid so that you can run longer and harder when called upon. This is not the recommended zone for casual athletes.
Now that you know your body prefers a specific heart rate range to reach certain goals, how do you maintain the range you want? Those devices that look like running watches you see on athletes do the trick. They monitor heart rate during activity so you can make sure you stay in your sweet spot for the whole run. It is also a good way to see if you are even hitting an ideal spot. You may be spending a lot of time running, but not getting much benefit.
Sites like Heart Rate Monitors carry wrist monitors designed for runners. Find one that has the design and additional features you need for your training. You can get everything from socially connected monitors to monitors that do one thing only — tell you your BPM while you are wearing them.
