Fitness Column 21 - Burning Fat – Your Heart Rate

Our heart rate is a real big sign of how hard we’re working when exercising, obviously, the buckets of sweat and fatigue are great signs too but generally we can rely on our heart rates to tell us if we’re working hard or not hard enough.

To find your maximum heart rate you need to take your age and minus it from 220. For example;

220 - 30 = 190

A 30 year old would have a maximum heart rate of 190 and would not expect their heart to be working passed that number during exercise. I mean, 190 is high and to reach that you’d have to be really going some!

So, what’s the best rate for burning fat? You’d be looking at 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate. Going back to the 30 year old example, they’d be looking at around the 130bpm mark.

Keeping your heart rate at a steady rate of 130 bpm is achievable by exercising on a treadmill, a cross trainer or going for an average run but that’s so boring and in my experience is not as effective as HIIT training!

Yeah, I babble on about it but it works! Manipulating your heart rate to increase and decrease is an awesome way to burn fat and encourage muscle growth at the same time AND is a much more effective way to use your time when training!

90% of our classes encourage the heart rate to work to an effective level, the rest periods are fair in comparison with the work load and you will challenge yourself and your fitness!

‘If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you’