Fay: My friend is obsessed with heart rate training and always looks at her watch during workouts. Why is heart rate something to think about when exercising? 

Megan: Heart rate training is beneficial because different training zones based on effort level can optimize training results. Heart rate training works well for people who like performance related and data results. Training zones are based on maximum heart rate, so most of the time to burn calories and fat you want to be somewhere between 65 – 80% of your maximum heart rate. This can steer someone to put in more effort or to monitor not going above and beyond their max for too long. Endurance, speed, and interval type training can align with heart rates. It can keep you honest with yourself and efforts, but most heart rate training aligns with cardiovascular workouts. That’s not to say that resistance training and workouts that may not need to look at heart rate too much aren’t effective or as effective as those that might closely monitor heart rate. The key is to move. If tracking heart rate is motivating and helps with strategy, then by all means, use it to get going. 

If you have a question for Dr. FIT, email her at everybodysfit@gmail.com and be sure to check out her website www.everybodysfitoceanside.com