Heart Rate Monitors

Why train with a heart rate monitor?

Training with heart rate monitors is a scientifically supported method to maiximize your traning time. Regardless of your level of fitness, a heart rate monitor gives you a glimpse into how hard you are working and how much energy you are using in your exercising and recovery activities.

How does it work?

As your exercise intensity increases, your need for oxygen delivery to your muscles increases. The primary way your body increases the supply of blood enriched oxygen is by increasing your heart rate. When the intensity of exercises exceeds your body's ability to supply enough oxygen to the working muscles, you reach a limit in terms of how much longer you can sustain exercise above this level. Athlete's refer to this point as becoming "anaerobic", or exceeding the ability of the hear to supply enough oxygen for "aerobic" energy production.

Using a heart riate monitor, along with a simple field test, can help you plan your workouts to maximize your "aerobic engine", or your body's ability to supply oxygen to working muscles. The more efficient your body is at using oxygen and burning fat (an almost unlimited resource in the body), the further and faster you can ride!

Triathlon Bikes Online makes it easy for you to find auctions for Heart Rate Monitors on eBay. Browse the store pages for monitors by Polar, Timex, Garmin and more.

For more information, see the article on "lactate threshold field testing" using your heart rate monitor.

Here are some links to great articles about using Heart Rate in Exercise:
Maximum Heart Rate Formula, Don't be Fooled by Steel City Endurance
Heart Rate Mangement for a Beginner by Exercise Physiology, MD