I joined a new gym last night, and I got a free orientation. Part of that was figuring out my target heart rate. The trainer said that based on my age, 29, that my target heart rate would be 162. Does this sound right to anyone? How exactly does it work, as far as how long should you maintain your target heart rate? I should have asked, but forgot.

The trainer wasn't too impressive. She was rather old-school in her thinking of health and nutrition. I told her about the Zone. She said she'd heard of it, but didn't really know the specifics, and seemed kind of surprised about no breads, pastas, or """"whole grains"""". I described to her what I usually eat: veggies, fruits, low-fat protein, and good fats. She actually encouraged me to eat bread.

Anyway, if anyone can shed some light on the target heart rate, that would be great.

If she is telling you to eat grains stay away from her.

There is an article in the CrossFit journal about The Myth of the Fat Burning Zone. You can't view the article without a paid subscription. Some of the articles are free and some are reserved members.

The jist of the article is that the supposed target heart rate is not the optimum fat burning zone that is espoused by many trainers and on the preset graphs on the machines.

If you work out at a moderate intensity for 30-45 minutes you burn a greater amount of calories during the workout than if you workout at a higher intensity for 15 minutes. What they don't tell you is you will continue to burn at a higher rate throughout the day with the higher intensity training. With the moderate intensity "staying in the heartrate zone" you will normalize much faster and will not have as great a burn through out the day.

Workouts like Tabata 20 sec all out effort 10 seconds rest, repeated for 4- 8 minutes. HIIT High Intesity Interval Training. Sprints with active rest like bodyweight exercises in between will do wonders for your metabolisim.

There are so many Facts & Fallacies in the fitness world it is amazing. What many put out there as fact is just some advertising campaign or myth with no data to back it up.

Matt

I'm no expert, but I don't see how she can determine your "target" heart rate from your age alone. Target and max heart rates are all averages. I don't know the science behind it, but I have done the whole working out in my target range thing in the past. Since switching to crossfit and HIIT, I notice my resting heart rate, body fat, and endurance have improved tremendously. I do a few days really hard core (can't speak) and a few at a long moderate (can't quite sing) intensity.

I just went online and used some heart rate calculator....using my resting heart rate of 52, it told me I should be targeting between 77-130. So that just shows how much different methods can vary.

I would find a different trainer if you plan to keep seeing one. Every one that I have ever had recommended the zone....just took me years to listen!