How to Monitor Your Heart Rate While Weight Training

Maintaining the correct heart rate when you perform any type of exercise can be an invaluable tool to reaching your health goals. You can manually monitor your heart rate while weight training by taking your pulse. To get a more accurate measurement of your heart rate, you can make use of a heart rate monitor. Heart rate monitors keep constant track of your heart rate and displays it for you.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Calculator (optional)
• Watch
• Heart rate monitor (optional)
• Paper
• Pencil

Monitor Your Heart Rate Manually During Weight Training

1. Check your heart rate during the rest periods between your weight lifting sets. Trying to take a reading while still moving can be distracting and cause injury.
2. Place two fingers on the side of your neck just below your jaw bone. Do not use your thumb, as the pulse in your thumb may confuse your measurement.
3. Measure out 15 seconds on your watch or a clock as you count the beats you feel under your fingers.
4. Multiply the number of beats you measured by 4. This will give you the number of times you heart is beating each minute.

Establish Your Weight Training Heart Rate Range

5. Take your resting heart rate using the manual method discussed in section 1. Write this number down.
6. Calculate your maximum heart rate. This is the highest your heart rate should ever go. Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. Jot the number down.
7. Subtract your resting heart rate from Step 1 from your maximum heart rate established in Step 2.
8. Multiply this number by 0.70.
9. Add this number to your resting heart rate to get your target weight training heart rate. This is the number you want your heart rate to hover around as you work through your weight training routine.

Use a Heart Rate Monitor

10. Choose a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. The strap is a stretchy belt which a transmitter that fits around your torso below the chest. Because of the close contract to your skin, these transmitters are most accurate.
11. Slightly wet the transmitter on the chest strap before you put it on. This will help the connection remain strong.
12. Secure the strap until it is snug, but not uncomfortable. The idea of a chest strap may seem awkward, but most are quite comfortable.
13. Place the receiver on your wrist like a watch. While turned on, the face on the receiver will display your heart rate constantly.

Tips & Warnings

• The average heart rate is some where in between 50 and 100 beats per minute. A heart rate of less than 60 (bradyarrhythmias) or more than 100 (tachyarrhythmias) beats per minute may signal a problem and should be checked out by your doctor.