How to Calculate Your Workout Recovery Cycle

The carotid artery on the side of the neck, just beneath the chin, is a good area to monitor your heart rate.

Cardiovascular exercise is used to improve the heart's efficiency in pumping and distributing blood carrying oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. With improved cardiovascular fitness, the heart can distribute the required blood through the body with fewer beats. Moreover, an efficiently working heart will return to near pre-activity beats per minute quicker at the end of cardiovascular exercise or activity. The "Three-minute Step Test" is one way to calculate and monitor your heart rate recovery cycle. It can be used to determine baseline recovery numbers and gauge progress.

Things You'll Need

• Partner
• Stopwatch
• Chair
• Aerobic Step Bench (12 inches)

Instructions

1. Sit quietly for three to five minutes to bring your heart as close as possible to its resting heart rate (RHR). Place the middle and forefinger of one hand on the radial pulse, which is located at the thumb side of the opposite wrist with the hand in a supinated or face-up position. Use the carotid pulse on the side of the neck beneath the chin if the radial pulse is undetected. Have a partner with a stopwatch signal you to begin counting as he or she begins the watch. Count the pulses silently for one minute. Record the RHR.

2. Stand in front of a step bench approximately eight to 12 inches in height. Instruct the partner to maintain a metronome of "up, up, down, down" verbally throughout the test. Maintain a pace of 96 beats per minute. Inform the partner to give you the signal to begin and start the stopwatch. Step both feet up onto the bench and back down in the same order. Avoid hanging the heels off the bench by stepping firmly onto the center of the bench. Have the partner notify you when you have slowed down or sped up. Perform this movement for three minutes.

3. Sit down in the chair at the conclusion of the three minutes. Locate the pulse you touched at the beginning of the test as soon as you sit down. Avoid taking time to catch your breath before you find the pulse as the heart rate can begin to drop immediately. Notify your partner that you have located the pulse so he or she can begin the watch. Count your heart rate for one minute. Document your second heart rate after one minute. Subtract the initial heart rate from the second heart rate. Record this number. The difference is your "one-minute recovery" cycle. Set a goal of bringing your heart rate as close as possible to initial heart rate via a progressive cardiovascular exercise regimen. Repeat the test every four weeks.

Tips & Warnings

• Be certain to use the same step height in subsequent test for validity.

• It is important to find the pulse and begin counting as soon as the test is concluded. The heart rate can drop significantly in the first 10 to 12 seconds.

References

• "NSCA's Essntials for Personal Training"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; 2004
• "ACE Group Fitness Instructor Manual, A Guide for Fitness Professionals, second edition"; American Council on Exercise; 2007