Issue 057

December 2009

Mastery of one’s body is essential for competing or training in MMA.  

Get the edge over your opponents with a heart rate monitor, because knowledge is power.  

Why Use Them?

To monitor how hard you’re working while you’re training. How fast exactly should you be running on an ‘easy’ run? Are those ‘high intensity intervals’ you’re doing really as high intensity as you think?  

A well-prepared fighter leaves nothing to chance. It’s a fine balance; if he pushes himself too little, he won’t get the results he needs, but if he pushes himself too hard he risks overtraining and burnout. A heart rate monitor helps to take the guesswork out of the equation. 

When Would You Use Them?

The most obvious time to use a heart rate monitor is while you are doing conditioning work. Check you’re in the right zone to achieve your objectives when you’re running, cycling, swimming, doing circuits or hitting the bag. You can even wear them during sparring and use them to measure your recovery between rounds.  

Download and analyze your data

The top of the range heart rate monitors give you the option of downloading the data from your training session to a computer for later analysis. This can be useful for tracking your progress over time.   

Chest strap

Most heart rate monitors work by using a sensor strapped around your chest that detects your heartbeat. These are more accurate and generally easier to use than the other types, which work by picking up your pulse from a hand grip or finger touch (‘pulse monitors’). It is important to get good contact between the chest strap and your skin, otherwise you may find yourself getting some strange readings!  

Timers

Different models come with a variety of different timers. Typically, there will be a stopwatch and a lap timer, while some also have a countdown timer and / or interval timer. These can be very handy if you want to do repeated intervals or Tabatas on your own.   

Target zones

A heart rate monitor should allow you to set your own ‘target zones’. For example, you may want to make sure that your heart is somewhere in the range 140 to 160 beats per minute. In this example, if your heart rate goes above 160 or below 140 an alarm will sound so that you can adjust your pace. More advanced models will allow you to set multiple training zones that you can switch between.  

GENERAL TIPS

Understand what you’re doing

If you’re going to use a heart rate monitor, you need to understand what to do with the information you’re getting back. What is your target heart rate for the activity you’re doing, and why? If you don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, then having an expensive gadget won’t help you.  

Monitor your early morning heart rate to check for symptoms of overtraining

If you’re training hard, then it can be useful to keep a record of your heart rate each morning before getting out of bed. If you find that this suddenly goes up, then it may be a sign that you’re starting to overtrain.