On Wikipedia alone, there are eight different formulae for calculating your maximum heart rate. I hadn’t really looked much into the topic until I came into a discussion with my uncle last night about why it’s relevant, and what it’s relevant for. I’ve just been doodling along with my heart rate monitor, proud to reach anything above 185 beats per minute (lunges are particularly good for this), cause that’s when I really feel like my muscles cease their interest in any kind of movement, after just a few seconds. Then, at the end of my workout, my watch tells me my average heart rate, my maximum heart rate, and how long I’ve been in the “Fat Burn” zone, in addition to how long I’ve been in the “Fitness” zone. The latter hasn’t really peaked my interest much, until I got into this discussion with my uncle last night.
The most widely cited formula for HRmax, would have my mum in cardiac arrest pretty much every time she gets on a bicycle. It was developed in 1970, and simply calculates your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Then you’ve got the reaaaaally complicated ones, like the Lund Study, which has different formulae for women and men (plus, plus), and incidentally gives one of the most accurate calculations to what I’ve experienced when running as fast as I can for a little while. It goes:
190.2 / (1 + exp (0.0453 x (age - 107.5))) (put it into Google - it does the math for you)
But everyone agrees: if you really want to find out how hard you can go - you need a set-up ala Captain America’s muscle transformation machine, with at least two specialists overseeing you and monitoring an ECG machine, while simultaneously screaming at you to run faster and faster, until you collapse. I’m not that keen on falling off a treadmill (and particularly not the consequent burn marks from the mill band), but an approximate is handy to have up your sleeve.
Now, the reason I’ve been going on about this, is because the most useful thing about knowing your maximum heart rate, is that you can tailor your workout accordingly. If I want to burn fat, I need to be at between 60-70% of my maximum heart rate. If I want to do anaerobic training, I need to be at 80-90%. In other words: when you have an estimate of your 100% heart rate, you can choose your exercise, choose the results you want, and train thereafter. And that’s pretty darn useful. Plus, it might be good knowing just how fast your ticker can go if you’re out in the woods being chased by dogs, bears, or wolves, just in case you’re running so fast you might be in danger of a heart attack. But then you’re maybe not wearing a heart rate monitor in the woods, or worrying about cardiac arrest when you’re being chased through them, anyway.
Bodybuilding has a tainted name. To this day, this is still what generally comes to mind when I think of the term. But let’s re-cap for a second, and break the word down. Body and building. So building your body. Isn’t that what we’re generally after at the gym, anyway? I know I am - I want a strong body, like a carpenter might want a strong house - and I build it. Until Ariz showed me the website www.bodybuilding.com, I wouldn’t even have thought to go near anything like it. And it is, admittedly, a tad over the top. Some of the profiles look ridiculous. But the website’s expert advise, workout programs, and nutritional information are all astoundingly good.
I’m currently reaping the benefits from a training program that won the competition “What Is The Best Female Bodybuilding Workout?” No steroids or strange, chemical supplements included; it’s a basic program. For building my body. To me, there is something strangely empowering and interesting - almost like learning a trade - to discovering how your body functions pretty much like a machine. It needs oiling and fuel and regular check-ups and security controls - and bodybuilding is the way (I’m almost sure of it) to secure that your body machinery is working properly and needs less servicing than before.
Of course, there are those who go way too far, and ruin the image for the rest of us who just want a healthy and strong body - a well-built one that functions as it should. That’s why I head to the gym six times a week, drink my energy drink, and eat my banana at the end of each workout. Why I don’t mind the utter agony of climbing my mother’s staircases a day or two after my legs have been pushed to their limit. I’m building my body for the future. Kind of like an investment into my own health, and stocks are looking pretty good at the current moment. So here goes, without any excuses or shame: I am a bodybuilder. And it feels pretty darn good.
I’ve written about this on several occasions before, but I feel like it can’t be stressed enough: will power is a very, well, powerful tool. It can make you do the most amazing things, and the strangest. At present moment I’m fairly dizzy and quite delirious - all because of will power. I decided that today would be a good day to start running again - I haven’t for about a week, substituting my intended cardio increase with a brisk walk instead. The effect’s the same. I thought. Well, that was until will power happened this evening. I was feeling sluggish, tired, and annoyingly warm by the time I’d finished my 30-minute strength program, and thought, “Hey! Tonight might be a good night to start running again.” So I did. But not on last week’s cardio program like normal, sane - and not currently possessed by will power - people would do. Oh no, sir. I did the cardio program for this week. Which I’ve never done before, by the way.
Now, a little bit about this cardio increase thing: it increases every week, as the name suggests. I’m currently in my third week of a ten-week workout plan. The daily strength programs stay the same, but cardio, you guessed it, increases. So the first week, I ran for one minute and walked for two minutes, and I did this seven times. Then, in the second week, I ran for two minutes and walked for two minutes - five reps. So, it would kind of make sense, right, to perhaps start with last week’s running scheme, considering I haven’t run for a little less than a week? Nope. Will power stepped in. “You can do this, Synne! Prove to the world you can do this.” So I did. I picked a spot on our wall, somewhere between my favourite quotation that I mentioned last week and a picture of Jesus walking on a water treadmill. And I ran for three minutes on full speed, and walked for two minutes at approximately 160 heartbeats per minute, four times. Now I’m sat here, with eyes half-open, trying to comprehend if Ariz is asking me if I’d like chicken, or if I’d like to climb into the oven myself. I don’t know. I’m pretty tired. Thanks, will power. You did it again. Chicken, anyone?
