What a day.
I actually started out on the right side of the bed, waking up early and meeting my power partner for a walk around Kapiolani Park in Waikiki.
The sun shone brightly and I found parking right away. Even my son was agreeable.
I decided to try out the new heart monitor that my trainer taught me to use. After all of these years in Education, I just learned that there’s a specific heart rate that I can aim for in order to maximize my workout– my target heart rate. (Thanks, Quoc!)
My resting heart rate is about 60 beats per minute (bpm). According to the formula, I can work at a 50% – 75% level when my heart rate is between 122 and 165 bpm.
As I worked with my trainer, I also learned that anyone, “even Lance Armstrong,” will feel fatigued at a heart rate of about 170 bpm. In my case, my form starts to degrade and my chances of injury increase.
This Saturday morning, I wore the heart rate monitor and walked around the Park, stopping to stretch and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, my heart rate was steady in the early 120s, never reaching higher than 125 bpm.
What does this mean? I’m not that efficient yet.
What does that mean? All it means is that I’m burning less fat than someone who has higher cardiovascular efficiency. Bummer.
The good news is that this training will pay off. By working with kettlebells while monitoring my heart rate, I have already seen a slight improvement.
I can easily increase the value of my workout with different exercises, both static (the grinds) and dynamic (ballistic).
As I increase the weight of my kettlebell, although my heart rate stays about the same, my cardiovascular efficiency is actually improving, since essentially, I’m doing more work!
Now can you guys see why I heart kettlebells? With such a simple tool, I can gain (and lose) so much!
Great job, love the blog!
Not efficient… yet? No worries. Slow and steady wins the race. Stay safe and committed. I know you can do it
You’re sticking with it…. and sasha is right… Slow and Steady wins the race… think turtle…. you’re in it for the long haul… good for you.
if i didn’t know you i would say this is a commercial for kettlebells. but i know you so i can just be excited that you found a thing to help you focus and reach your goal.
there are always good things and bad things to any new plan we take, the cardio not working on your side will eventually change. you’re becoming educated enough on the subject to understand how it works and then make it work for you.
here’s to you!
btw – your male friend, not really ahead of you… men lose weight faster than women. another thing to hate them for! lol j/k