Well not actually, but I do wear a heart rate monitor to see how many thuds my heart takes when I am exercising. See, I have a love/hate relationship with exercising. It loves me by giving me clear skin, deep sleep, a sense of accomplishment and  a decent body weight. And for some reason, I continue to hate it. And sometimes, I am not that consistent with it. The only thing about exercise that I am consistent about is my hatred. I need to get a t-shirt that reads, EXERCISE. THE NECESSARY EVIL.

But I want to share with you my security blanket in the exercise world.

A heart rate monitor is a helpful tool when you are exercising. I am not a fitness trainer, but I had one and a heart rate monitor was one of his recommendations. He also recommended taking milk thistle tablets. Yeah, now that wasn’t a good idea. Anyways, a heart rate monitor does exactly that. It monitors your heart rate rate while you are working out. 

Here’s my current one:

The strap pictured above goes around your chest. For women, right below your bra strap. For men, right below your bro strap (Serenity Now!). Okay, okay, I will stop the Seinfeld references. And where the “Polar” is printed above? That goes directly middle front. And when you put it on, you need to wet it just a little bit to help the connection between it and your heart. Ya know, the whole ‘water being a great conduit for electricity’ thing.  Oh! And by the way, you wear it under your clothes. Against your skin. Grrrr.

So you can spend a lot of money on heart rate monitors but I think I spent about $60 on mine. It actually is a watch and a strap.

Depending on how expensive the set is, the watch will have various settings such as the time, your current heart rate, calories burned; you may be able to enter your max heart rate and it will beep when you reach it. If you work out on a machine at the gym, the machine may display your heart rate when it detects you wearing a heart rate strap.

Okay, now for some great reasons to wear a heart rate monitor:

1. On the machines, if you enter your age and weight, it will give a more accurate reading of calories being burned. For more expensive heart rate monitors, the watch catches that information and acts like a mini-computer. 
2. You can monitor at what % of your maximum heart rate you are exercising. Because you know how they always have that part in the fitness magazine cardio section. Well, now you will actually know at what % you are exercising. Calculate your maximum heart rate by taking 220 and subtracting your age.  Example: I am currently 32 years of age. No secrets here. I am an open book. 220 – 32 = 188. My maximum heart rate is 188. So I don’t want to exercise at my maximum heart rate but usually somewhere between 65%-85% of it. So take the maximum heart rate and multiply it by .65, .70, etc. and that will give you the heart rate percentages.

I don’t want to spend my life at the gym so by monitoring my heart rate, I am able to get the most out of my workout in the shortest amount of time. And if you train for or enjoy endurance sports, it is a great way to make sure you stay within the “zone” without undertaxing or overtaxing yourself.

Okay, my public service announcement is done for the week. How many calories do you burn from typing? Too bad I can’t type with my thighs. But supposedly, spot-training doesn’t work.

Now, if only I could find a catapult that would fling me safely from my bed to the treadmill at the gym.

Yours truly,

Lynne with an E xtra pound or two to lose