Heart rate is an important tool when you are training to compete or improve your current fitness. During training, the heart rate provides a better reference point than power and speed to how intensely you are working and how much effort your body is expending. While some athletes live by the philosophy 'go hard or go home', there is strong scientific evidence that suggests consistent and persistent training within more controlled heart rate levels delivers better fitness outcomes over time.

Learning how your body responds to stress, using your heart rate as a guage, allows you to adjust and execute your training program to get the best results out of your body. When we use heart rate training zones and train at the required intensity based on our current condition we avoid unintentionally pushing the body over the limit.

Power House Rowing Club coach Adam Harrison cautions that training too intensely can have serious implications for athletes.

'You will burn out and you will burn out fast. During a season the vast majority of your training will be aerobic ranging from T1- T4 and it is critical to build your aerobic capacity to ensure that you can perform an all body exercise for 1km-8km depending on the race type. By undertaking Anaerobic training (high intensity) too early or too frequently you will increase your likelihood if injury and your lactate levels will amass faster than your body can remove them. This will occur at such a rate that an effective training session will not be able to be undertaken and your recovery time will be extended.'

Getting Started - Calculate your Heart Rate Zones

Heart Rate Zones are a relative reference - so to be able to use them you need to understand what your resting and maximum heart rate is.

The best time to take your resting heart rate is first thing in the morning when you get out of bed. If you wear a smart watch, it should have a setting that tells you your heart rate. If not, grab a stop watch or timer. Sit on the edge of your bed or in a chair and place your fingers on your carotid pulse (located on your neck approximately half way between your throat on your ear and an inch below your jaw). For most accurate result count the number of beats for one full minute. This is your resting heart rate.

A quick way to calculate your maximum heart rate  is by using the age based calculation, which is 220 minus your age. This provides a good enough guidance to most athletes. If you are super keen, the most accurate way to determine your maximum heart rate is to take a supervised VO2 max lab test.

To calculate your zone you need to calculate the target minimum and target maximum heart rate target zone. You calculate them as follows:

Target Minimum Heart Rate = Resting Heart Rate + ( (Maximum Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate) x Zone Target Minimum Heart Rate % )

Target Maximum Heart Rate = Resting Heart Rate + ( (Maximum Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate) x Zone Target Maximum Heart Rate %)

If you are really serious about using heart rate zones, it is important to make sure you get the base measures right. Otherwise the outcomes you achieve may be impacted.

Adam cautions, 'You quite often see athletes not knowing what their max heart rates are and therefore inaccurately measuring their % HR levels. Such miscalculations can result in you peaking too early in the season or alternatively never peaking at all'.

Heart Rate Training Zones Overview

How to use Training Zones

At different levels of training intensity, the body changes the way it sources energy. When you are training at a low intensity, your body uses oxygen to convert fats into energy (aerobic). But when you train at high intensity, your body has to convert carbohydrates (ie sugars or store glycogen) into energy. This process is more taxing on your body. So too much training at this high intensity can actually hinder your progress, as it takes longer for your body to restore itself and recover from the effort.

Your end training program, and which zones you are working in really depends on your overall goal, but generally you will be working to either achieve Aerobic capacity (more sustained performance over a longer period of time eg head races) or Anaerobic capacity (best for shorter distance races where you are trying to make muscles more resistant to lactic acid build up so you can maintain a very high speed for longer in a shorter race eg 1km sprint season races).

Power House Rowing Club coach Adam Harrison sees heart rate zones as a helpful training tool for a number of reasons:

'They allow you to track your performance through the season to ensure that you peak for your premier competition and assist you to compare your physical condition from one season to the next. They can also guide you to stay within the appropriate training zones (T1-T6) for what your training goals are for that particular time of the season. The benefit of this is that you can tailor your workload for aerobic and anaerobic training as well as understanding what your predominate fuel is for a training session whether it is fat, carbohydrates or phosphagen.'

Advice on maximising training for the head season

The head season is about to commence, and many of our club members are starting to prepare their training schedules. When working out Adam advises the following regarding heart rate zones:

'Spending 70-90% of your training doing HR (T2 to T4) will be critical to build your base aerobic capcity early in the season and it is even more relevant for head racing, where race length is considerably longer'

For members looking for guidance for onwater and off water training, remember to check the weekly workout schedule prepared by the Power House Rowing Club coaching team. Just navigate to the Power House Rowing Club Member Portal and you will find the link to the latest workout sheet there.

Parting thoughts

While using science in sport can be important, it is equally important to remember there are a number of factors beyond fitness in sport - including the benefits of simply doing something you love. Remember not to go over the top with how you use the training zones.

So Adam's parting advice is important, 'Overly monitoring your heartrate can turn a joyful training session into a stressful, analytical exercise. It can distract you from the feel of the boat, your rhythm and your technique. Keep your eyes up and not on your watch!'