Don’t miss the accompanying articles to this video series:

How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 1

How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 2

The post Strength & Conditioning – Joel Jamieson: Week 4 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Training the Aerobic Energy System

Don’t miss the accompanying articles to this video series:

How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 1

How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 2

Week Three Highlights:

The post Strength & Conditioning – Joel Jamieson: Week 3 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Previously, I discussed the importance of managing your training program along with the easiest and most effective ways to use a heart rate monitor to make sure you’re on track and getting the best results possible. In this article, I’ll share the perfect tool to complement heart rate monitoring, a relatively less known, yet incredibly powerful technology known as heart rate variability.

Used together, the combination of heart rate monitoring and heart rate variability tracking represent the most effective way to get the most out of your training program. Not only will you be able to see a day-by-day snapshot of how your fitness and conditioning is changing from the inside out, but you’ll also be given a virtual roadmap that leads toward your training goals.

In order to understand how it all works, let’s talk a bit about what heart rate variability is.

What Is Heart Rate Variability?

Despite the fact that heart rate variability has only recently been used within the fitness and sports performance fields, it’s been around since the 1960s. Originally developed as part of the Russian space program and used in 1961 by the first man in space, Yuri Gargarin, heart rate variability is often confused with heart rate, even though the two biomarkers are quite different.

“By looking at specific patterns contained within the rhythm of your heartbeat, HRV is able to accurately gauge fitness and fatigue levels at any given time.”

Heart rate is a simple measure of how many times your heart beats, most often measured in beats per minute. Heart rate variability is a measure of something much more complex. Instead of just looking at the function of the heart, heart rate variability (HRV) reflects how the brain is regulating the heart. By looking at specific patterns contained within the rhythm of your heartbeat, HRV is able to accurately gauge fitness and fatigue levels at any given time.

ALSO BY JOEL: How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 1

Though this may at first seem like something out of Star Trek, it’s incredibly well supported by years of research. And it makes sense when you consider the brain is responsible for keeping the heart functioning properly. As part of this responsibility, which literally means the difference between life and death, it the brain that is able to change the way the heart is regulated during periods of fatigue and stress.

Because of this, HRV is able to provide a real-time snapshot of how much stress your body is under. This means it can help you manage your training more effectively by giving you an accurate gauge of how much volume and intensity is appropriate so you can push your body to its limits without going overboard and into a state of overtraining.

Using HRV to Guide Training

One of the best aspects of heart rate variability is its overall ease of use. To measure your heart rate variability, you don’t need to do anything more than to put on a heart rate monitor and lie down and relax for a few minutes. During this short period, HRV can be calculated and reported by a mobile app.

“By looking at specific patterns contained within the rhythm of your heartbeat, HRV is able to accurately gauge fitness and fatigue levels at any given time.”

This HRV information should then be used on a daily basis to help guide training. On days where HRV shows you’re already under a moderate or high level of fatigue, it’s best to take your workouts down a notch or two so your body can recover faster. Overworking on such days slows down progress and increases the chances of injury and eventual overtraining.

LEARN MORE: HRV an Important Variable for Combat Athletes

On the other hand, when HRV shows you’re in the green and ready to go, you can push your body to its limits and know that it’s ready to adapt and respond effectively. By looking at specific patterns contained within the rhythm of your heartbeat, HRV is able to accurately gauge fitness and fatigue levels at any given time – and work with your body rather than against it.

Combining Heart Rate Monitoring and HRV

Of course this entire approach works best when combined with the heart rate monitoring discussed in my first article. For example, say you’ve planned a day of high-intensity intervals that, according to your previous records, typically results in four to five minutes of total time spent above 90% of your max and an average heart rate of 150 for a total duration of sixty minutes. This is definitely one of the harder workouts you do, but you feel like it’s been leading to great progress lately.

Now on the day of the planned workout, suppose you take your HRV measurement and it shows moderate fatigue. In this case, you realize it’s best to cut back the workout a bit. You take it down to forty minutes, shoot for a total time above 90% of two to three minutes, and rest longer in between intervals. All this results in a bit lower average heart rate, as well.

LEARN MORE: Heart Rate Monitoring: An Effective Test for Overtraining

The end result is that you were able to take what your body was giving you rather than trying to force a workout just because you had it planned. By making small changes over time, this process of individualizing your training based on biofeedback leads to much better outcomes and more consistent progress. The difference is the same as trying to travel from one place to another by trying to guess the best route versus using the latest GPS to guide you there.

Getting Started

We live in a technological world with almost endless amounts of information available to us 24 hours a day. We can use our cell phones to navigate and get directions, order our food, pay our bills, check up on our favorite sports teams, and send pictures and videos almost instantly around the world.

“The difference is the same as trying to travel from one place to another by trying to guess the best route versus using the latest GPS to guide you there.”

Given this, it’s surprising how little information most people rely on when it comes to their training and all the hours they put into their workouts. Without the use of high-tech tools like heart rate monitors and heart rate variability, there is nothing to do but guess, and this rarely, if ever, leads to the best results.

KEEP READING: Heart Rate Variability: The New Science of Recovery

This is starting to change as more and more information about how your body is running is becoming available, and no doubt this trend will continue into the future. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait until the future to get more out of your training.

With nothing more than a common heart rate monitor and the use of a heart rate variability app like BioForce HRV, you’re able to quickly and easily get invaluable information about how your body is performing and about how it should be trained. Give this approach and these tools a try and I guarantee you’ll quickly wonder how you ever trained without them.

Watch My Video: Optimizing Your Energy Systems Training

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Some Week 2 Highlights:

Be sure to check out Joel’s article, too:

How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 1

The post Strength & Conditioning – Joel Jamieson: Week 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Despite the vast complexity of the human body and the diversity of specific training goals, whether or not people achieve them is simple. In fact, when it comes to improving your conditioning, there are only two main criteria that will ultimately determine whether or not you reach that goal – your training program and how you manage that program.

Watch My Video: Optimizing Your Energy Systems Training

Despite the vast complexity of the human body and the diversity of specific training goals, whether or not people achieve them is simple. In fact, when it comes to improving your conditioning, there are only two main criteria that will ultimately determine whether or not you reach that goal – your training program and how you manage that program.

The Value of a Good Training Program

The first one is the most obvious and it’s your training program itself. All training programs are certainly not created equal and the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of your overall training program will go a long way toward determining the results of your hard work.

RELATED: 7 Markers of a Solid Strength Program

A good program begins with an evaluation of some sort that’s designed to better understand your specific needs, and a good program is built on solid training principles. The most important thing to keep in mind is that a program should address your weaknesses while reinforcing your strengths.

“All training programs are certainly not created equal and the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of your overall training program will go a long way toward determining the results of your hard work.”

Aside from the program itself, the second factor that will determine whether or not you reach your goals is how well you’re able to manage the program. Unfortunately, despite its importance, this is an area overlooked more than any other when it comes to fitness, performance, and even health.

Over this two-part article series, I’ll give you an overview of two simple and yet incredibly powerful tools that you can use to effectively manage your training program and get one step closer to reaching your goals. In this first article, we’ll look at heart rate monitoring.

Tool #1: Heart Rate Monitoring

Just as it’s vital to keep track of how much weight you’re lifting when the goal is to improve strength and power, monitoring heart rates during training is an essential piece of any good conditioning program.

LEARN MORE: Heart Rate Monitoring: An Effective Test for Overtraining

When used properly, a heart rate monitor gives you invaluable feedback that can help guide your training and let you know if you’re making consistent progress toward your goals. There are three simple ways to incorporate heart rate monitoring into your training program.

1. Find Your Maximum Heart Rate

With any conditioning program, heart rates are the best way to gauge intensity. Without one, you’re simply left guessing. A heart rate that’s 60% of your maximum might not feel hugely different than one that’s 70%, for example. But over time, that 10% difference can have a huge impact on your results.

To get started using a heart rate monitor, there are two numbers that are the most important to know. The first is your maximum heart rate. Despite what’s printed on various pieces of cardio equipment, the old formula of 220 – age is not particularly accurate at all.

“A heart rate that’s 60% of your maximum might not feel hugely different than one that’s 70% … But over time, that 10% difference can have a huge impact on your results.”

To find your true maximum heart rate, there is only one way to do it and that’s to push yourself to your limits. When you do, you’ll inevitably get to a place where, despite your best efforts, your heart rate doesn’t increase. This is the number you should use as your max heart rate.

2. Know Your Anaerobic Threshold

Next, you’ll need to know your anaerobic threshold, the range above which your body must produce higher and higher amounts of the total energy necessary through anaerobic pathways.

LEARN MORE: Anaerobic Capacity Essential for High-Level Boxers

The best way to determine your threshold is through specific testing at a lab, but if that’s not an option, a less accurate but still valuable option is to perform twelve to fifteen minutes of exercise at the highest pace possible without slowing down and take your average heart rate during the exercise. You can then consider your anaerobic threshold range to be +/- 5 beats of that average heart rate.

“[I]f you can run 8mph at a heart rate in the 150s at the start and six weeks later you’re able to run 10mph at the same heart rates, it’s a clear indication that your conditioning is improving.”

Together, your maximum heart rate and your anaerobic threshold range can help determine precisely how hard you should be working during your training, and over time, these will allow you to gauge progress as well. If your program is having the desired effect, you should see your speeds/work increasing for a given heart rate. In other words, if you can run 8mph at a heart rate in the 150s at the start and six weeks later you’re able to run 10mph at the same heart rates, it’s a clear indication that your conditioning is improving.

3. Track Your Training Load

Training load is a measure of the overall volume/intensity of your training session. This is hugely important to know because it allows you to make changes up or down as necessary in order to get the best results.

RELATED: Using Intensity to Increase Strength, Power, and Endurance

Using a heart rate monitor, it’s easy to get an accurate gauge of training load by looking at three specific numbers:

You’ll want to keep track of your total workout time and average heart rate. Obviously, working out longer and at a higher average heart equates to a higher training load. Just about any modern heart rate monitor will track and display these two numbers for any workout that you do.

You’ll want to keep track of total time spent at heart rates above 90% of your maximum. These heart rates represent the highest intensities, and thus they place the greatest loads on your body and are important to track. Again, it’s clear that a training session where you spend three minutes of time above 90% of your maximum heart rate represents a higher training load than one where you only spend one minute in this zone.

Most good heart rate monitors allow you to program specific zones so all you need to do is make one of the zones 90-100% of your maximum heart rate and set it to track time spent in this zone.

“[Training load] is hugely important to know because it allows you to make changes up or down as necessary in order to get the best results.”

Summary

Improving your conditioning is always hard work, but using a simple heart rate monitor can help you get the job done faster and more efficiently.

1. Determine your true maximum heart rate
2. Measure or estimate anaerobic threshold range
3. Use heart rates based on those two numbers to select the right training intensities
4. Track your progress by comparing speed/power output to heart rate
5. Gauge overall training load by keeping track of total workout time, average heart rate, and time spent above 90% of your max

Though just about any good heart rate monitor will do all this and more, I personally prefer Polar monitors for their overall quality and durability. The Polar RS300 is one I often recommend as it has all the features necessary for effective heart rate monitoring along with a high-quality and comfortable chest transmitter belt. If you’d rather use your mobile phone than a watch, consider the use of the Polar Beat app along with a Bluetooth compatible transmitter instead.

Coming up in part two How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 2, I’ll share with you how to combine cutting-edge heart rate variability technology with your heart rate monitor to get even better results.

Watch My Video: Optimizing Your Energy Systems Training

The post How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 1 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Energy Systems Are Basic to Life and Performance

The featured coaches on Breaking Muscle usually deliver four-week workout programs to improve your performance in specific disciplines, such as Olympic lifting with Chad Vaughn or handstands with Pamela Gagnon.

This month, we are going a slightly different direction with Joel Jamieson. Joel has created a four-part video series on optimizing energy systems training for any sport or endeavor.

Jump to week two: Aerobic and Anaerobic Energy Production Over Time

Jump to week three: Training the Aerobic Energy System

Jump to week four: Training the Anaerobic Energy System

You Must Understand Energy Systems to Train Optimally

Week One Highlights:

READ MORE FROM JOEL JAMIESON: How to Manage Your Conditioning Program

The post Energy System Optimization With Joel Jamieson appeared first on Breaking Muscle.