heart rates

[caramellady85]

Am I the only one that has a really hard time getting to a target heart rate?

It seems like no matter how hard i'm working, i can't get it up there. My resting rate is like 65 and according to charts and the treadmill and elliptical (they have the heart rate monitor handles) my heart rate should be between 150 and 190, depending on whether i want fat burn or cardio-vascular. Most of the time it only goes up to about 120-140, sometimes 160-180 (for like 30 seconds:dry: )

can i somehow get it to go higher?

[<9-milli>]

coke.

[offthabooks]

only thing I can think of is you may not be exerting as much energy as you think you are. what exactly are you doing on the treadmill? are you holding onto the sidebars at all? one thing I've noticed with the eliptical machine is that alot of people let it do the work for them, they sorta just stay on it in autopilot mode. whenever I'm on the treadmill, my heart rate gets up to about 170 pretty quickly. there's a good article in this month's women's health & fitness that talks about stepping your cardio up so it's more of a challenge...maybe check that out.

[caramellady85]

only thing I can think of is you may not be exerting as much energy as you think you are. what exactly are you doing on the treadmill? are you holding onto the sidebars at all? one thing I've noticed with the eliptical machine is that alot of people let it do the work for them, they sorta just stay on it in autopilot mode. whenever I'm on the treadmill, my heart rate gets up to about 170 pretty quickly. there's a good article in this month's women's health & fitness that talks about stepping your cardio up so it's more of a challenge...maybe check that out.
on the treadmill i usually walk about 3.5-4mph at different inclines. what sidebars?
how do people let the eliptical machine do the work for them? the one i use doesn't move itself... um... well i usually do one of the preprogrammed settings that automatically adjusts resistance to use different muscles. it's usually a moderate amount, not so low that it feels easy, but not so high that i can't move my legs.
i dunno... i'll be working really hard and to me it feels like my heart is pumping really hard but then i look and it says like 100 bpm:dry:

[Shaolin Temple]

on the treadmill i usually walk about 3.5-4mph at different inclines. what sidebars?
how do people let the eliptical machine do the work for them? the one i use doesn't move itself... um... well i usually do one of the preprogrammed settings that automatically adjusts resistance to use different muscles. it's usually a moderate amount, not so low that it feels easy, but not so high that i can't move my legs.
i dunno... i'll be working really hard and to me it feels like my heart is pumping really hard but then i look and it says like 100 bpm:dry:

3.5 to 4 mph is not nearly enough to get into the fat burning mode. That probably will not get you above 110, maybe 120 at best. I would suggest to get between the 140 to 160 HR level. 160-180 is good for anerobic cardio exercises like basketball and soccer where there is a lot of stop and go action, so the HR is never maintained at a constant level.

At the 140 to 160 level (150 to 160 is even better) the body turns into a fat burning machine - literally. Most people do not perform cardio at a nearly high intensity level and wonder why they do not lose fat in their gut, etc.

At that heart rate level, the glycogen in the cells will soon be depleted (20 minutes about). Afterwards the body gets the energy it needs from the fat stores, which is usually the stubborn fat that is hard to get rid of. So, my advice - run in the treadmil for 45 minutes to even 60 if you can, at the 140 to 160 heart rate level. It's best to purchase a heart rate monitor since it is one of the most accurate apparatus out there that measures the heart rate while doing cardio. It's better than holding on to those bars.

You probably need a few months to work to get to that cardio level, but it's well worth it.

I think offthebooks is implying that people use momentum of the elliptical machine to move their body rather than to control the movement. Makes a huge difference.

Hope this helps!

[offthabooks]

I think offthebooks is implying that people use momentum of the elliptical machine to move their body rather than to control the movement. Makes a huge difference.

yes exactly...I see people at the gym using really bad form on this machine all the time.

caramel- running is def a great way to get your heart rate up...if you're not used to running the couch to 5k plan is a good way to build up to running for longer periods of time...
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml