Thursday, 7 March 2013

Power Walking - heart rate (and not only) monitoring

Power Walking in Edinburgh
I was asking myself....how does it look the level of exertion on a power walk session? ..in other words: do I cheat or do I really work out well?
I've set up my test on a treadmill at the Pleasance gym, on runtastic app...


I started my research with 10 minutes of power walking at 120 beats per minute (bpm) frequency...it felt quite easy...and the heart rate chart confirmed it: 60% of the time my heart rate was under 118 bpm... wow, this is indeed much too easy, at a speed of 6km/h; still, it felt like a good "warm-up".

Next I got into another 10 minutes chunk, this time at 130 bpm... 84% of this I have exercised between 118-129 bpm, an interval called 'easy'...well...good enough for a 6.5km/h.

And the third 10 minutes chunk....140 bpm...this feels fast...and sweaty..and yes it makes sense, as 88% of the time I exercised in the Fat Burning zone...1.13km in 9.52 mins.
Unfortunately I've simply forgotten to set up the treadmill for my personal details, so the data I have about amount of calories burned it was not accurate.

Now, to answer the question that started my small test: yes, if I am exercising under the intensity that I got to when walking at 140 bpm, I am cheating.

Why would I waste my precious time without achieving some serious 'fat burning' exertion? That's why, next time when I go for my 10 minutes of power walking, I will go straight to my - now proven- fat burning speed: 140 bpm...

Good stuff!

If you want the audio file for 120 bpm, 130 bpm and 140 bpm, just send me an email...


Friday, 1 March 2013

Spring...time to go out!

Such a lovely weather in Edinburgh!
Sunshine, no wind...just perfect weather for a nice walk or power walk or jog or run...depending on your level of fitness...

Power Walking Edinburgh
Power Walking - Sunny day on Arthur Seat

My heart rate today was constantly on top range of my training interval, which is set up now between 60% - 85% max heart rate...
Power Walking - Beurer feedback

A short analysis shows that for 38 minutes of quite intensive exertion, i managed to burn , according to Beurer, about 324 calories... or about 85 cal/10 mins ...


Another input from Runtastic (see below) suggests 438 kcal for 48 minutes... or  91 cal/10 mins

Power Walking Edinburgh
Power Walking - Runtastic feedback


I would go with an average of  88 cal/10 mins for my outdoor jogging.....

Good to know that my body simply cant burn more than this....so in future, when craving for that muffin of 238 cals, I will no longer fool myself that in I don't know how much gym time (I've never been precise on this) I will burn that out completely....

I hope this monitoring to be a way to educate myself about the limits of my body, so I become aware that if I want to maintain healthy weight, I must pay attention to how much I put in through the food I choose...

I will try to keep a kind of a food diary too....that's difficult, huh?