Conscious training - heart rate zones. What's this all about?

I suppose that many of us remember our first running steps and adventure with training. Running the local loop without stopping, catching the last remnants of breath when running home, great pride "I made it too", followed by a few days of soreness and reluctance to return to training.

Once we manage to defeat the first cats behind the fences, we return to the battlefield better prepared and educated: a bit of walking, a bit of running, without breathlessness, but when we see a neighbor who is ahead of us, it can't be like that! We add gas and again: out of breath, nothing from the plan, but what satisfaction! But why is everything so sore the next day?

Fortunately, over time, our running awareness increases, we gain new experiences, we get advice from friends, the press, books, and the Internet. It turns out that effort is not equal to effort, and a very useful parameter that allows us to understand our body a little more is the heart rate, i.e. the frequency of heartbeats, often converted into a minute as a unit of time.

The beginning of working with energy zones is often the end of a chaotic and ill-considered training plan, running "dead" or eternal lazy trotting. It is also a very good way to achieve further, higher goals and diversify your training. Most good quality running watches available on the market give us the option of displaying our heart rate in beats per minute or as a percentage, as well as assessing the intensity of the effort.

5 basic energy zones

At the very beginning, we will introduce a small classification of intensity zones according to previously calculated percentages:

Zone	% HR max
1	50-59%
2	60-69%
3	70-79%
4	80-89%
5	90-99%

In this way, we got 5 different energy zones, each of which has different characteristics. Depending on the category in which the training will be carried out, it will give different results, there will be different changes occurring at the level of cells and muscles, as well as different time possibilities to work in a given zone and the time needed for regeneration after a training session. Let's focus on a brief description of each zone:

1. Active regeneration

The lowest and easiest of the zones, often referred to as the zone of light physical exertion . Work in these heart rate ranges is of particular importance as a rest after hard exhausting sessions and then it is also used by professional athletes. It is superior to the second type of regeneration (i.e. the passive one, consisting in complete rest from physical activity) due to a number of positive phenomena occurring in our body, which stimulate it to regain full strength faster as a result.

Thanks to the increased blood flow to the muscles, more nutrients and oxygen are delivered, and the excess of harmful products, deposited after previous, heavy sessions, is removed faster. However, all this still happens without putting much strain on the muscles. This zone is also very good as a warm-up before and cooling down after the main training.

The problem that can arise in novice athletes is the inability to maintain training in such a low intensity zone, which results in the lack of muscle relief, and therefore lack of regeneration. A safer variant is then the use of other physical activities than the intended sport as a form of regeneration: for a runner it can be walking, cycling or another selected, liked activity. AND

active regeneration can in principle last for many hours, excluding the time for necessary sleep, which is passive regeneration.

2. Durability

The energy zone in which the transformations taking place in the muscles are constantly at the aerobic level, which means that oxygen is supplied to our muscle cells in sufficient quantities on an ongoing basis. The energy for the work of muscles in this zone comes from fat transformations and our training is to strive for the best management of them.

In zone 2, long training units are carried out with constant intensity. It is on this group of efforts that the foundation for other training should also be based, it is a key zone for other intensity zones in endurance sports. Training such an athlete depends on the ability to economically manage fat resources, the better our body masters it through training stimulation, the longer we are able to work in this zone without much fatigue, even for many hours.

Therefore, zone 2 is recommended for beginners as the basis for building their condition, without exposing the muscles to heavy overload and the need for long regeneration. Also, people whose goal is to reduce excess body fat should conduct their workouts with an emphasis on zone 2.

3. Pace

The zone is sometimes referred to as the "gray zone", because it does not bring much more benefits than zone 2, and it costs us much more effort and regeneration. Therefore, from the training point of view, this zone becomes useful as a stage of transition to the next, higher zone, adapting the body to much more tiring work, but still within the limits of aerobic changes.

This is a kind of challenge for the athlete's aerobic system, a greater load and the need to work harder on the breath . Many amateur runners suffer from too much work in zone 3 compared to other intensity zones. It is often difficult for novice athletes to convince themselves of the profits and benefits of working on endurance, the lack of feeling of exhaustion does not convince them to work at the core of fitness, and they often smoothly implement the recommended runs in Zone 2 at a higher intensity level.

The real effect is lack of progress, greater fatigue after training and inability to work in higher zones due to constant "driving" with zone 3. Also an important difference compared to zone 2 is the time we are able to perform activity within zone 3, it is much shorter than with pure endurance effort.

4. Lactate subthreshold

High-intensity zone where the body works just below the lactate threshold. This means working on muscle strength and resistance to lactic acid. In contrast to the upper zone, the body still copes with the removal of excess lactic acid, which allows you to constantly perform activities for longer.

Working in this zone, we get used to the body's reaction to the increased concentration of lactic acid and we become resistant to it. However, this is work mainly on muscle strength, cells begin to lack oxygen to work, and carbohydrates become the main source of energy.

5. Lactate threshold

The most intense heart rate zone where the lactate threshold is exceeded. The effect of lactic acid is clearly felt, and the metabolism ceases to cope with the removal of excess harmful products from the transformations taking place at the cellular level.

Such intense workouts are a big challenge for the anaerobic system, which is why they are not long - in the upper limits of this zone, when we are approaching the maximum heart rate, we can last only a few minutes.

So why put so much strain on your body? Exercising at such high speeds builds strength endurance, so it is a great preparation for competitions, when we will struggle with similar reactions of the body. This is not a zone intended for beginner athletes.

How much and in which zone?

Having already reviewed the subsequent intensity zones, the question remains of their appropriate proportions in our training diary. However, the matter is not so simple, but there are several basic principles of such periodization.

At the outset, it should be realized that a single session will rarely consist of only one energy zone: the warm-up itself is carried out in zone 1, and every, even the hardest training, should be preceded by a warm-up. The same thing is with intervals: we alternately deal with increases in intensity, i.e. work from the 3rd zone upwards and units of active regeneration.

The general rule is that we spend more training volume in the lower zones than in the highest ones. The basis should be active regeneration, followed by aerobic work, and the smallest volume of training will be the most exhausting and intense units. A lot will depend on your level of advancement, whether you are currently preparing for the competition, and if so, what is their type / distance.

Our training plan also depends on the annual schedule of starts and preparations, there are more and less intense periods, such as off-season detraining. If you are a beginner, focus on the lower energy zones, build an aerobic base first before taking full advantage of the benefits of the higher zones. Professionals aiming to improve their performance should also pay a lot of attention to working in the higher zones, avoiding being constantly stuck in zone 3.

As you can see, this issue is highly individualized and depends on many factors, the basic of which are: your current form and goal.

Consciously

So you already see, runner, that training is uneven, and working with the control of your own heart during the session allows you to focus on a specific goal and helps in its effective, gradual implementation. A beginner focused on reducing body fat will work with a different intensity, and an experienced marathon runner planning to achieve his next personal best at the next competition will work with a different intensity.

The next time you want to run after your neighbor during training, catching the last remnants of breath, take a look at your heart rate monitor earlier and remember the last soreness.

Gosia Jurczak