Why Heart Rate Isn’t the Best Measure of a Good Workout

Think your heart rate tells the whole story of your workout? Think again. In this episode, Amy Hudson and Dr. James Fisher unpack the myths around heart rate tracking, explaining why it's not the best measure of workout effectiveness — and what you should focus on instead. From hunger hormones to interval training tips, you'll walk away with a smarter approach to training that actually supports your fitness goals.

• Amy Hudson and Dr. James Fisher look at heart rate, what it actually means and whether it’s meaningful or not when it comes to the effectiveness of your workout.
• With heart rates, we’re looking at how we can move oxygen around the body – all the way where the oxygen is transferred into muscle cells and our active muscle.
• Dr. Fisher explains that as soon as we move into the higher end of our heart rate, we’re in the carbohydrate burning zone.
• When we do strength or interval training, our ghrelin – the hormone responsible for the feeling of hunger – doesn’t go up, so we don’t have a hunger response.
• When we do moderate or low-intensity steady state exercise – and we stay below a certain heart rate zone, we get a spike of the ghrelin hormone.
• Remember: your heart rate is NOT indicative of the quality of your workout.
• Dr. Fisher touches upon EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen) and explains what it is and when it may occur.
• Amy and Dr. Fisher discuss interval training and why it’s something you should consider doing if you’ve ever got the chance.
• Something to be cautious about with interval training: If we’re doing it based on heart rate, it typically takes our body a certain amount of time for the heart rate to respond.
• This means that the interval has to be long enough to be effective.
• Next, Dr. Fisher and Amy unpack the concept of resting heart rate and what it means for you in relation to your training.
• As you may be busy looking into your heart rate, just remember that it gets influenced by external factors such as caffeine, stress, dehydration, illness, and lack of sleep.
• A good reminder by Dr. Fisher: When we first start tracking anything, we’ve got to remember that it’s just a snapshot.
• If data is your thing, it's important that you recognize that once you have long-term data, you can start to see trends.
• Dr. Fisher’s take is to “look at heart rate after the fact (e.g. the workout), not looking at it during the event.”
• When you’re thinking about your workouts wondering whether they’re working, Amy suggests asking yourself WHY are you exercising?
• Think about what your goals are with exercising and whether those are happening.

 

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