Precision Heart Rate Training Book by Ed Burke

Fine-tune your workout intensity! Precision Heart Rate Training fully explains why and how to train with a heart rate monitor. Editor Ed Burke introduces the basic concepts of heart rate training. Then an all-star panel of experts explains how to design and use training programs for seven different sports and activities. Each chapter contains training guidelines specific to the activity described, including how to find the optimal training intensity, design an effective training program, and adjust workout intensity, plus sample workouts or programs, or both. And Jim Dotter, founder of Biometrics, Inc., contributes a special chapter on ways to use heart data for long-term training.

This book summarizes the use of heart rate monitoring to achieve fitness and performance goals in a wide variety of exercises and sports. The purpose is to present the most current, definitive, and practical information on the use of heart rate monitors as aids in achieving health, fitness, and performance goals. This is accomplished by providing examples of how heart rate monitors may be used in a wide variety of exercise programs. The editor indicates that this book was written for health and fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and coaches. The contributors have been directly involved in the use of heart rate monitors in the various training programs presented. The first two chapters provide a general introduction into the use of heart rate monitoring in training. This is followed by seven chapters dealing with the use of heart rate monitors in walking, running, cycling, in-line skating, multisport, circuit, and group-exercise training. The last chapter focuses on the use of computer technology to help plan and track training programs. Most chapters provide a range of workouts to address participant needs from the low-end to the high-end of the fitness and performance scale. The book summarizes information on a wide variety of exercise modes that may be of interest to a reader wanting an overview on this topic. However, the reader needs to be aware that some contributors use the straight percentage of maximal heart rate method to calculate a "training heart rate zone" and others use the Karvonen (heart rate range) method. This can be confusing for those getting started in this area. The contributors are qualified to write in their respective areas, and the health-related fitnessinformation is consistent with current standards. The brief nature of each chapter limits the detail that can be provided on the various modes of training. However, most contributors refer to other books that provide extensive detail on a particular mode of training. In some chapters the emphasis on the "science" (or number-crunching aspect) of using heart rate data for training purposes takes away from the "art" (or common sense side) of an exercise prescription. The chapter on running programs provides an appropriate balance in this regard.

Editorial Reviews:

Book Description Fine-tune your workout intensity! Precision Heart Rate Training fully explains why and how to train with a heart rate monitor. Editor Edmund Burke introduces the basic concepts of heart rate training. Then an all-star panel of experts explains how to design and use training programs for seven different sports and activities:

• Walking—Therese Iknoian

• Running—Roy Benson

• Cycling—Joe Friel

• In-line Skating—Frank Fedel

• Multisport Training—Timothy Moore

• Circuit Training—Wayne Westcott

• Group Exercise—Jay Blahnik

Each chapter contains training guidelines specific to the activity described, including how to find the optimal training intensity, design an effective training program, and adjust workout intensity, plus sample workouts or programs, or both. And Jim Dotter, founder of Biometrics, Inc., contributes a special chapter on ways to use heart data for long-term training.

With heart rate monitors, athletes and exercisers can use high-tech biofeedback training to develop state-of-the-art programs for better performance. Precision Heart Rate Training shows you how to take full advantage of today’s training technology. - From the Publisher

"Overall, this book does an excellent job of bringing up-to-date scientific research and practical coaching experience to a wide range of endurance athletes. . . . It should be particularly useful to persons active in more than one activity." - Running Journal

"Heart rate training for me has made the difference between being overtrained and being ready to run on race day. My heart rate monitor helps me gauge my training intensity, making sure I’m going hard on hard days and easy on recovery or long days. It’s been the key addition to my training program that I wish I’d had in the early days of my career." - Steve Scott, World-Class Miler

"In my nine years of training and racing with a heart rate monitor, I have come to realize the importance of maintaining a precise level of intensity in my workouts. The heart rate monitor is the only way that I can gauge that intensity and learn more about my body during exercise. I owe my racing success to training at the right intensity level and to my heart rate monitor." - Alison Sydor, Volvo/Cannondale Team World Champion Mountain Bike Racer

"If you train with a monitor, you will find this book extremely helpful. If you don’t train with a monitor, you will probably want to do so after reading it." - Runner’s Gazette