One of the best ways of training your body while doing cardiovascular exercises is to change heart rates and intensities. Come to think of it, we don’t perform most fitness related exercises or activities at steady heart rates. So it doesn’t make sense to train at only one.
Take a look at any sport, whether mountain biking, soccer, hockey, football, basketball, or baseball, our heart rate changes constantly when switching over from rest periods to light periods to intense running. Hence it is perfectly sensible to use the concept that training in various heart rate zones will not only make us fit to participate in various sporting events, but will also improve our overall fitness levels.
But this idea incorporates the use of a heart rate monitor. It is essential you should be able to watch your heart rate levels to ensure you are training in a correct zone. If you fall in special categories like heart patients, pregnant women and those with very high or low levels of fitness, it is better you be aware of the correct heart rate for this category.
Now some people may argue, that we should maintain our heart rates inside a specific range for optimal ‘fat burning’. Though there is a strong evidence supporting optimal fat burning range, it also means that going above this range will burn more calories. As we keep on changing exercise intensities, we will be entering and exiting this optimal range to get both fat and calorie burning. Moreover we train the heart through various heart rate zones.
To summarize, this ‘interval style’ of training will lead to the best overall fitness levels to lot of people.