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Precision Heart Rate Training - Edmund R. Burke
Precision Heart Rate Training
by Edmund R. Burke
NEW, 224 pages
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About Precision Heart Rate Training
Over the past 20 years, heart rate monitors (HRMs) have
gained widespread popularity among fitness enthusiasts and elite athletes. These wireless devices monitor the body`s levels of cardiovascular and physiological stress during exercise, so users can adjust their training intensity for the safest, most effective workouts.
While more people are buying HRMs, few know how to maximize their use. Precision Heart Rate Training is the best, most complete resource for anyone who wants to use an HRM to get optimal results. Written by prominent authorities from a variety of sports and fitness activities and backed by Polar Electro, the leading manufacturer of HRMs, Precision Heart Rate Training fully explains why and how to train with a heart rate monitor.
Editor Edmund R. Burke, a former Olympic coach who began working with HRMs in 1983, introduces the basic concepts of heart rate training. He explains how various factors affect heart rate during exercise, then presents several methods for establishing target heart rates.
Burke also introduces the concept of training zones, or ways of describing training intensity, ranging from very light activity to training for improved performance. Using these zones as a framework, an all-star panel of experts explains how to design and use training programs for seven different sports and fitness activities:
• Walking - Therese Iknoian
• Running - Roy Benson
• Cycling - Joe Friel
• In-line Skating - Frank Fedel
• Multisport Training - Tim Moore
• Circuit Training - Wayne Westcott
• Group Exercise - Jay Blahnik
Each chapter contains training suggestions 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.
For those who want to develop an effective long-term training plan, Jim Dotter, founder of Biometrics, Inc., provides guidelines for setting up a measurable training system using HRMs and explains how to adjust the plan through the season.
With HRMs, athletes and exercisers at every level can use high-tech biofeedback training to develop sophisticated programs for better performance. Precision Heart Rate Training shows them how to use today`s training technology to their fullest advantage.
About Edmund R. Burke
Edmund R. Burke, PhD, began working with HRMs in 1983, when he used these small electronic devices to prepare the U.S. cycling team for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Over the years he wrote numerous articles on HRMs and served as a national spokesperson for the Polar Precision Fitness Institute.
Dr. Burke wrote or edited 11 books on health, fitness, and cycling, including Serious Cycling and Complete Home Fitness Handbook. The executive editor of Cycling Science and managing editor of Performance Conditioning for Cycling, he also wrote extensively on cycling physiology, training, nutrition, health, and fitness for Winning Magazine, MTB Magazine, NORBA News, and Bicycling. He consulted with several companies in the areas of cycling, fitness equipment design, nutritional products, and fitness programs.
Dr. Burke held a doctorate in exercise physiology. He was a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, and he served as vice president of research for the National Strength and Conditioning Association, with whom he was certified as a strength and conditioning specialist. Dr. Burke was also a professor in and director of the exercise science program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where he lived with his wife, Kathleen. Dr. Burke passed away in 2002.
Review of this book
"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
About Fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness (a state of health and well-being) and specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations). Physical fitness is generally achieved through exercise.
In previous years, fitness was commonly defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However, as automation increased leisure time, changes in lifestyles following the industrial revolution rendered this definition insufficient. These days, physical fitness is considered a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations.
Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health or wellness. It is performed for various reasons. These include strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance and for enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, helps to promote or maintain positive self-esteem, and can even augment an individual's sex appeal or body image Childhood obesity is a growing global concern and physical exercise may help decrease the effects of childhood obesity in developed countries.
Types of exercise: exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, improve the range of motion of muscles and joints. Aerobic exercises, such as cycling, swimming, walking, skipping rope, running, hiking or playing tennis, focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance. Anaerobic exercises, such as weight training, functional training or sprinting, increase short-term muscle strength.
Precision Heart Rate Training
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