I purchased a heart monitor several weeks ago for my own personal training and I also encouraged my more advanced private clients to do the same. I've trained for many years without using a monitor; the reason I decided to start using the device was to more finally tune my training.
Because I own my own training center it's important for me to always be evolving and learning about my craft, which is physical fitness. One of my trainers recommended a book called "Ultimate MMA Conditioning" by Joel Jamieson. Don't let the title fool you, it doesn't just apply the mixed martial artist(MMA), it really applies to anyone who is serious about their physical fitness.
Jamieson acknowledges that many of the best concepts for developing athletic conditioning have come from the training in Eastern Europian countries during the cold war, and many of the concepts still apply today. Although this book is intended for serious athletes it can also apply to intermediate and recreational athletes, as well as non-athletes who have a fair understanding of their training.
The thing I really like about his approach is that he breaks the body down into systems: aerobic, anaerobic lactic, and anaerobic alactic system and then targets each system for repair; different methods should be used for the different systems. Another interesting point makes perfect sense; if one of the systems is weak, then the entire system is weak.
With this kind of in-depth training a heart monitor really helps because it gives you an accurate look at what's happening inside your body. One method called Cardiac Output has been around forever and focuses on the aerobic system. I'm sure everyone has seen Rocky, but no, this method doesn't require chasing chickens around, rather, it involves longer, slower training like jogging(road work), biking, swimming, hitting the heavy bag, or skipping rope. The important thing is to keep your heart rate between 120-150bpm(beats per minute). This method will increase the amount of blood pumped with each heart beat. This is done by increasing the size of the left ventricle, which is sort of like a sack. Think of a balloon filled with water; as it begins to stretch it can hold more water--same idea with filling the left ventricle with more blood.
If the heart beats too fast the blood is pumped out of the left ventricle too quickly to allow the sacks to increase in size, which is not a bad thing but now you're working the heart in a different way. This why the heart monitor really helps because you can keep bpm exactly were it needs to be for the desired results.
The monitor also indicates when to resume your training. Another method called Cardia Power Intervals again focuses on the aerobic system which requires you to perform a high intensity exercise such sprinting or hitting the heavy bag as fast as possible for 60-120 seconds, and then perform active rest. Active rest means light jogging, shadowboxing etc until your HR is between 120-130. Repeat 4-12 reps of power intervals and active rest. What this method does is instead of filling the left ventrical with blood, it increases the strength in our heart to pump more blood through the system.
So you can kind of see what he means by conditioning the whole system and how one system is linked to another. For more on Joel Jamieson visit www8weeksout.com