Tuesday, May 26, 2009

M1 | Day 65 and CONTEST | Day 23

Is your Heart working......or overworking

I have like a lot of people on the 'sphere' had the slightest hint of a cold these last couple of days...not enough to stop me training but this morning doing cardio I noticed that my heart rate was higher than it normally is and at the time I wasn't working that hard.

What does this mean.

Well for those of you who may be new to the world of heart rates etc you should at least know what your resting heart rate is. That is your fitness barometer. You should then check it every morning on waking before you even think about training.

Here comes the important part.

If you resting heart rate is 10 beats or more above your resting rate...do not train.

Especially not cardio....Resistance work is ok as long as you are not elevating your heart rate.
Shredders on phase two are OK....shredders on phase one or three should be very careful.

I have seen too often where people train with flu through not wanting to miss a day's training and end up spending a two weeks in bed.

I even know of a young cross country runner who, whilst racing for his province dropped dead of a heart attack because he had tried to race through flu. He was 21 years old...The tragedy could have so easily been avoided had he believed that you can serious damage your heart muscles by exercising with flu.

Rather miss a day of cardio than three weeks off or a lifetime in a wooden box I'd say...wouldn't you.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Dougal! Just wanted to say hi!
I don't know Africa's geography and have no idea where Uganda is, but my son will be there in June. He's going over with a bunch of Doctors and nurses. He'll be there for two weeks.

dougal said...

Hi Shari,
I'm sure he'll find it very interesting, though it is a long way from South Africa, I'm sure he'll work hard but have a rewarding visit.