Heart Rate when training’in the zone’

Barry Mapp — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:29:07 +0000

In the last post I looked at our brain waves when training in the zone. This time I am looking at heart rate. You are probably aware what happens to your heart rate when you suddenly get very anxious about something. Your heart rate increases! Often you can be aware of your heart ‘pounding’. What has happened is that you have switched your metabolism into the “Flight-Fight” mode. Your brainwaves will switch into BetaWave and be orchestrating the body to prepare itself for fight or flight. In anticipation the heart rate increases so as to circulate more oxygen and energy to the body particularly the muscles. Muscles can tighten and hold themselves rigid and with the increase in heart rate the breathing rate increases also – the two go hand in hand.Try this in the Gym or at home. A heart rate monitor can be useful, but just measuring your pulse rate will do. Measure your resting heart (pulse) rate. Then start exercising gently breathing in and out through the nose until you feel you have to mouth breathe. Gradually up the exercise if necessary until you have to mouth breathe. Stop exercising once you start mouth breathing and measure you heart (pulse) rate again. Make a note of your heart rate when you switch to mouth breathing (next post I will tell you what this was and the significance!). Be aware that when you switch to mouth breathing you will activate the sympathetic nervous system and the flight-fight response. So training becomes less enjoyable. Once you are into mouth breathing it is difficult for you to stay ‘in the zone’Next Time: I will look at what happens when you switch from nose-breathing to mouth breathing

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Fitness Training – Gain without the Pain

Barry Mapp — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:41:02 +0000

Fitness Training – Gain without the PainI have been promising a number of people (both business colleagues and social friends) to ‘reveal all’ about my fitness training methods. Those people who see me regularly in the Gym doing Circuit Training will know that I am smiling most of the time I am working out and at the end of a session I always feel ‘fantastic’. So over the next six weeks or so I am going to share what I have learnt over the last 10 years about training ‘in the zone’. Most traditional ways of exercising actually prevent us from getting into the flow state. Women are more likely than men to be in the ‘zone’ when training because much of the ‘macho’, teeth gritting, noise making (grunting) way of exercising is a ‘man’ thing and although such an approach can sometimes be useful for bursts of 30 seconds or so, in general this approach prevents enjoyable and effortless training.In this session I want to explain something about your ‘brainwaves’. The macho approach described above will be associated with Brain Beta-Wave activity. This is the brainwave for the fight-flight response. It does generate a surge in energy (designed to enable a quick escape from a life-threatening ‘event’, like the sabre-toothed tiger). However it is associated with release of adrenaline and corticosteroid hormones to name just two and these are both ‘stress hormones’ and we really want to be reducing their levels not increasing them unnecessarily in a training session. Stress hormones when at high levels over a sustained period weaken our immune system, so it is not surprising that international athletes who overtrain often get problems with virus-type illnesses. Brain Beta Waves are a high energy wave and if you are ‘running’ your brain constantly on Beta Wave activity this in itself is very tiring. So although for any training method the exercise will release endorphins and other ‘happy’ compounds into the blood stream, too much aggression and teeth gritting means the endorphin effects are counteracted by stress hormones in the blood.When you train ‘in the zone’ your brainwaves are mainly in the Brain Alpha-Wave state. Alpha waves are a lower energy wave and are associate with ‘relaxed focus’, and are the same brain waves you experience when totally absorbed with your head in a book for example (for those who read). When you are in this relaxed focussed state it is your para-sympathetic nervous system that is activated (rather than the sympathetic nervous system associated with the fight-flight Beta Wave activity) When the para-sympathetic system is activated, levels of all the stress hormones are reducedSummaryThere are two ways to train as far as your brain is concerned. In fight-flight mode or in relaxed mode. The majority of men I see training are in flight-fight mode most of the time. We will look at this more in upcoming blogs but one way to spot the difference is by looking at the breathing. If you ever get to see me training you will see most of the time I have my mouth closed and just breathing through the nose. As a general guide, Mouth Breathing is Fight-Flight mode and Nose-breathing is relaxed mode. So watch people training and see what breathing mode they are using. Another way to tell the difference is how much enjoyment they are getting. Brain Beta Wave activity is associated with will-power, extreme effort and PAIN, so very difficult to be enjoying the activity.Coming Next:Heart rate differences with fight-flight mode and relaxed mode and how you can use a heart rate monitor to help you know if you are ‘training in the zone’ of focussed relaxation.

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Barry's SuperBlog » in the zone

Heart Rate when training’in the zone’

Fitness Training – Gain without the Pain