My Doctor Ordered Me to Buy a Gadget

A Sportline heart rate monitor w/ strap

Many of my more cynical friends will tell you I like me my electronic gadgets. This is how geek testosterone manifests itself. Other men pursue pick-up trucks and moustaches, I outfit myself with circuits and flashing lights. That's why I was weak on willpower when my doctor ordered me to go buy a gadget.

I had a conversation about my fitness pursuit with him and, since I haven't seen him since he tricked me into seeing a nutritionist and setting my life change in motion several months ago, I asked him about exercise advice. They always say, "See your doctor before starting any exercise program," I told him, and his response took me by complete surprise.

"Yes I do have one piece of advice," he said. "And only one piece. Go buy yourself a heart rate monitor for sixty dollars at SportMart."

My doctor even advised me on where to shop!

He got busy scribbling numbers on a scrap piece of paper. They were, in fact, the heart rate zones for exercise as they pertain to a person my age. I was quite familiar with this information through my research and use of a said heart rate monitors the last time I went on a fitness quest.

Basically, you take the number 220 and minus your age to get your maximum heart rate. No matter what you do, your heart can't and won't beat any faster than your maximum heart rate. If you exceed 85% of your MHR, you might put some stress on your heart if you're not healthy and, in my doctor's view, make yourself more sore and have a counter-productive workout. I'd doubt many fitness experts would agree with that wholly, based on what I've read, but they'd probably advise an obese 44 year old like me to try and keep below that 85% level.

They used to think that exercising at a lower intensity, say 65% of your maximum heart rate, was good for fat burning. Now I don't think they believe it makes much of a difference. But that's a discussion for another day. For more information, see this introduction to heart rate monitoring or the Wikipedia article on heart rate.

A heart rate monitor strap on a man with erect nipples.

I had a heart rate monitor before as part of my bike computer, of all things. I used to strap the monitor on my chest and go biking, looking at the readout of what my heart was doing on my bike computer. (I still have it but I can't find the strap.) Then I bought one as an accessory to my treadmill (and have since lost it.) I learned what level of breathing intensity corresponded to what my heart was doing. If I could carry out a conversation without gasping, but was unable to sing a song, I was in my moderate or "training" zone. Not too low, not too high.

So, armed with my doctor's advice--nay, orders--I went to WalMart and bought a watch style heart rate monitor that you can use with or without a strap around your chest. It has a strap included but you can also take two fingers, place them on the watch and it will tell you your pulse quite easily and accurately.

I didn't for a second think this would work accurately but it does! It gives me the same reading with my fingers as it does with the strap and the reading stays constant, without going all over the place, causing you to lose faith in its preciseness.

Using the strap gives you a continuous readout of your heart rate and the watch will track how much time you spend below your target zone, in your zone, and above your zone. It'll even beep if you go too high, which leads me to my next point.

The second or third time I tried jogging in my recent fitness journey, I did a thirty second interval which turned into forty seconds because I would have had to stop in front of a family on their front lawn watching the obese man trying to jog. Although my breathing wasn't overly intense at the forty seconds, it took off on me shortly afterwards.

That means my heart was racing towards its maximum rate because I was sucking wind, as they say. My chest tightened up and I started to get concerned that I was going to have a cardiac event. That didn't happen, but I was very cautious from that point forward and restricted my jogs to the length of time I set out to do.

I asked my doctor if I risked dropping dead by exercise and he basically told me that if I stay within reasonable heart rate limits (not at the maximum), I'll be fine. He described the tightening of the chest before I even mentioned it to him and told me that was one reason to purchase a monitor.

I like the heart rate monitor I bought today and will use it on a treadmill in winter as well, and at the gym.

My walk tonight produced a heart rate of 116 beats per minute, give or take a beat or two, which is about 67% of my maximum. Pretty much where you'd expect a walk to be, but as a measure of improving fitness, I'd bet it's much lower than when I first started walking four months ago.

I will say that I felt a little like Robocop out there tonight, with my iPod Touch tracking my pace and talking in my ear, the Nike Plus shoe sensor on my shoe, my heart rate watch on my wrist and a monitor strapped around my chest. But what the heck? It's all a little dose of motivation. The more you know what's going on with your body the better, in my opinion.