The Science Behind Get RIPPED!: FAQS |
Common Questions & More on Heart Zone Training |
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| Common Questions |
| Can I do RIPPED! if I’ve never done weight training? |
| Absolutely! The workouts are perfect for beginning weight trainers because the routine is designed to allow you time to adapt. Just start out without resistance, or with only light weights. Increase weights when your muscles are no longer sore after a workout (approximately 6-8 weeks). |
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| If I’ve lifted weights for a while, what kinds of gains will RIPPED! give me? |
| For experienced weight lifters, RIPPED! will build muscle endurance, as opposed to muscle size. The muscles you already have will become more visible as your body fat percentage decreases. RIPPED! will also help experienced exercisers avoid overuse-injuries and training plateaus, while gaining extreme muscle definition that ordinary strength training doesn’t obtain. |
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| Can I do the program if I’m recovering from an injury? |
| Good news. Yes! All injuries must be respected while healing, but non-injured muscle groups can be safely conditioned once you have the go-ahead from your physician and/or physiotherapist. An important focus of the program is careful form, done with correct amounts of resistance the progressions of RIPPED! are rehabilitative for recovering athletes. |
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| How much weight should I use? |
| The amount of weight you select should be light enough so you can complete an entire set of repetitions with proper form. When you can do this without achieving a good burn in the muscle at the end of a set, it’s time to increase the weight by 2-5 pounds. |
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| More on Heart Zone Training |
| Our bodies speak to us in many ways. People who keep fit pay attention to the signals their bodies send. Energy levels, soreness, and mood all reveal your capabilities on a given day. |
| Your heart rate is a great determinant of ability and energy levels. However, our heart rates change not only throughout our lifetimes, they change throughout the day! Genetics and age affect your heart rate. Diet and sleep patterns, menstrual cycles, and increases in training intensity also affect your heart rate. |
| Polar Heart Rate Monitors |
| In developing the RIPPED! workouts, we used Polar Heart Rate Monitors to help guide and gauge intensity during the workout, and progress after the workout. Exercising with a heart rate monitor allowed us to measure calories expended during the workout, and to monitor how hard we were working at certain points. |
| The monitor is a useful tool because it takes the guesswork out of measuring the effects of your workout. We usually have to wait until the scale drops, or our pants loosen to see the effects of our hard work. A heart rate monitor shows you the effects of your hard work while you are working out! You enter your stats into your monitor; your weight, height, age, sex and then monitor keeps track of your heart rate, workout time, calories used, etc. In addition, the monitors store your workout information so you can look back through the records on the monitor and see your progress over time. |
| Maximum Heart Rate |
| When you use your heart rate as a measure of effort and progress, you need to determine your maximum heart rate and learn to think of intensity in terms of percentages of effort that are categorized into zones. A simple way of finding your maximum heart rate is the traditional Karvonen Formula. |
| To use the formula you first need to determine your Resting Heart Rate by taking your pulse after you’ve relaxed lying down for about 20 minutes. Count the number heart beats over a minute using your watch or a nearby clock. This is your Resting Heart Rate. |
| To determine your Maximum Heart Rate, the classic formula is: 220 – your age = Maximum Heart Rate. |
| Then, to calculate your Training Zone Heart Rate, take your Maximum Heart Rate and subtract your Resting Heart Rate. Multiply this number by your chosen intensity, for instance 50%, and then add your Resting Heart Rate. Now you know what you heart rate zone is for a 50% intensity workout. |
| Confused? Don’t be! |
| If you are 33 years old and your Resting Heart Rate is 75 beats per minute, you are just beginning to train so you want an intensity of about 50%. |
| Your Training Zone Heart Rate will be 131-142 beats per minute. |
| (220-33 years in age) = 187 |
| 187-75 (RHR) = 112 |
| 112 x .50 (intensity) + 75 (RHR) = 131 beats per minute |
| If you don’t have a heart rate monitor yet, you can still measure your intensity and progress by knowing your heart rate, and spot-checking during your workouts. |
| Simply take your pulse halfway through your workout to gauge your level of intensity. The carotid pulse (on the side of your neck) is the easiest way, but don’t press too hard or you’ll get an inaccurate rate. |
| How do I take my carotid pulse? |
| Begin with zero, and count the number of beats for six seconds, then multiply by 10 to figure out your heart rate. Use your heart rate to keep your workout intensity in the zone you’ve chosen for that session. Your heart rate is just one more way of listening to your body. |
| What are the zones? |
| Training zones are windows of effort levels. For instance, 60-70% of your maximum heart rate is considered an Aerobic Zone, good for basic endurance and recovery from harder workouts. This zone is also considered the “fat burning zone” because the body uses most of its fuel from fat at this level of effort. Knowing the zone you are in is another advantage of knowing your heart rate, because everyone is different. |
| The next zone level is the Anaerobic Zone, at 80-90% of your maximum heart rate. This is also known as the "lactic threshold" because your body uses stored glycogen for its main fuel and produces lactic acid, a waste product that causes that burning sensation in working muscles. By training in this zone for short intervals, you can increase your ability to metabolize lactic acid. Increasing the length of time you can sustain your efforts in this zone. |
| The most intense zone is the Maximum Effort Zone, or Red Line Zone. Because of the level of intensity, this type of training can only be maintained for short intervals that focus on developing speed. To train effectively at Maximum Effort, a broad base of aerobic and anaerobic training must first be achieved over a long time. Athletes typically take years to come to this level of exertion. |
| After doing RIPPED! for about 6-8 weeks, your resting heart rate will probably lower. The average resting heart rate for a woman is 75-76 beats per minute, 70-72 for a man. One caution: Check your rate of recovery after intense exercise. If your heart rate does not lower by at least 12 beats per minute within the first minute of recovery, you may either be over training or have an underlying heart condition that needs a physician’s care. |
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