Heart Rate Reserve: A Simple, Safe Way To Test Your Cardiorespiratory Fitness
One of the key things you can do to improve your health is to develop your cardiorespiratory fitness.
We know that if you have good cardio fitness (heart and lung fitness - the type you need to climb stairs, walk fast, ride a bike, swim laps or run a race) you can drastically reduce your risk of many preventable diseases - like cancer, diabetes, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Moreover, decades of research and clinical practice shows that patients who use cardio exercise to treat diseases and conditions can achieve excellent results. HIIT (high intensity interval training) is even being used as a way to fight cancer, during or after treatment. Edith Cowan Uni is active in this research.
A good practice when you decide you want to improve your fitness is to establish a baseline. How fit are you right now?
How To Test
There are many ways to do this.
You can do a field test, which is where you select a task that uses the type of fitness you wish to build, and see how fast you can complete it.
Want to build up your running fitness for team sport? A beep test or a 2K time trial will show you where you’re at.
Want to build up your ability to handle trekking up and down hills? See how many steps you can complete on a stair-master within a given time frame - maybe 30 minutes.
You can do a lab test, such as a VO2 max test, where your expired air is analysed while you exercise to see what is the maximum rate your muscles can utilise oxygen.
A Simple Field Test - Heart Rate Recovery
A simple way to test of your cardiorespiratory fitness is to determine your heart rate recovery (HRR).
Your HRR is how fast your heart rate drops after a bout of intense exercise.
It is the difference between the maximum heart rate you can achieve during intense exercise, and your heart rate after one minute of recovery (post exercise).
According to The Cleveland Clinic, a HRR of 18 or more is a good result.
But the value of this test is more about measuring change over time. It is a very simple and easy way to identify progress, which can be really rewarding. As you get fitter, the number increases.
What You Need
1/ A heart rate monitor
2/ A stopwatch
3/ Some means to do intense activity
The Testing Process
First of all, it is important to realise that this test involves intense effort. If you are not in the habit of doing regular cardio training, or it’s been a long time since you’ve really pushed hard during exercise (biking, running, steps etc), then the first step is to gradually build up the capability to do the test.
Also, if you suffer from any sort of condition which makes intense exercise risky, consult your doctor before performing this test.
OK, here’s the process.
1/ Select your modality. For the purposes of this example I’ll assume you’re using an exercise bike, but it could also be suitable to run, row, ski erg, stair climb or swim.
2/ Do a comprehensive warm up. 5 minutes light effort then 5 minutes moderate effort then 1 minute intense effort at 8-9/10. Then another minute off.
3/ Perform the test: Do 10 rounds of 40 seconds intense effort (8-9/10 - think: the maximum effort level you could sustain for 4-5 minutes). After each 40s interval, take 20s rest.
4/ At the end of the tenth work/effort interval, observe your heart rate and start your stopwatch.
5/ After 60s has elapsed, observe your heart rate again.
6/ Subtract the second reading from the first to get your result (for example: 170bpm minus 145bpm = HRR of 25bpm)