Whichever method you choose, you don’t need to keep your fingers on your
neck or wrist for an entire minute while you count the beats. Feel the steady
pounding of blood flowing through your arteries. When you’re fairly comfort-
able with the rhythm, count how many beats you feel in 15 seconds. Then
multiply this number by four — voilá, your heart rate.If you flunked Mr. Dyshuck’s fifth-grade math class and multiplying by four
proves to be out of your range of talents, that’s okay. Just take your pulse for
6 seconds and add a zero onto the number of beats you count; this, in effect,
is multiplying by 10. For example: You take your pulse for 6 seconds and
count 14 beats. Add a zero and you get 140 — that’s approximately how many
times per minute your heart is beating. Just know that this shortcut method
can be extremely inaccurate. If you miss a single beat, you miscalculate your
heart rate by 10 beats per minute. We mention this method only because it’s
commonly used in health clubs.During your workout, take your pulse about every 15 minutes and be sure to
concentrate. Otherwise, you may end up counting the number of steps you
take on the stair-climber rather than the number of pulses in your wrist. You
may want to slow down or even stop while you take your pulse. True, this is
disruptive to your workout, but it’s not nearly as disruptive as getting launched
off the treadmill.Using a heart-rate monitor
You can eliminate the inaccuracy and inconvenience of taking your heart rate
by wearing a heart-rate monitor. With a monitor, you don’t need to stop exer-
cising or take the time to count anything. At any given moment you can find
out your heart rate by glancing at your wrist. A good monitor can cost less
than $60. The really fancy ones cost up to $400. They offer features such as a
clock, a timer, and an alarm that you can set to beep when you wander out of
your target zone.Most of the cardio equipment in gyms is now “heart-rate-monitor compatible.”
The machines pick up the signal from the monitor, and your heart rate pops
up on the display console, so you don’t have to wear the wrist watch. This
saves you the trouble of bringing your wrist up to your eyeball while you’re
moving.The most accurate type of monitor is the chest-strap variety,which operates
on the same principle as a medical electrocardiogram (ECG). You hook an
inch-wide strap around your chest. This strap acts as an electrode to mea-
sure the electrical activity of your heart. This information is then translated
into a number, which is transmitted via radio signals to a wrist receiver that
looks like a watch with a large face. All you have to do is look at your wrist,
and you instantly know how many times your heart is beating that moment,
whether it’s 92 or 164. Turn to Chapter 25 for more details on purchasing a
monitor.114 Part III: Getting to the Heart of the Matter