Heart rate monitors

[Owen Bisto Taylor]

Gents,

My friend whose a sport scientist was saying the other day about how in order to get a decent training reigeime everyone should be wearing heart rate monitors... i then hear someone else mentioning how good they are. So being the fashion victim i am, ive just gone out and bough a Fitbit Charge HR... wanted to know if anyone else has foudnd them useful in their training programmes.

Owen

 

[L'irlandais]

The iRB use them for Elite referee training & also on match day to monitor heart rate at stressful times during the game.

 

[menace]

Gents,

My friend whose a sport scientist was saying the other day about how in order to get a decent training reigeime everyone should be wearing heart rate monitors... i then hear someone else mentioning how good they are. So being the fashion victim i am, ive just gone out and bough a Fitbit Charge HR... wanted to know if anyone else has foudnd them useful in their training programmes.

Owen

Only useful if you know the science of what heart rate you need to train at to get the most gains from the workout.....and there's a different science to each type of fitness you want. It's too bloody complex for the average joe just trying to be fit for community rugby.

BUT when combined with a GPS they produce pretty graphs with h/r, speed, distance and altitude! I have one just to make sure my heart is still beating after a session or whether I should call an ambulance!

 

[Drift]

I have a Garmin GPS with HR watch, it's awesome for planning some of my longer workouts as I will look to mimic a game or at least a half of rugby in terms of speed and HR.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

The iRB use them for Elite referee training & also on match day to monitor heart rate at stressful times during the game.

If it records stress it'd be going off every five minutes if I wore it at work.

- - - Updated - - -

Gents,

My friend whose a sport scientist was saying the other day about how in order to get a decent training reigeime everyone should be wearing heart rate monitors... i then hear someone else mentioning how good they are. So being the fashion victim i am, ive just gone out and bough a Fitbit Charge HR... wanted to know if anyone else has foudnd them useful in their training programmes.

Owen

Never mind all that bollocks - get your rent paid

 

[FlipFlop]

I like using my heart rate monitor for training and game.

I take a heart rate profile from my games, and see how much time in each zone, and try to replicate that in training. But also push the higher zones harder.

Whole host of info out there in teh WWW to explain the zones, and how to accurately set them (the default ones are useless).

But that is all with my heart rate monitor and phone app..... No idea about the fitbit stuff.

 

[beckett50]

Used to use one religiously, even wore the receiver as my everyday watch!

I used to ensure that my average heart rate and min/max from a match were replicated in my CV training sessions at the gym. Even went as far as getting the foot pod so that I could measure acceleration and speed etc (Polar F6 IIRC).

What stopped me in the end was the number of batteries that I was going through on the chest strap. What with 4 sessions per week in the gym and then Saturday's game (plus the occasional sleep in it to ensure resting heart rate was accurate) it was getting ridiculous; to say nothing of sending the watch to Polar for a service and battery change!

Part of me misses the confirmation, but I know the rythms of my body well enough not to need it.

 

[FlipFlop]

I use a scosche (http://www.scosche.com/rhythm-plus)
Benefits are - no chest strap (mine used to chafe); worn upper arm; can get wet; syncs with most (ANT+ and bluetooth) devices & apps; rechargable.

 

[Phil E]

I have one for sale if anyone is interested?
Garmin watch
Chest strap
Foot pod (clips to your laces and measures distance travelled).

 

[didds]

I used one when training for long distance triathlon, but as someone above said it only works when you understand what it means and you do some pretty intensive testing of your self (eg ramp tests) to work out your various "zones".

Then race with those zones in mind.

As it was when I did AT70.3 I'd lost my bloody watch/wrist ciomputer that went with the HR strap so I had to race on feel anyway!

didds

 

[ddjamo]

yeah...I read that richie mccaw gives credit for fitness prowess to a friggin heart rate monitor....get real guys....

 

[Owen Bisto Taylor]

yeah...I read that richie mccaw gives credit for fitness prowess to a friggin heart rate monitor....get real guys....

Richie McCaw isn't an amateur referee who is trying to monitor his fitness and track progress while having a job that involves mainly sitting down and then doing fitness in an evening. At least try and be constructive mate :shrug:

For everyone else.... i got a Fitbit charge HR. Found it really good so far, tracks all the normal whohar like steps and that; but does track heart rate against your resting heart rate (which it calculates whle you sleep), also when its synced with my iPhone i can track my sleep patterns on it as well as other little bits! So far its been dead good, and that alongside a fitness programme, i feel a lot fitter for the start of the season. If anyone has a training programme I could compare mine with that would be sound!

 

[didds]

ooo... go on Owen... what your resting HR?

The closest I ever got to resting HR measurement was the wake up, lie still a minute, check HR... and that was something like 26 bpm...

I was once measured having walked around Bristol and into the science museum there as having 42 bpm ... GEDDIN!!

didds

 

[Owen Bisto Taylor]

ooo... go on Owen... what your resting HR?

The closest I ever got to resting HR measurement was the wake up, lie still a minute, check HR... and that was something like 26 bpm...

I was once measured having walked around Bristol and into the science museum there as having 42 bpm ... GEDDIN!!

didds

Knocks around 56/58 summat like that, until i use the selfscan at tesco... then its off the scale

 

[ddjamo]

Richie McCaw isn't an amateur referee who is trying to monitor his fitness and track progress while having a job that involves mainly sitting down and then doing fitness in an evening. At least try and be constructive mate :shrug:

For everyone else.... i got a Fitbit charge HR. Found it really good so far, tracks all the normal whohar like steps and that; but does track heart rate against your resting heart rate (which it calculates whle you sleep), also when its synced with my iPhone i can track my sleep patterns on it as well as other little bits! So far its been dead good, and that alongside a fitness programme, i feel a lot fitter for the start of the season. If anyone has a training programme I could compare mine with that would be sound!

"...but you can't tell him much."

 

[menace]

Richie McCaw isn't an amateur referee who is trying to monitor his fitness and track progress while having a job that involves mainly sitting down and then doing fitness in an evening. At least try and be constructive mate :shrug:

For everyone else.... i got a Fitbit charge HR. Found it really good so far, tracks all the normal whohar like steps and that; but does track heart rate against your resting heart rate (which it calculates whle you sleep), also when its synced with my iPhone i can track my sleep patterns on it as well as other little bits! So far its been dead good, and that alongside a fitness programme, i feel a lot fitter for the start of the season. If anyone has a training programme I could compare mine with that would be sound!

Don't worry bout jamo...he's old and cranky and didn't get many toys as a kid, and the ones he did get he just threw out of the cot. He's also dirty that IT makes life a little more fun but he can't work out how to use em...:biggrin:

 

[FlipFlop]

I bet Richie McCaw has had his training program designed and adjusted around data obtained from heart rate monitors, both during games and training. I bet if you asked him - he would say the data has helped tailor his program, which has improved his fitness.

If you want to know about different heart rate monitors/apps/watches etc: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/ is a great resource.

 

[didds]

Absolutely.

Its that thing about the conditioning coaches keeping an eye on such data and calling a player out of training as he has "maxxed out" on whatever criteria they are using.

didds

 

[Owen Bisto Taylor]

Strange how there's very little help given for referees when it comes to condition given out by RFUs... only one ive found is from South Africa (which will be the one ill be using), really well broken down into physical conditioning and resistance/weights work! Its a bit of a read like... just the 90odd pages!

 

[chrismtl]

Strange how there's very little help given for referees when it comes to condition given out by RFUs... only one ive found is from South Africa (which will be the one ill be using), really well broken down into physical conditioning and resistance/weights work! Its a bit of a read like... just the 90odd pages!

Can you post a link to that? I've mostly used my couple of years of varsity training (we got strength training weekly during the season and were given programs for the year to work on outside of those times) to make myself a program that works for what I need, but it would be nice to have something tried and tested.