techman

I bike mostly for health benefits. I'm not an athlete.
Do any of you with similar goals monitor their heart rate while biking?
What benefits do you derive? And what specific hardware are you using.
Thanks

Mobile 155

It gives you an early warning system during the summer when you haven't hydrated as well as you should. If it is hot and your HR is staying up you need to slow down and hydrate. (Early sign of possible heat exhaustion) In some cases it can help measure your level of improvement. Like a note in my ride log. "Took hill with the group in a pace line today. Stayed with them till my HR hit 171 and then I was dropped."
A year later on the same hill, "group hit the hill hard today, I was in the middle and made it to the top with the group. HR was 158."

It tells me how fast I am recovering from sprints and hill repetes.

StanSeven

Or even at a more basic level, it tells you when you aren't working hard enough (easy to do especially when you ride by yourself) or working too hard.

johnny99

The main purpose of a heart rate monitor is when you are following a training program that says your heart rate should be in certain zones for certain numbers of minutes per ride. If your training program is less specific (or you don't have one), a heart rate monitor is probably not worth the cost or effort, except if your doctor recommends it for medical reasons.

Looigi

A heart rate monitor provides information which when properly interpreted can be applied to increase the effectiveness of training for athletic performance and/or weight control. A power meter is preferable for a number of reasons, but training with HRMs can be nearly as effective and is adaptable to more types of activities.

Ludkeh

I use a HRM all the time. Keeps me reigned in especially early in the season when I want to improve my endurance.

Stealthammer

Depending on what you want to achieve, you need to first understand what an HRM can tell you, and how you can use that information to your best benefit. If all you care about is average and max HR during your workouts you are missing the real advantage of what the HRM can do for you.

Taking your waking and resting heartrates every morning, and then tailoring your workouts based on your bodies current state of recovery can be more beneficial than monitoring your heartrate during the workout because it will keep you working as hard as your body can, without overtraining.

Monitoring how quickly your heartrate returns to normal during a workout or in between intervals will also help you to tailor your workout to provide you with the best benefit. Its also a good indicator that you may be undertraining or overtraining within each portion of a workout session.

HRMs are a very valuable tool if you use them properly, unfortunately most users fail to take the time to understand all of the various ways that the information can be used, and instead they become much like a speed indicator that just satisfies curiosity.

Before you can figure out how you want to use it, you might want to check out these two articles to start, and then do some more research regarding the many ways that an HRM can benefit you.


Marathon Guide Heart Monitor Training

How to be Fit How to use Heart Rate Monitor

hueyhoolihan

i've heard over in the 50 Plus forum that it is primarily used to determine whether the heart is indeed still beating at all.

TurbineBlade

Lol. I was just going to say that they're good to monitor that you're alive while riding.

fietsbob

Someone posting as techman is probably considering a chest band sensor and a Heart rate monitor device.

there are certainly training regimens , that can use that data to judge progress..

Doubt this website is a coaching resource, to get you there..

my heart rate 'monitoring' tells me when its too high a frequency,
and to get off and walk the hill,pushing the bike .
then, at the summit, I get back on the bike.. with just awareness of my body signals.

I've gotten over silly steep hills with my loaded-touring rig by holding the brake lever,
waiting till my heart-rate dropped, pushing up for another 10~20Meters
then stopping and holding the brakes again.

rumrunn6

re: the over 50 crowd, is there something called a "cycling related stroke" and can't a heart rate monitor help you see if you are going at it too hard and should back down a bit?

please pardon my novice terminology

fietsbob

heat exhaustion and dehydration will be the first concern,
Personally, @64, I'm aware of my relative heart rate. without technology.

Ymmv, I'm just going at a tourist pace , solo.