Regarding your thread title, HRM and Performance (and since I know not of the Keiser you mentioned) I use a heart monitor via my Garmin 800 and use my BPM (beats per minute) to track my performance on long climbs.

I know I can climb in a pretty relaxed mode at 135 BPM. When I up the effort level a bit the BPM's sit right at 145 and when I breathing hard and really trying to go fast it goes right up to ~ 155.

So yes, I do use BPM's to tell how much I'm pushing my performance. My cardiologist told me never to exceed 165, so I usually don't. In a very competitive (but fun!) situation I have seen 175 and similar numbers. But I try not to get that much into it.

Rick / OCRR