Latest news with #heartrate
BBC News
21-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Cycling grandad 'grateful' to be alive after heart rate skyrocketed
A 74-year-old grandad who had an alarming wake-up call when his heart rate skyrocketed while cycling has said he is "so grateful" to be enjoying the sport again after being fitted with a life-saving medical Cookson from Lancashire had been training at the Manchester Velodrome when he fainted, and later discovered he had a serious heart condition. "I came off and looked at my sports watch which read 'new heart rate record – 238 bpm' and I thought 'oh, that's not good'. And it wasn't going down," he Cookson has since been fitted with a implantable defibrillator to prevent future episodes and told other cyclists "if you get the opportunity for a health check, take it". Mr Cookson, a former head of British and world cycling bodies, saw his heart rate hit 238 beats per minute after the training session in Manchester in said: "I was cycling and started feeling strange. I didn't know if I was in a dream, if I was asleep – then I hit the floor."The veteran rider fainted and had to wait about 15 minutes for his heart rate to return to normal. At the time of his collapse, he had been fitted with a heart monitor as he was one of 108 men taking part in a study of the hearts of older male endurance athletes. 'Stop riding' Researches from the University of Leeds were able to record exactly what was happening to his heart during the incident, and warned him to immediately stop said: "The next day, I got a call. They said, 'Stop riding your bike, don't do anything more strenuous than walking until we can get you in here because we think you need an ICD [implantable cardioverter defibrillator].'"It was revealed he needed the device because he had experienced ventricular tachycardia, an abnormally fast heartbeat where the ventricles do not pump blood around the body effectively, which can lead to cardiac arrest. Mr Cookson has since returned to cycling after being fitted with the implantable defibrillator, which will shock his heart if an abnormal rhythm reoccurs. The university's study found nearly half of older male endurance athletes over 50 had scarring in their hearts which increased the risk of these episodes. Dr Peter Swoboda led the British Heart Foundation-funded study and said the results "shouldn't put people off regular exercise" as the study focused on a select group and not all had scarring. He said: "In our study, the athletes who experienced dangerous heart rhythms often had symptoms first."I'd encourage anyone who experiences blackouts, dizziness, chest pain or breathlessness, whether during sport or at rest, to speak to their doctor and get it checked out."Mr Cookson said: "When I started out in cycling, people thought that taking part in endurance sport would as good as guarantee your heart would stay healthy. "Over the past few years, we've learnt that it's not quite that simple." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How to use heart rate zones on your smartwatch to smash your fitness goals, according to research
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For years, the gold standard for gauging workout intensity was often a simple "how you feel" metric. And while perceived exertion is still used by many exercisers and athletes today, it's a bit like navigating without GPS. On the other hand, your heart rate, and by extension heart rate zones, allow you to pinpoint exactly what your body is doing, every second of your run, cycle, or gym session. Heart rate training zones are a powerful, data-driven approach that can unlock new levels of fitness and efficiency in your workouts. Think of your heart rate as your body's internal speedometer – it adjusts constantly based on your effort level. Just as a car has different gears for different speeds, your heart beats at varying rates depending on the intensity of your exercise. Thanks to advances in wearable tech like the best smartwatches, best running watches, and dedicated heart rate monitors, tracking these zones has never been easier or more accurate. The five heart rate zones, from Zone 1 (warm-up and recovery) to Zone 5 (maximum effort intervals), each deliver their own specific benefits, which is why understanding them can significantly improve your fitness routine. Research from sports science experts at institutions like Colorado State University has shown that purposeful heart rate zone training allows you to tailor workouts to meet specific fitness goals. For example, lower intensity zones (1 and 2) burn a higher percentage of fat, while higher zones (4 and 5) develop efficiency and burn more overall calories in short bursts. Below, we break down each of these crucial heart rate zones and explain how to harness their power for your personal training goals. Zone 1 Used for: Warm-up, cool-down, active recovery Intensity: Very light to minimal effort Heart rate zone 1, or just 'Zone 1' usually appears as a blue or similarly cool-toned color on fitness trackers, and is generally around 50-60% of your maximum heart rate according to Polar. You can easily calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) by subtracting your age from 220. Zone 1 is often underestimated in its importance, yet it's essential for warming up, cooling down, and promoting recovery between harder training sessions. Breathing remains light and you can comfortably hold a conversation during Zone 1 activities. It might be low in intensity, but this study showed that Zone 1 exercise boosts circulation and helps flush out metabolic byproducts, preparing your body for future efforts. Adding gentle Zone 1 activities such as walking, gentle cycling, or a relaxed swim into your routine can therefore help boost your overall fitness base. Zone 2 Used for: Aerobic base building, long endurance training Intensity: Light to moderate effort Zone 2, often represented by a green color on fitness trackers, typically falls between 60-70% of your MHR. It's often referred to as the 'fat-burning zone', but a more accurate term is the 'aerobic base zone', where the body becomes more efficient at using oxygen and fat for long-lasting energy production. When training in Zone 2, your breathing should still be comfortable enough to maintain a conversation, though perhaps with a slight effort. Think steady-state cardio like long, slow, easy runs, sustained cycling, or brisk walking – activities you can comfortably maintain for 30 minutes or more. Research indicates that regularly spending time in Zone 2 significantly strengthens your cardiovascular system, increasing your endurance and stamina over time. This is the cornerstone of building an aerobic base and will help you perform longer workouts without excessive fatigue. Athletes preparing for marathons or long-distance events often dedicate a large portion of their training to this zone. Zone 3 Used for: Aerobic fitness, tempo runs, steady-state efforts Intensity: Moderate-to-hard effort Zone 3 kicks in at 70-80% of your MHR, and you'll usually see this displayed as a yellow or orange hue on fitness trackers. This is often considered the "aerobic power" zone, where your workout starts to feel noticeably challenging but is still sustainable. You'll likely be breathing heavier here, making continuous conversation difficult, but you should still be able to speak in short sentences. Activities in Zone 3 could include brisk, sustained runs, harder cycling efforts, or intense group exercise classes. Some coaches refer to Zone 3 as a 'gray zone' because while it improves aerobic fitness, it may not deliver the most efficient gains compared to focused Zone 2 or Zone 4 training. Still, it plays a valuable role in building race pace and sustainable effort tolerance. It's where you start to push your comfort zone, preparing your body for faster paces and more demanding efforts. The result? You become more efficient at transporting oxygen to your muscles and clearing lactate, which in turn delays fatigue when exercising at higher intensities. Zone 4 Used for: Anaerobic threshold training, speed work Intensity: Hard effort Zone 4 is characterized by a heart rate between 80-90% of your maximum, often appearing as a red or orange indicator on fitness trackers. This is the "anaerobic threshold" zone, where your body starts switching from using oxygen efficiently to working without it. Your breathing will be deep and rapid as you work hard and push your limits, with activities like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) bursts, competitive running paces, or sustained climbs on a bike. Training in Zone 4 significantly improves your body's ability to tolerate and clear lactate, letting you push harder for longer. Integrating Zone 4 workouts is crucial for athletes aiming to improve their speed, power, and overall race performance. The challenging nature of these sessions means they should be interspersed with easier recovery days in order to avoid burnout: users of the best Garmin watches will be familiar with their watch's plunging Body Battery and Training Readiness scores following demanding Zone 4 sessions. However, workouts like these are hugely effective for breaking through plateaus and building serious fitness. Zone 5 Used for: Peak performance, VO2 max improvement Intensity: Maximal effort Zone 5 represents the absolute peak of your effort, when your heart rate pushes to 90-100% of its maximum. On fitness trackers, this zone is almost always indicated by a deep red or even purple color to signify its intensity. This is the "maximal effort" zone, where your body is operating at or near its VO2 max – the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during intense exercise. Your breathing will be heavy, short, and labored, making conversation pretty much impossible. Activities in Zone 5 are brief, all-out bursts, such as very short sprints, maximal effort intervals, or the final push in a race. These sessions are designed to enhance your speed, power, and ability to perform at your best for short durations. Zone 5 is very taxing on the body and should be reached infrequently, typically for only a few minutes total per session. Sustained efforts in Zones 4 and 5, or interval workouts in which you're continually pushing into these higher zones, should always be followed by ample recovery time. You might also like... Fitbit down no longer: Here's what happened during Fitbit's "major outage" You don't need a fitness tracker for zone two training – just this free trick from Harry Styles' trainer The best heart rate monitors 2025
Gizmodo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
The Whoop 5.0 Is a Massive Upgrade to Health Tracking. I Wasn't Ready.
At some point in the late 2010s, I became obsessed with my heart rate. I was at a point in my fitness life that I was training for marathons and I cared a whole lot about every process involved. I spent a certain percentage of my workday staring at my heart rate on my fitness watch and feeling smug if I kept my resting heart rate below 50 beats per minute (bpm) and wigging out if it went over 60 bpm. Heart rate was my gateway drug into health tracking, and it soon devolved into an unhinged compulsion. A couple of years in, for the sake of my mental health, I stopped tracking everything. It was liberating and freeing. Around this time, the Whoop—a fitness tracker that passively monitors heart rate, sleep, and stress, among many other things—started gaining popularity among elite and amateur athletes and other fitness enthusiasts. I tried it for a month or two, but stopped, in an attempt to remain committed to the no-fitness-tracking bit. In the meantime, Whoop has now become a fixture in the fitness space and has gone through five iterations. The latest, the Whoop 5.0 starting at $199 annually (includes a subscription), was released in May. The screenless band is a significant upgrade from earlier models, and is Whoop's most committed attempt at putting itself in the growing longevity and anti-aging space. See Whoop 5.0 at Amazon Whoop 5.0 If you are serious about health tracking, Whoop 5.0 has everything you could ever want. But for most people, it might be too much information. Pros Cons These days, I usually (but not always) use a fitness watch (either an Apple Watch or a Garmin) to track my pace or mileage when I run, but I don't wear it 24/7. I finally forced myself out of my retirement and dove head first back into the deep waters of health tracking with Whoop 5.0. I was so not ready. Historically, fitness trackers have hinged on the ability to see whatever health stat they're tracking—step count, heart rate, etc.—effortlessly on the device itself. The pedometer, the OG fitness tracker, for instance, was just one big number display. Heart rate monitors embedded in smartwatches clearly revealed accurate, up-to-date measurements. And no decent fitness watch couldn't easily display a runner's current pace and distance. Whoop takes a different approach. The hardware has no display. It contains PPG (photoplethysmography) sensors that use infrared light, which is absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood, to capture changes in blood volume and generate an incredibly accurate estimate of a person's heart rate as well as their heart rate variability (the variation in time between heartbeats). Like other fitness trackers, it also contains skin temperature sensors to detect sleep and accelerometers to capture activity. Whoop uses this tech tracking to go all in on the software side of things, and all of that is embedded in the Whoop app. And that brings up a key difference between costs when you compare a Whoop to a traditional fitness tracker like a Fitbit or Garmin watch. Often, a fitness tracker is a one-time purchase kind of deal: you buy the device, you download the accompanying (often free) app, and aside from upgrading the software from time to time, you are set. Whoop works on a membership structure, which has changed over the years, but currently, it uses tiered subscription plans. With the new Whoop 5.0, $199 gets you the band and a Whoop One subscription, which provides sleep, strain, and recovery insights, personalized coaching, VO2 Max and heart rate zones, and women's hormonal insights. The Whoop Peak plan, at $239 per year, adds healthspan and pace of aging, health monitor with health alerts, and real-time stress monitoring. Finally, Whoop Life, at $359 per year, has its own band—the Whoop Peak (different from the Whoop 5.0)—which allows for monitoring blood pressure, though this is still in beta testing, as well as electrocardiogram (ECG) readings and irregular heart rhythm notifications. The key aspect of a Whoop is that in order to unlock all of the benefits listed above, you must wear it 24/7. Literally. You cannot take it off. Not even for a shower. In fact, if you do deign to take a break, the Whoop app will send consistent and persistent notifications that you are slacking off, and it won't be able to obtain the most accurate results it can without you wearing it. See Whoop 5.0 at Amazon I found this aspect difficult, especially in the first week. I didn't love having to wear it all the time, especially after a hot, humid summer workout. And in general, I don't find the Whoop 5.0 band to be all that comfortable. Getting the band on is also not intuitive. You have to lift the metal buckle up, then slide it onto your wrist. If you don't, from experience, it will be almost impossible to wrangle it onto your wrist—to the point where you probably won't want to ever take it off. I remember all of these issues from a few years ago when I tried the Whoop 2.0, which felt completely too large for my tiny wrist. Sometimes I would find it so uncomfortable in the middle of the night that, in a sleep stupor, I would take it off without even realizing I was doing so. (While I am not the majority here, I am also not the only person to find the Whoop band uncomfortable.) Technically, you can wear the band on your bicep, too, and it still provides accurate measurements, but I didn't find that to be all that comfortable either, and a bicep fitness band isn't the vibe I personally always want to be going for (though never ever any judgment, of course). Wearing it did get easier as the days went on, and compared to the earlier version of Whoop I tried and the 4.0, the 5.0 sensor is smaller. The smaller size did seem to make it more comfortable. Without a screen of any kind, the battery life is amazing; my Whoop 5.0 lasted a full 12 days of continued use (and it only takes a couple hours to recharge). There are two ways to charge the Whoop 5.0. A basic charger that plugs right into a USB-C will juice up the device in 152 minutes, while a wireless power pack attaches to the device on your wrist and will charge the device in 110 minutes (according to Whoop) without needing to actually take the Whoop off (they really do want you to keep it on forever). If you wear the Whoop 5.0 all the time as prescribed, the device does give you a cool window into your health. But it takes time. During the first couple of days to weeks, it is in a kind of calibration mode where it needs time to gather more and more data about your body. But by two weeks in, it gives you a more detailed sleep analysis as well as a strain, sleep, and recovery score. By three weeks in, if you have the Peak Plan, you'll access healthspan, which gives you a biological age score, among other things. To be honest, I found a lot of this information both over and underwhelming. The sheer amount of it all can feel very daunting to look at, especially if you don't have a lot of time carved out in the day to devote to digesting it all. Additionally, as I alluded to earlier, having come from a solid break from health tracking, I found I wasn't sure I needed or wanted all of this information again. For example, when it comes to sleep analysis, I pretty much knew, without having to look at the Whoop app, if I had a good night of sleep or not. Perhaps Whoop's biggest selling point, especially from a fitness perspective, is its strain score, which uses a variety of factors, including your exertion and recovery, to give you a daily number, which varies from 1 to 21. Each day's score will not only reflect the amount of physical activity you did, but also how much sleep, for example, you got the night before. That is perhaps the part that I did find most fun and addicting. And I would surmise if I were training for something like a marathon or starting or maintaining a weight-lifting program—and was serious about it—that's where the Whoop 5.0 would come in most handy. The premise of Whoop is that you should continue to wear the sensor 24/7 and, in doing so, you continue to know your body better and better over time AND are able to use the data to live a healthier life. And there are plenty of devoted Whoop users who do this. But how that translates into better health is far murkier. Very few studies have been done that investigated a connection between wearing the Whoop and gaining better health or fitness metrics. And the ones that have been done—including this study, published in April in the journal Sensors, which found that wearing the Whoop consistently was associated with a lower resting heart rate and a higher heart rate variability as well as better sleep and activity metrics—were funded by Whoop itself. 'These findings provide compelling initial evidence that consistent engagement with Whoop is linked to physiological and behavioral benefits,' the study authors concluded. The results were based on long-term data from more than 10,000 users. This brings up another inherent difficulty in studying these devices, and that's that the population of people who choose to use a device like Whoop are typically those who are already heavily invested in improving their health. That makes it difficult to tease apart which improvements were from wearing the Whoop consistently and which ones were from being a health-conscious person who will choose a lifestyle that is good for their health. That aside, there is something to be said for wearing a device that passively tracks numerous health metrics without having to think about them every time you look down at your wrist. And you can't really get that on any other fitness device. Even if you don't utilize all of the health metrics Whoop offers, it could still be worth it to get insight into your health without having your heart rate staring at you in your face every time you look at your wrist. See Whoop 5.0 at Amazon
