Heart Rate Monitor Book

Rating:
Summary: I got the book, applied what I read and lost 41 pounds.
Review: I am not a world class athlete nor do I have any ambitions of being one. I wouldn't consider myself a beginner though either. I was a three sport varsity athlete in college but ten years after graduation I found myself thrity five pounds heavier and not feeling very good about myself.

I decided I wanted to lose weight so I began working out very hard -- you know, the no pain, no gain school of thought popular in my college days. Two months later I had a pulled hamstring, a sore groin, was fatiqued every day after a workout and didn't shed a pound.

Out of shear frustration, I bought a heart rate monitor because I really wanted to track my workouts better. I bought the book too because of the catchy title (ha ha). But, sincerely, I began to workout in the fat burning zone described in the book and in three months I went from 204 to 163 and really felt great. Six months later, I am maintaining 170 lbs mostly by remaining disciplined to my workouts and the concepts I learned in the Heart Rate Monitor Book.

If you're looking to get in shape to climb Mt. Everest, this book is not for you. But if you are trying to make sense of the whole fitness/heart rate puzzle, then this book might be a good place to start. If not, you're only out ten bucks so the trade off of upside potential is almost unlimited.

Rating:
Summary: only for beginners
Review: This book offers very little hard data for anyone serious about training. It's OK for someone that knows little and is just getting started, but how many people spend $100 for a HR monitor and the book and aren't serious? It offers no workout training schedules, no max heart rate testing, and no sport specific information. It doesn't even use resting heart rate to calculate training zones. I got the feeling that most case studies were on friends and neighbors. No research articles are cited. No alternate viewponts were offered. Even simple concepts such as taking your resting heart rate in the morning are not elaborated on (HOW do you take it in the morning - do you wear your HR monitor all night? Manually count it? It's not as simple as it seems.)

It's very friendly and folksey, and would be an OK book to give to your sedendary mother, but isn't for the more serious minded exercizer.