Why Use A HRM

Heart Rate Monitors allow you to more accurately measure the parameters of your performance in a number of ways. Knowing where you struggled or excelled during a ride means that you can either make plans to strengthen your riding in an area or capitalise on it during a race. You’ll know how to pace yourself in future rides, which is vital in enabling you to improve over a period of weeks or months. Without data to guide the rider they won’t know exactly where or when these points are and subsequently they may not be equipped to make the changes to training regimen which will allow for improvement.

Using a HRM allows a rider to understand the limits of their threshold, which means they’ll know if they’re pushing too hard during a ride. This is applicable to all riders – people have died as a result of overexertion, and using a monitor to gauge output can effectively prevent a rider from going too far over their threshold. Monitoring heart rate also provides an indication as to the health of a rider, as simple ailments such as the flu can have a large effect on the heart (the rate will normally be significantly higher during sickness). Exercising during illness can be dangerous, and knowing when you’re is at risk is important.

Just as illness can affect heart rate and hence performance, extenal factors such as climate and altitude can have a positive or negative affect on a rider, and the use of a HRM allows riders (and coaches) to monitor how any of these external influences affects performance. For example, the 2007 junior track world championships were held in Mexico. Riders were competing at a much higher altitude, which would undoubtedly have made an impact on their performance. Coaches advised their charges how to approach each event according to the rider’s ability to adapt to the conditions. How could they gauge this? By using a HRM.