Using heart rate monitors for training???

never used one or felt the need to

my conditioning trainer (sounds real posh but its my mates Dad whos real good at conditioing helps me out) mentuioned them saying tehy would be handy.

Also my PE teachers are obsessed with them when im working the gym. One of them does martial arts and he goes crazy at me after he does a circuit with me if my HR isnt up to a certain level, i work harder than everyone else but he says i aint working hard enough as my HR is too low

 

I do have access to a couple Jeff, and from time to time, I do use them with my fighters, but yes, perhaps I should use them more often. I guess I kind of view them as something that a gym instructor uses when trying to get a 300lb client to lose a bit of weight - that's not to knock personal trainers btw.

I have always took pride in my ability to 'feel' my way through training sessions, rather than rely on facts and figures. Maybe if I did rely on such things however, i'd be a better trainer than I am today... I guess you could call me a bit too old school and set in my ways!

I have long been aware of one of my major flaws as a trainer, and that is expecting people to do things as I do, certainly in terms of effort and application.

In my personal case, I think if I used a hr monitor as part of my training, it would only confirm what I already know, and would make few, if any changes to my training as i'm fairly certain that I get the best out of my body when I train. Maybe I should re-evaluate my stance on using them when training other people though.

 

Experiance and knowing what youre looking at and understanding what you are doing. I think I understand where Bodi is coming from Jeff. A case in point I train Elite Runners when Ive nothing better to do :nut. On a track a Heart monitor is a waste of time, but a whistle is a great tool to instruct when to go. I have to blow at the time my eyes see the runner start to struggle, plus after the routine I can Pulse them with my index finger on there Kneck. Before we go again always obeying what my eyes tell me. In a close space they can be used but as Bodi says what comes up on the monitor isnt always the whole story, you have to know what you are doing. :good

 

The most important sense for Boxing is sight and understanding it, Jeff I know you think some of the things I say sound strange. But after sight comes Feel it is a major player that very few understand, its the Body first line of defence with smell. As Bodi says its how He trains is How He feels, its having the awareness of the Pcsyhodinamics of Do t5o justify the action, its lonely on top of Mountains, and theres nobody up there the good bit is trying like this Post atsch

 

I think Jeff has touched on a very important point here. As I now view myself as a coach, as opposed to an athlete in my younger years, I have technically went from being the main person in the team (the one that everyone works on behalf of), to a being more a part of a team that works FOR the main person - the fighter/athlete. When I was competing, I pretty much took care of my strength and conditioning work myself, and only relied on coaches for the technique side of things. Coming up like that, I found what worked for me, without the assistance of hr monitors or quantifiable evidence - they way I felt and performed was good enough for me. Now I am on the other side of the fence, maybe i'm not considering my fighters needs. I know what I do with my fighters works, and it works well, but what if they want more? What if they want some form of quantifiable evidence to back up my claims of 'your doing well', or 'pull your finger out, you're slacking' etc.

Two areas that we haven't touched on which are vitally important to a trainer/fighter relationship are feedback and communication. I think the point that you made about wanting to have quantifiable evidence was a very pertinent one, Jeff. i had a good think about this discussion last night, and come to a conclusion. I have changed my stance to a certain degree regarding hr monitors. I think that they do have a place, but no more so than feeling your way through a workout, but rather than say "I train this way", or "we do things that way", it might be better to ask the fighter what they want. At the end of the day, the training would still be pretty much the same if the trainer knows what he/she is doing, but the fighter might just want some form of confirmation that what they are doing is working as well as it possibly can.

 

I think their arguments were based on changes to the metabolism and one way would burn more total compared to the other because it would raise your metabolism so you would be burning more calories after the actual run was completed.