Effort is different for all of us.

Do you know, the human heart is the most incredible muscle in the body?

Beating about 100,000 times to send up to 7,500 liters of blood through 75,000 miles of blood vessels each day to keep us alive and function well.

Incredible, right?

To keep a healthy heart, of course, the most effective way is to exercise.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends at least 150-minutes/week of moderate aerobic exercise (blue and green zones in MZ heart rate monitor) or 75-minutes/week of vigorous aerobic exercise (yellow and red zones with your MZ heart rate monitor), or a combination of the two. 

We can easily meet these goals by exercising for 30-minutes/day, 5 days/week. 

To lower the risk for heart attack and stroke, the AHA recommends performing 40-minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise three to four times a week.

MZ-Switch heart rate monitor can be worn around your chest.

Now you are probably wondering,

At Primal Performance Lab, we incorporate MZ-Switch wearable devices into our training programs. It breaks the percentage of estimated maximum heart rate (MHR) into five color-coded zones so you can see how much effort you are putting into your workout, the data is presented in real time on a large screen right in front of you! (yes, we know, it sounds super exciting!) Training in each of these zones will put different demands on your cardiovascular system.

∎ The lower the intensity of your exercise → the longer you can keep going

∎ The higher the intensity (the harder you’re working) → the less time you can maintain that level of activity. 

And the fitter you are → the longer you will be able to train at a certain intensity. 

Pretty simple, right?

For example: Endurance athletes (long-distance cyclists, rowers, swimmers, runners…) typically train in the lower intensity zones for longer periods of time. While Explosive Power athletes (jumping, sprinting, throwing, wrestling, gymnastics, sprint swimming…) train at higher intensity for shorter durations.

Let’s break down and walk through these color-coded zone:

∎ The Grey Zone (50-59% of your Max Heart Rate) is very low intensity. Essentially this is light activity or recovery and something you can do all day.

∎ The Blue Zone (60-69% of your Max HR) is moderate intensity. If you’re new to exercise, you’ll quickly pass through the blue zone as your heart rate rises to adjust to the new activity. If you’ve been training for some time, you’ll have to put in more effort to get up to the higher intensity zones.

∎ The Green Zone (70-79% of your Max HR) is a moderately-high intensity training zone, it is the ideal zone for improving your fitness at a comfortable effort. If you're used to exercising, you can stay in this zone from 90 minutes up to 2 hours. 

∎ The Yellow Zone (80-89% of Max HR) is a high-intensity zone which is a race pace for most people. The bottom of the yellow zone is where muscle fatigue begins to set in for strength training exercises, while the upper end is where aerobic exercise begins to shift to anaerobic exercise. If you’re just starting out, you will spend most of your training session in the yellow zone, but you’ll really have to put in the extra effort to stay in this zone if you’ve been training for a while.

∎ The Red Zone (90-100% of Max HR) is the highest of MZ’s five zones and you can only safely stay in this zone for a short time. When you’re in the red zone you will be working close to your maximum, so training in this zone intermittently during your workout will benefit you most. 

*You’ll fatigue more quickly when training at this intensity, so make sure you focus on your technique to reduce the chance of injury. At Primal, follow your coach/trainer guide & pay attention to your color zone.

Conclusion

Each of MZ-Switch training zones are beneficial for most training programs at Primal Performance Lab, so make sure you spend time in all the zones to achieve your training goals. By purchasing a MZ-Switch device at Primal, you’ll have access to a personal Dashboard we provide, to see the data of your progressions. Therefore you can effectively adjust it according to your goals.