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In my last post, I mentioned needing to do research on heart rate monitors so I can start a cardiovascular program to increase my endurance. Today, I’ve got a nice treat for you all. Rusty Squire, President of the Heart Rate Watch Company and an expert on heart rate monitors, graciously agreed to share his knowledge on heart rate monitors.

- Bonnie

Dancing is a very physically demanding activity requiring long hours of practice. It truly is an endurance sport combining strength, speed, endurance, balance and grace all into one package, but how do you know if you are practicing too much, too little, or are you recovering properly? Are you eating too little, or too much, based upon your caloric burn rate?

Your heart is like the engine that propels your entire circulatory system with oxygen being transported to rejuvenate the muscles. This makes your heart rate much like the tachometer on a race car. Rev the engine to high and it is difficult to recover.

Most world-class endurance athletes use heart rate as a way of gauging their current and future workload. They can’t go 100% all the time and often require recovery days or active rest days where they exercise at a much lower percentage of their maximum to allow their bodies recovery, especially leading up to a big event.

There are three basic measurements that, if watched regularly, can help us improve our fitness:

1. Resting heart rate – This is your heart rate while relaxed and inactive. I find it is best to take it the same time every day. Like first thing in the morning when you get up. What this does is it helps you create benchmark data. If your normal resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute and you wake up one morning and it is 70 this tells me you did not recover well or have been over-training and need an active rest day.

2. Zone heart rate – this is a range of heart rates that is established for specific days of exercise based upon intensity. Normally endurance athletes train between 60% and as high as 85% of their calculated maximum heart rate. This allows for developing pacing that can be sustained for long periods of time. The idea is to know when you are going too hard or too easy so the watch acts like a coach giving you alerts.

3. Recovery heart rate – the amount of time it takes you to recover from a high level of intensity back to 60% of maximum heart rate. The quicker the recovery is the better your overall fitness. This is a good measure for dancers who dance at high intensity and may often go above 90% of maximum heart rate for short durations. The question is how long does it take you to recover back to 60% of maximum heart rate?

Using a heart rate monitor as a dancer can help you in many ways by gaining a better understanding of your body, your fitness level and how you recover. My wife’s sister danced for Joffrey Ballet in New York City for many years and dancer’s tend to be very driven people who, as a group, can easily subject themselves to over-training.

CRITERIA DANCERS SHOULD THINK OF IN BUYING A HEART RATE MONITOR:

First, many dancers are petite, so the size of the actual wrist unit needs to be considered and should be small enough to fit the wrist without feeling awkward.

Chest straps with ECG sensors should be flexible and small enough to fit comfortably. I’d recommend soft, flexible chest straps like those made by Polar, Garmin and Suunto. They are more comfortable and less noticeable in my opinion. So make sure you are getting a comfortable strap that is sized to fit.

For dancers who are petite these criteria are especially useful. As a result of small wrist and chest sizes it is essential to get the wrist unit and the chest strap sized to fit. Models I would recommend for smaller females include the Polar FT7, Garmin FR60 and Suunto t1c.

MEASURING YOUR DATA:
I have an old saying: "That which gets measured is that which can be improved". Without measurement we are walking around guessing at our level of improvement, in other words we have no compass to point us in the right direction.

Measure calories used to plan your dietary needs. Measure heart rate to see your fitness and recovery, as well as to manage your overall training load. Many heart rate monitors have data transfer devices and free online software where you can store the data from your exercise sessions. Most notably
Polar Personal Trainer software and Garmin has Garmin Connect. Data is generally transferred from some type of USB connection, either wirelessly or hard wired.

GETTING UP TO SPEED QUICKLY:
Garmin, Polar and Suunto provide training videos to help you get your heart rate monitor up and running quickly. These are far preferable to going through a technical manual.

If you need further expert advice in selecting a heart rate monitor, Rusty has offered to provide free consultations. You can give them a call at the Heart Rate Watch Company 866-586-7129.

Rusty is also a former three-time All-American, a World Record holder for the most vertical feet skied in 12 hours and has coached numerous athletes, several who have gone on to compete in the Olympics.

On National Dance Day 7/31/2010 I woke up at 6AM for metabolism testing with Mobile Metabolics at Eastside Sports Rehab.

What is Metabolic Testing?

Results from a metabolic test tells you how many calories you burn at rest (or as I call it the potato couch calories!), your fitness level, your muscle fiber type, amount of calories you need to increase or decrease weight, and lots of other geeky terms such as RER and anaerobic threshold. What it comes down to is it gives you data so you can build a workout routine where you work smarter not harder!

What are Key Benefits from a Metabolic Test?

• Find out if you’re Genetically Predisposed to be a Better Marathon Runner or Ballet Dancer. Results from the test will tell you if you have Type I or Type II muscle fiber. Type I (Slow Twitch) athletes are good at aerobic sports  while Type II (Fast Twitch) athletes are good at anaerobic sports. Ballet for example is an anaerobic sport. See below for more details on muscle fiber differences.
• Find Out your Heart Rate that Corresponds to your Aerobic and Anaerobic thresholds to Maximize your Calorie Burning. In a nutshell, when your body is working harder, your heart rate goes up. If you sprint your heart rate will be higher than when you walk. When your heart rate, measured by beats/minute, crosses your anaerobic threshold, fatigue starts to settle in! So if you want to increase your endurance, you need to raise your anaerobic threshold.
• Create a cardiovascular program to meet your goals

What is the Metabolic Testing Experience like?

Working with Mobile Metabolics was a great experience! The trainer really made sure I understood everything and that I was ok every step of the way. Below is a recount of my day.

Day Starts at 6AM

• I’m off to Eastside Sports Rehab for the test at 7AM. Why so early? The test requires you to fast 10 hours previously so it’s easier to do it when you first get up
• We start by calibrating the equipment and fitting me into the ventilation mask!
• One funky note about the mask is it makes this noise when I breathe

Test #1 (15-20 minutes) – Measures my Calories Burned at Rest

• I get to sit and watch TV. Really it was a time to relax! The only challenging part here is I’m the type that doesn’t relax easily so I kept feeling like I should be doing something more productive
• Calories burned at rest tells you how many calories you need to survive

Test #2 (8-15 minutes) – Measures my Heart Rate and Calories Burned at Different Speeds (Easy walk, jogging, with incline, and running)

• Here I had to put on a heart rate monitor on my chest. My skinniness actually made this a bit of a challenge for the trainer because it kept slipping off. But she was great and solved it by putting a clip on!
• Then I had to walk, jog, and run on a treadmill until I couldn’t handle it anymore

And I’m Done! Total time was ~1 hour and 15 minutes

• My lips are a bit dry from the ventilation mask, but overall I’m good

Snapshot of My Results:

• Type IIA Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber – Yay I’m good at anaerobic sports – I’ve got strength and can generate bursts of power for jumps, but… I’ve got no stamina. This is 100% correct. I tire quickly at the end of Ballet class when we practice vertical jumps (though I don’t feel too bad because I see other people short of breath too from doing jumps)
• 965 Calories Burned At Rest; 1.2k Calories to Maintain Weight – If I start becoming a couch potato again, I can just live off of 965 calories a day. If I include 30 minutes of exercise and 288 calories of regular life activities, then it’s closer to 1.2k calories
• My workout zones – The high zone is where I start to fatigue and the peak zone is where I’ll run out of breath shortly. My anaerobic threshold right now is at 102 beats/minute. Basically when I start running at 4.0 on the treadmill my heart rate goes above 102 and I’ll start to fatigue. What I want happen is when I’m running at 4.0, my heart rate stays between 87 and 102, so I can keep running at that speed for long periods of time

*C/Hr = calories burned/hour, HR = Heart Rate

Next Steps

• Goal: My goal is to increase my endurance mainly because I’m tired of feeling tired so quickly lol. I think this is really hurting my ability to train for jumps and faster footwork. I fatigue so fast that I just give up before I get any real training in.
• The PLAN… According to this, I need to raise my anaerobic threshold. The way to do this is through interval training. I need to add more cardio workouts where I get my body used to the High Zone heart rate and then a longer duration in that zone over the course of 6 weeks
• Equipment: In order to figure out which workout zone I’m in I need to know my heart rate (duh!). So before I can really start I need to invest some time in buying a heart rate monitor. 

In the next few posts, I’m going to spend time getting nerdy on you and deep dive into the science behind this and passing along some of my findings about heart rate monitors.

Can I get more detail on the different Muscle Fibers?

Type I (Slow Twitch) Muscle Fiber: People with Type I or Slow Twitch muscle fiber have great endurance but less explosive capability. If you have majority Type I muscle fiber, your body is better geared for aerobic activities. Think marathon runners, swimmers, and Lance Armstrong’s of the world!

Type IIA (Fast Twitch) Muscle Fiber: Type IIA athletes have great explosive power, but little endurance, so you get tired easily.  If you have Fast Twitch muscle fiber, your body is geared for anaerobic activities. Think sprinters, hurdlers, weightlifters, and.. Ballet Dancers!

Type IIB or Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber: The middle child! Type IIB Fast Twitch athletes is the in between of Type I and Type IIA. You have some endurance and can generate bursts of power. In other words, you’re better at running 400 meters instead of a marathon.

A few caveats to this… While Ballet is an anaerobic sport, if you’re getting ready for a big production you may want to train to increase your endurance. Even if you’re not made to have high endurance, you can train to improve it to a degree. And whether you are a Type I or Type II athlete, this does not mean you can’t pursue sports activities that you’re not genetically disposed to, but keep in mind your body is more suited for certain areas.

If you’re a science geek and want more details about muscle fibers and how it impacts your training, see Muscle Fiber Types and Training.

Today’s been a mixed bag. I finished my linear algebra exam, so I should be jumping for joy, but there’s still a mountain of work ahead of me. Worse I injured my knees and hamstring, so no jumping or exercise for me.

The bright spot is I have some time to post this… It’s a bit late… but I want to share my big dance adventure with you. July 31st was National Dance Day as declared by Mr. Nigel Lythgoe from “So You Think You Can Dance.” I made a decision to not work on that day and reward myself by exploring anything dance related!

(Side note: does anyone know if National Dance Day ever became officially recognized?)

Waking Up At 6AM…

The day started out at 6 AM with a metabolism test. The test tells you how many calories you burn at rest (or as I call it the couch potato calories), your aerobic and anaerobic threshold, your muscle fiber type, etc.

10AM… Dancing starts for real!

After that I ran my butt over to Ballet Class at Seattle Pacific Northwest Ballet. I love walking into PNB. I feel like I’m a real ballet dancer when I go there. And I love seeing all the posters of their upcoming productions. I can pretend that I’m in those productions

11:30AM.. Class ends. Time for lunch and to pick up my friend to pick up his bike 

I want my own bike too !

Woah and it was already late afternoon! How time flew.

6:30 PM BBQ Bday!

Party time – Time to head over to one of my dance mate’s bday party. I’m an awful person – I totally forgot to bring her her gift.

9PM Salsa Time!

This is my first time at Century Ballroom, a swing and salsa club in Seattle. Salsa is an entirely new and different experience for me. With Ballet, everything is very structured and choreographed. At my level, it’s all group exercises.

With Salsa, I’m actually dancing with a partner. It feels like I’m in a performance already! Dancing at the Salsa club was very unique. It’s a lot more improvisational and there’s a huge range in levels. One second I might be dancing with a beginner like me and the next I could be dancing with a Salsa masta.

I met so many people that day. Even though, I was totally new to Salsa everyone was very nice and danced with me. The key though is you have to put yourself out there. I’m a Salsa newb, but I was ready to dance and I had a blast. I also learned a lot by watching and asking my dance partners to show me stuff. I even got to show one of my partners a thing or two !

What did you guys do on National Dance Day? Share your stories! If anyone wants to write a guest article about their dance day, I’d love to post it.