Intro to Heart Rate Training in Paddleboarding

As many of you know, I am a big fan of using heart rate measuring for life performance and competition training. If used properly, your results and goals will be achieved sooner and with more clarity. I can speak for myself, the changes in the last 8 months have been remarkable in so many ways.

My benchmarks are the following, but not limited to;

1.) Lower resting heart rate

2.) Lower heart rate during higher levels of exertion

3.) More energy

4.) Improved volume and density of capillaries resulting in easier workouts and faster recovery

5.) Dramatic improvement in movement quality and balance

6.) Quicker heart rate recovery when ending a Zone 3 or Zone 4 session

The 3 Energy Systems as shown below are important to grasp when planning your work to rest periods. What they show is the amount of time before you have depleted your fuel sources such as fat or glucose. Remember it’s not an all or nothing in the utilization of these fuels. Sometimes it’s a blending of both or a predominance of one over the other. The currency that these substrates use for energy is Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and some Adenosine diphosphate (ADP). This is what needs to be recharged very much like an electric vehicle needs electricity in it’s batteries to move.

Creatine Phosphagen: Up to 15 seconds of all out work/3-5 minutes to recover.
Anaerobic: 30-120 seconds (+/-) of work/3 minutes to recover
Aerobic: 60-90 minutes (+/-) of work, then internal fuel depletion starts

It’s important for me to break the assumption that aerobic training means "with oxygen" and anaerobic training means "without". It’s actually about the fuel sources used and the intensity level of work performed.