A simple breathing exercise

Take a few minutes today to just breathe and relax. Because being calm feels good.

Introduction to using heart Rate Monitors with your phone pt-1

What is a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM)?

Previously expensive devices that were only practical for elite athletes, they have come down so much in price that they’re accessible to everyone, and are an essential piece of kit for anyone who is serious about their training, and using exercise science to train smarter, not just smarter.

They are basically an elasticated strap with sensors that detect the electrical activity of your heart and send that information to a receiver, usually a watch. However, there are also several varieties that will connect to mobile phones (iphone 4s and newer, and most other BTsmart enabled phones). Each particular model will have its own pro’s and con’s, so figure out what you need before you buy.

I’m going to focus on using a HRM in combination with your phone for tracking fitness. This is done by using an app on your phone to connect to the HRM. There are even more apps than there are monitors, so I’ll take you through a few of them here.

Runkeeper on iPhone

First off there’s runkeeper, which comes in 3 versions; free, paid, and subscription.

Runkeeper is geared more towards outdoor exercisers, and will automatically track distance, height gained, speed, heartrate, calories burned while you walk run or cycle outside.  It also has the ability to give you feedback along the way, telling you any combination of the info above. Runkeeper is much more than just an app though, it provides an entire ecosystem for health and fitness tracking.

Wahoo Fitness on iPhone

Next up, and my personal favourite for gym based exercise sessions, is Wahoo fitness. This has a nice clear display of heart rate zones which makes it easy to use without having to fiddle with it. As with runkeeper, you can set up and save predefined workout types, and compare sessions as you get fitter. It can also send data to the runkeeper ecosystem, so you can keep everything in one place. It can, of course also be used for outdoor activities, and has a similar feature set to runkeeper.

iSmoothRun on iPhone

If running is your thing, I highly recommend iSmoothRun. This is a paid for app which costs less than a fiver. As well as the usual speed, distance, HR etc, this app also picks up your cadence (foot strikes per minute) and features a metronome to help you stick to your desired pace. It also features a ‘ghost’ setting, allowing you to race against your previous runs, and giving you feedback along the way. It can also send data to the runkeeper ecosystem.

All of these apps allow you to export your HR data in a format that can be used in spreadsheets such as excel to enable more detailed analysis if required. I use all 3 apps regularly, the exact app will depend on what the goal of that training session is.

Enough about the apps, on to the monitors themselves.

Cardiosport and Wahoo both make BTsmart compatible monitors.

Wahoo make an entry level strap which costs about €50-60. This will not record HRV*.

Cardiosport make a higher level strap which costs about the same, but will also allow you to track HRV.

 I’ve tested both extensively, and I’ve found the WahooBLUE to be more consistently reliable. In my experience, the cardiosport monitor has been more prone to loss of signal, both in the gym and when out running. As I train almost entirely with work/rest intervals guided by heartrate, this is very annoying for me.

*HRV is the variability in the time between beats, and is a good indicator of how much stress your nervous system is under. Too much stress on the nervous system and your heart could be in trouble. Both physical and psychological stress will affect HRV. The higher the variability between beats, the harder you can push yourself in your training. HRV is measured first thing in the morning while at rest. When HRV is low, it’s time to take a day off or do a light recovery session. When HRV is high, thats a sign you can safely give it your all and push yourself to the limit.

If you already own one of the older style polar T31 HRM’s you can use this with a dongle that plugs into your phone, either the headphone socket or the dock connector.

Put the kettle on for a 'cuppa tea'

The 'cuppa tea' is part and parcel of everyday life in ireland. When visiting friends & neighbours, one of the first things to occur is the offer of a cuppa tea. But it's not just us, tea is the most widely consumed substance in the world besides water.

But just what is it about tea that makes it our 'go to' ritual? Well, it turns out tea contains a range of active compounds, including caffine, one we're all aware of. But surely there's more to it than that..

As it happens, there is. L-Theamine is an amino acid contained in tea which combines very nicely with caffine to produce a number of beneficial effects. These include:

• Decreasing anxiety
• Promoting a mindful state of relaxation
• Improve performance under stress
• Improving ability to multitask
• Improved learning ability and concentration

Hardly surprising then, that it has been drank by monks prior to meditation for  1,000's of years!
Research carried out last year noted it may play a role in preventing or delaying age related cognitive decline in the over 65 age group, an encouraging finding given our acceleration to a more aged society.

Cup of Tea - image from wikimedia commons

Now that we know how good tea is for our mental function, what else can it do?

• Normalise blood pressure
• Prevents coronary heart disease
• Prevents diabetes
• Germicidal action against harmful bacteria
• Helps beneficial gut bacteria
• Contains catechins which fight cancer in 3 ways

1. Prevents the uptake of cancer causing chemicals
2. Prevents mutation of the cells
3. Fights existing tumours

A word to the wise though, drinking very hot tea has been linked to oesophageal cancer,  so let it cool a little before drinking!

I never cease to be amazed by the wonder of nature in supplying us with such useful plants. But even when we've drank our fill, even waste tea is useful. In recent research, it has proven to be very effective in removing lead and copper from waste water. Incredible!

Breathing for stress control

At some point in our lives, we've all been told to 'take a deep breath & count to 10', usually by a friend or colleague who senses we are getting stressed about something. Without really knowing why, they are repeating the traditional wisdom. It is useful, but will probably take more than 1 breath to have the desired effect. Since breathing is something we do all day every day, you would think we'd be pretty good at it. Let's face it, we can do it in our sleep. The truth is, we're not. In fact most of us rarely breath correctly when we're awake.

Stress

Stress is unavoidable. There will always be stress. Stress in itself is neither good nor bad, it simply is. How we perceive it and react to it is important. Stress is commonly described in terms of being positive or negative. Eustress is a stress that is perceived to be positive, or useful. Distress is the term given to negative stress, and this can be very debilitating.

The silent killer...

Getting stressed out occasionally is normal, and even healthy, so long as we have a way to deal with it. It is when that stress is not released that it begins to silently wreak havoc with our health. People have different ways of 'blowing off steam', and what works for one won't always work for others.


Many activities have been shown to help reduce negative stress, and these include:

• Breathing exercises
• Progressive relaxation exercises
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Tai Chi
• Running
• Juggling
• Surfing
• Hitting a punchbag
• Swimming

These are only a few of the many things people do to combat negative stress, the most important thing being that the activity removes the person (either physically or mentally) from the source of the stress, and occupies their full attention.