Lesson video

Hi, everybody, and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm Mrs. Brookes, and today we're looking at the thresholds of training and we're gonna use the Karvonen formula to understand how we can calculate training zones to optimise fitness.

So this works really well in our principles of training section about trying to make sure that training programmes are as effective as they can be.

By the end of today's lesson, we will have done some calculations.

So you'll be able to calculate the different training zones and also be able to apply them to different scenarios.

Now those training zones are very much based on maximum heart rate.

And for our keywords, maximum heart rate is the first word we need to be aware of.

Now that is a calculation where we have 220 minus an individual's age.

Now, from that, we are able to work out the aerobic training zone.

So that is when we calculate 60 to 80% of that maximum heart rate.

And that is because we're trying to train the aerobic system.

So that is very appropriate for those kind of sports or events where you need that cardiovascular, that aerobic endurance.

And, in comparison, the anaerobic training zone, we recognise that word anaerobic without oxygen or in the absence of oxygen, you can see there, that percentage is slightly higher, 80 to 90%, so it'll largely be when you are training and you're doing things about speed or power or strength.

Now this is all based on the Karvonen formula, and that is a mathematical formula which we will use frequently today that will allow us to get the right target heart rate training zone, and that can then be set and applied to an exercise programme to make sure that fitness is being developed accurately.

So there are two parts to today's lesson.

The first part is really working on those calculations of both the aerobic and the anaerobic training zone.

And then when we are feeling confident with that, we're gonna look at those training zones to optimise training and justify why they've been put in place.

So I want to start by introducing you to Sofia.

And Sofia is telling us that she would like to improve her aerobic endurance.

She says to us that she's 15, she's making her age clear, and she does have a smart watch, which is a really common way now of monitoring your heart rate.

What she's saying is, "I want to know is there a particular heart rate that I need to be training at or be working towards in my training?" And, remember, that she's working on that aerobic endurance.

Now what Sofia does need to know is this Karvonen formula, and then she needs to make sure she's in that aerobic training zone.

So, remember, our maximum heart rate is where we start.

So the first thing that Sofia needs to do is get this from 220 minus her age.

So can you calculate Sofia's maximum heart rate? Hopefully, at that point, you did 220 minus 15, and that gave you 205.

Now we've got the units on there because this is heart rate, bpm, which represents Beats Per Minute.

So just to summarise what we've identified there, she's improving aerobic endurance, so she needs to be in the aerobic training zone.

Now she's got a maximum heart rate.

The second thing she needs to do is she needs to calculate 60 and 80% of that figure, and that's because our aerobic training zone depicts that we have to between those two percentages.

Now, could you calculate 60 and 80% of 205 beats per minute? And that is because we are now using that as our guide or as our zone to make sure the aerobic system will be trained.

So the way the Karvonen formula works is it uses that maximum heart rate figure and then says that you multiply it by the percentage that has been identified, so, in this instance, 60 to 80%.

Now it makes sense that we do that individually.

So, first of all, we could do the 60%.

So you can see there, we've got that 205 multiplied by 0.

60, and that's how we would represent 60% in this instance.

And that total figure there is 123.

We can see, we've got the correct units of beats per minute.

So we are now finding out that that lowest heart rate that Sofia needs to be at in terms of that training zone or threshold is 123 beats per minute.

Now can you use that and now calculate 80% of 205? Hopefully, you did the same and you mirrored what we'd done before, and you did that 205, this time, multiplied by 0.

80.

And you hopefully came out with, we might need to round up or round down depending on the calculation, but in this instance, that was 164 beats per minute.

So what does this suggest? This suggests that that's the highest heart rate.

So while she's training as well as trying to look at the lowest figure of 123, the highest figure that she can go to is 164.

All right, so we've got now a range between those two figures, and that makes it a little bit easier, because you're not then trying to just be at one heart rate, you just know you've got a range in terms of lowest and highest to be in that specific zone.

So our first checkpoint here on maximum heart rate, and this is fundamental to the Karvonen formula.

So which calculation is correct for maximum heart rate? Is it 200 minus age, 220 multiplied by age, 220 minus age, or 220 divided by age? Really well done.

It is 220, and that figure never changes, minus someone's age.

So this slide here shares with you what we just did for Sofia.

We've got our 220 minus age as our first calculation, and then, from that, we take that Karvonen formula, and we first of all work out 60 then 80%, 'cause that is our aerobic training zone, and we are then given that range of 123 to 164 beats per minute.

You may wanna pause the recording at this point to make sure you've captured that for Sofia in this particular scenario.

Now we are learning that Sofia is an Under-18 rugby player.

Here's Sofia.

And what she's sharing with us now is she feels confident that she can use that smart watch and then make sure she's in between those two beats per minute when she's working in that aerobic training zone.

Now, within that team, Sofia has got teammates, one of which is 17.

So would the aerobic training zone be the same for her teammate if she was 17? Is that True or False? Well done, that is in fact False.

And, hopefully, you've picked that and said that's because the maximum heart rate will be slightly different, because her age is not the same as Sofia's.

So you would then do 220 minus 17, which will give you 203 beats per minute, which, when you then use your Karvonen formula, the figures will be slightly different.

Now Izzy also plays on Sofia's rugby team, and she's 16.

So what's her maximum heart rate? Well done, that is in fact 204 beats per minute, 'cause we've used our 220, in this instance, minus 16.

Now Izzy plays on the wing, so that means she does a lot of work around being explosive, being fast, and often the person that they're trying to score the tries, so that means might be using a bit of power and strength to force through tackles.

So Izzy now is sharing with us that she would like to improve her speed.

So that is very much anaerobic, it's explosive, so we're working in the absence of oxygen.

It's very short, very explosive game, part of the rugby game.

So quite rightly, she's saying does she need to have a different training zone when she's focusing on those anaerobic elements of the game? And the answer to that is yes, because she would need to be in the anaerobic training zone so that she is definitely working at those points without oxygen.

And what a lovely image there to show that we have a range of intensity whenever we play sport.

And this is an example in a game like rugby where that intensity increases or needs to increase in order to be successful.

So our anaerobic training zone is a slightly higher percentage, it's 80 to 90% of maximum heart rate.

So the Karvonen formula this time will read just like it did before, but we've changed the percentage, and this is the anaerobic training zone.

So if we needed to write that for Izzy, and you might want to pause the recording now and have a go at that on your own, but how this should read is that, you would work out that 80%, then you'd work out that 90%, and you'd do it the same way we've done before, so that maximum heart rate multiplied by 0.

8 or 0.

9, and then you're given an anaerobic training zone in this instance of at 163 to 184 beats per minute.

So for Izzy, we know that she's got this aerobic training zone, which very much fits within that moderate training intensity.

However, when she's working in that anaerobic training zone, she's naturally working harder, and, therefore, the heart rate will recognise that, 'cause it'll be trying to work hard to get the oxygen in, but the muscles might be actually respiring without that oxygen.

So which of the following is correct for the anaerobic training zone? Look carefully at the percentages and make sure you go with the right one that is representing the anaerobic zone.

Now this can get confusing.

So did you all go with d, 80 to 90%? So just gotta make sure we always check those percentages carefully.

Now onto our first task, we've looked at that scenario of Sofia and her teammates who are a little bit older, and then Izzy who had a slightly different focus to Sofia.

We're now gonna be presented with two other scenarios, and using our calculations in the Karvonen formula, we would like you to calculate the correct training zone.

So your first scenario is for rowing, a rowing team.

They're working to increase in their aerobic endurance, and their age is 25.

And then in contrast, we've got a boxer, who is really working on power, to increase that power, and the age is 19.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you have finished.

Welcome back.

So, for our rowers, we should have identified by this that aerobic endurance focus, so that's our 60 to 80%.

They were 25, so we do 220 minus 25, which gets us 195 beats per minute.

We would work out 60% of that, so you can check whether you have done the same as what's on the screen.

Then we would do 80%, and that gives us a range or a training zone of 117 to 156 beats per minute.

We can follow the same format for our boxer, only now, we would be looking at that anaerobic training zone, so that 80 to 90%.

The boxer is a little bit younger, so it's 220 minus 19.

So the maximum heart rate in this instance is 201 beats per minute.

We'd work out 80% as that lower threshold, then repeat that but for 90%, and we'll then given an anaerobic training zone for our boxer of 161 to 101 beats per minute.

So now we have our confidence with our calculations and using the formula in that way.

We're gonna look at some other examples and make sure we feel confident to justify the training zone that has been prescribed.

So Aisha quite rightly at this point is asking, "Well, what is 'justify' asking us to do?" If you are being asked to justify something, you are being asked to give reasons for your answer.

So if you've chosen to say to someone, "You need to be using the aerobic training zone," to justify, you are simply saying, "Why?" You are giving those reasons why you are making that suggestion.

So we're gonna have a little bit of a practise in doing this.

So, here, we have a netball athlete, and they're wanting to optimise their strength or increase their strength in netball.

This athlete is a little bit older, she's 28 years old.

So we could be asked to identify the training zone, we might be asked to do some of those calculations which we've just done in the first part of the lesson, and then we might be asked to justify our answer.

So let's break this down in those three steps.

So in terms of identifying the training zone, when you looked at that scenario, I'm hoping that you realise that that was very much an anaerobic-based goal.

So it was about that strength, particularly for netball.

So we know that's that 80 to 90% of our maximum heart rate.

To calculate the training zone, we would do some of that formula that we've already been practising.

So we would do 220 minus 28, and we would show our calculation, which is really important.

So we would show that we understand, that we would first of all do 80%, then we would do 90%, and that would give us a threshold of 154 to 172 beats per minute.

So big thumbs up there on that calculate question.

Remember, the third part, we were asked to justify the answer.

And our justification there is that athlete had a strength focus.

So it was the correct calculation for the anaerobic training zone.

And we might often get asked to justify why that leads to being at your very best.

Well, for an athlete, if they've.

Sorry, for a netball athlete, if they've got that more strength, I imagine that will mean that their pass, when they're passing in a game, is much stronger, much more powerful, so it's not gonna get intercepted.

So we've developed that justify even more there by giving that reason why that would be good, particularly for the netballer as a performer.

So quick check on what we've just been working on.

We have athletes here, and one of them, or two of them, or maybe all of them, are describing the aerobic training zone.

Can you work out which ones? Aisha says she's working at 60% of her maximum heart rate, Sam's working at 75%, and Andeep's working at 90%.

Really well done, if you worked out that both Aisha and Sam are in that aerobic training zone.

Aisha is at that bottom threshold, 60%, and Sam is hitting that higher threshold of 80%, but not quite, because it's 75, it's still within that zone.

Now they're gonna continue to speak to us, but one of them is justifying why they're using the anaerobic training zone.

So can we identify which one is actually giving reasons for their answers? Aisha is showing us her way of working out 90% of her maximum heart rate.

Sam is telling us that she's working above 80%, because her focus is that development of power, and Andeep is saying that he will work at 80% of the maximum heart rate and then use the Karvonen formula.

Five seconds to decide.

Really well done.

It's actually Sam that's showing us that justification.

She's given a reason for why she's working in that zone.

Whereas Andeep is very much the identification, and Aisha was showing us how you can do that calculation.

So can we use our example, and being able to identify the difference between the three of them there, in that checkpoint, we're gonna go onto our final task.

Now we have got three scenarios this time, and we would like you to identify the training zone for these scenarios.

So our first scenario is some runners who are working on aerobic endurance, their age is 26.

Our long jumper is wanting to improve speed through interval training, and her age is 18.

And our dancer is doing some weight training to work on muscular endurance, and his age is 21.

Now, from those scenarios, we would like you to then calculate each training zone, and give reasons for your answer and justify why if they trained in that zone, it would lead to optimum performance.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you're ready.

So, for our scenario A, these were our runners, they were 26.

So, in terms of the identify, did we go over the aerobic training zone? In terms of calculate, did we make sure we used our Karvonen formula in the same way we've been doing all lesson? So, first of all, that maximum heart rate, then working out 60%, 80%, and, from that, getting our range, in this instance, of 116 to 155, in terms of justify, that means that she's working in that aerobic training zone, or they are, sorry.

So they will continue to run at a higher intensity, and that will hopefully mean that, by being more trained, they won't feel those effects of fatigue.

Scenario B was very different, because we had that goal of speed development through interval training.

So that is probably gonna be the anaerobic training zone.

So our calculations will follow the same steps.

First of all is that lower threshold working, 80%, and then that upper threshold of 90%.

And in this instance, if that long jumper gets faster through that interval training and working in that zone, you'd like to think that in terms of performance, they are quicker on the run up, they might be able to push off with more force, and that might mean that they can jump further.

And, finally, our dancer, that was about that muscular endurance focus in weight training.

So this is also, like our scenario A, this is aerobic training zone, but this time with more of a muscular focus.

The calculation, again, will follow the same steps.

This dancer was 21, so the maximum heart rate is 199 beats per minute.

We get our 60 and our 80, so our zone for our dancer is 119 to 159 beats per minute.

So, remember, their heart rate can kind of stay within those two parameters.

In terms of justification for a dancer, if they really develop that aerobic system, and those muscles are getting opportunity to repeatedly contract and not tyre, then that means that that dancer can complete those movements at a higher intensity, and hopefully not feel fatigue, which then might mean that the dance moves might deteriorate and not look as good.

So, in summary, we know that these training zones are very much about making sure that the training intensity is correct, so that performers can be optimised, So they have lots of benefits to using the heart rate or monitoring your heart rate in that way.

It can be achieved mathematically through the Karvonen formula, which will always start with that maximum heart rate where you do 220 minus your age.

And then, from that, you will multiply a given percentage, which will give you that accurate target heart rate and then heart rate zone.

So, for the aerobic training zone, remember that's 60 to 80%.

And then for the anaerobic training zone, that's 80 to 90%.

I really hope that you've enjoyed this lesson and you've been able to do lots of calculations, and, in doing so, feel much more confident with the Karvonen formula.

Thank you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.