Customer Reviews

Precision Heart Rate Training

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Given some of the less-than-favourable reviews here I thought I was going to find an average, if not hum-drum book. I was very pleasantly surprised! This is a great book, very detailed with good descriptions of the Karvonon method of calculating HRR (Heart Rate Reserve) and its correlation to VO2 Max and Net VO2 and how to use this information to determine appropriate training zones. It had some good sections on various other fitness activities (such as cycling, swimming and walking) and serves as a good resource for anyone wanting to get fit faster while lowering your chances of injury or overtrainig.

I think if you combined this book with "Heart Rate Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot" you'd posses all the information you'd ever need to train to maximum effectiveness with your heart rate monitor.

I do inline skating, skiing, and weight training, but every time I tried to take up running, I would hit a wall. I just couldn't run for long sessions, and after a few I would hurt something and give up. Then I read about Ed Burke in Outside. This book, along with Burke's "Optimal Muscle Recovery" (I tore an Achilles tendon and developed plantar fascitis from skating and skiing) and "Stretching" finally got me to understand that I wasn't building the base I needed in order to run better. By following the training programs in this book, I've greatly increased my capacity without injury, and am slowly seeing my speed increase. Also liked this book because it took a different approach for each covered sport, and it treated inline skating with the respect it deserves as an endurance activity.

This book tries to do too much: it wants to be a heart rate training book AND a book about training for sporting events. The book is only 200 pages...get the picture? The book provides cursory information on training for various sports: walking, running, cycling, in-line skating, and triathlon. Obviously, if you really wanted to learn how to train competitively for these sports, this ISN'T the book for you. If you're looking for a book that tells you how to create a workout you can do at a health club on a stair-climbing machine or elliptical trainer, etc....this is NOT the book for you. Sure, there's a chapter on "group" exercise (i.e. aerobic class), but it FAR from practical. The introductory chapters merely delineate the heart zones rather than offering suggestions for combining them meaningfully or providing progressive programs. The book simply tries to cover too much in order to increase its market.

I had bought the book to help me with Mtn. bike training and my son with running. The book didn't provide information for mtn. biking though it did have a section on road biking. The running chapter seemed incomplete. The major table that was supposed to explain the heart rate targets was not explained fully. Also, oddly, there is a quote in there that is identical in two chapters but attritubted to two different people!

In summary, I was disappointed with the book but it may be helpful to someone else.

I have been interested in improving my performance for years, and finally decided to take the plunge and look into heart-rate monitoring. This book does not really support a specific philosophy and who knows if the so called "science" is supportable. I also read "Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot" by John L. Parker and recommend it. It appears much more scientific and emphasizes recovery over training in a zone. Don't buy this book. Rory Donaldson roryd@brainsarefun.com

The first chapters could be used for POLAR promotional material. They are repetitive, sale-sy and without any real substance. The contributions by other authors are better, and they do offer some good introductory material for the person interested in fitness training, but little to help in setting up a program, goals, methods, etc. The final discussions about software presents a list of criteria for good software, but no contacts, no list of products or companies, no web page URLs. The reason this book is not a one star book, is because of the multiple authors and perspectives that round out and give a little credibility to the message.

Mediocre book. There are better and more modern (newer thoughts and science) texts out there.

The reviews below must have been written by a "competitor" of Polar. They are a clear attack on the company. Not the book. Ed Burke is a real "hands-on" exercise physiologist. The reviewer is a business person not a book reviewer!

The author does a service to those wanting to improve fitness quantitively. One doesn't have to compete with others to enjoy better results.

This book is geared more for the person into competive training. I did not find it at all uesful for a general fitness program.