Customer Reviews

Total Heart Rate Training: Customize and Maximize Your Workout Using a Heart Rate Monitor

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is probably a five star book, but I give it a four because of the misleading summary provided by the publisher. This book is definitely not for beginners or those that exercise for general fitness. It is highly technical and really only appropriate for competing athletes that train 10 or more hours/week (or those coaching these athletes). If you want some simple programs that help to provide an efficient program for general fitness (<10 hours/week) you should look elsewhere.

Total Heart Rate Training

One of the reasons I got this book was that it, at the time I ordered it (November, 2006), it was the latest (and greatest) book about heart rate training. Being the latest, I expected it to have the most up-to-date information regarding heart rate training. And in that aspect, it does not disappoint.

Another reason I got this book was because I'm a fan of the author, Joe Friel (I already have his Mountain Biker's Training Bible, Cyclists' Training Bible, Cycling Past 50, and The Paleo Diet for Athletes -- my reviews which should be coming soon).

As a comparison, the only other book I have about heart rate training is Sally Edwards and Sally Reed's Heart Zones Cycling, another admirable book (and also as of this writing, a 2006 publication).

I was discouraged a bit that, to get a really clearer picture on how effective heart rate training is, another form of measurement should be used as well, whether it's Rate of Perceived Exertion (free, but subject to, er, subjectivity), or through the use of a Power Meter (accurate, but expensive). I was discouraged (only a bit, mind you) because Power Meters are kinda out of my financial reach at the moment, and I would not be able to reach the potential of the author's advise. Note, you get a CLEARER picture of your fitness progression when these other forms of measurement are used in conjunction with heart rate monitoring.

This does not mean, however, that Power Meters are mandatory -- Joe just says the facts: if you have one, then better. After all, the title of the book is TOTAL Heart Rate Training, not just "Heart Rate Training", and the author would do the reader an injustice if he didn't show the synergy of different measurement systems.

This is a short book -- the heart of the matter (no pun intended) is really only a few chapters. The introduction includes the history of heart rate monitors, for instance -- a nice to know, but, in this reviewer's opinion, a bit of fluff.

Where this book shines is how well it explains how to use zones in training. If you have Friel's other books, this is a great addition -- it's like additional chapters for his "Training Bible" series where heart rate training is really looked at in detail. I also like the fact that, while everyone is basing zones on Maximum Heart Rate, Joe bases the zones on Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) -- a more useful and effective way of working the zones. While there are other advocates of zoning based on LTHR, Friel explains it thoroughly and more importantly, in an easy to understand manner.

Now I no longer worry about knowing what my Maximum Heart Rate is, which is a dangerous proposition for some people anyway (testing for Maximum Heart Rate should probably only be done by really fit athletes, not older people or even younger people who are not absolutely fit). LTHR it is, then!

If I must nitpick, the one thing I didn't like in this book, as in most Joe Friel books, is... can you say REDUNDANT? There's a lot of info in here that's already in his Training Bibles. In fact, his Cyclists Training Bible, Mountain Bikers Training Bible, and Cycling Past 50, there is a lot of stuff repeated in those books. And there are also a lot of stuff repeated in this Total Heart Rate Training from his other books.

BUT... not everyone has Friel's other books, and if you didn't have them, then it is vital that said information be in this book. The only one who can/should complain about repetition are those who have his other books (like me). Said repetition (which wouldn't be a redundancy if this is, say, your first/only Joe Friel book) makes the book more complete by itself -- able to stand on its own, so to speak.

But even if you have Joe's other books, Total Heart Rate Training thoroughly explains how to maximize training using a heart rate monitor. In the other books, you get a bit of the WHY's and the HOW-TOs in using a heart rate monitor (the essentials). In this book, you get a more thorough explanation of the WHY's and HOW-TOs. In other words, this makes a great addition to any of his other books, and is a must-have. Even if there is some repetition from his "Bible" series, this is still a great addition. And obviously, if you don't have any Friel book yet, this really should be in your library.

I hope this review was useful for you. Five Stars.

This brief but densely packed book is a superb reference of conditioning principles for all serious athletes. The reason is that it combines a safe, practical way of quantifying your workouts with a superb overview of the dimensions of training.

Contrary to the impression you might get from the book's title, this book is not a recap of the usual information about heart rate training, it is rather a concise summary of the long experience of the author searching for both effective training strategies and a way of organizing those strategies into an overall system.

The highlights that impressed me:

1. How to realistically and accurately evaluate your own heart rate training zones. "Max heart rate" is risky and unneccessary to test and uselessly inaccurate to estimate from age. Friel's approach is to use lactate threshold and work back from there because it is much easier to determine and more meaningful to most training programs.

2. The physiological and functional effects of each training zone, related to perceived effort and types of training drill. This breakdown tells you exactly how each type of training affects your basic athletic abilities and gives you examples of drills for each zone.

3. An easily understood adaptation of Bompa's system for relating basic athletic abilities (endurance, force, speed-skill) to advanced abilities (muscular endurance, anaerobic endurance, power).

4. Practical suggestions for determining what sorts of training you need to support activity of different durations.

The book focuses primarily on training for endurance sports, but its quantitative approach to training will help anyone in any athletic activity to systematize and improve their own program.

Note that the focus in this book is on the performance abilities common to all physical activities. There is no coverage of skill aquisition, flexibility, mobility, stability, or the functional approach to sports. The training concepts in this book in general assume that you already have the basic functional ability to perform in your given sport. I would say that this fact, more than any complexity or difficulty of the book, makes this a somewhat advanced resource. If you are a novice athlete, you would not want to just jump into the sorts of training program suggested here. You would want to first determine the basic stability and mobility requirements for your sport and be sure you understand and meet those before you go off doing different kinds of intervals and steady state workouts.

This book is a superb mixture of exercise science and the author's long practical experience with athletic training. I highly recommend it to help any thinking coach or athlete better plan their conditioning workouts.

This book is comprehensive enough that even someone who has been doing a lot of reading on heart rate and training will learn something new.

Someone else's review says that it isn't intended for an Average Joe user, and is only useful for athletes. I suspect that this person is one of those people who thinks that the 1040 tax form is too complicated. This text is comprehensive and detailed enough for a superb athlete, but all the information can be understood and used by a novice working out on an elliptic machine at the gym (me!). If you aren't training for a run nine months from now and don't need a training plan, just don't read that section, right? Right.

Also, there is a helpful "Misconceptions" section.

With regards to my goals of using heart rate to help me focus my twice a week cardio workouts in order to increase overall fitness, this book was a flop. Although there is a great deal of useful information, the author relates everything to training for a competition. What I was expecting (from the title TOTAL HEART RATE TRAINING), was an explanation of the various zones and how I can use the zones to increase my cardiovascular fitness. Instead I was given advice on how to set up workouts in preparation for a triathlon.

For the person who does compete, or the coach of competitors, this would probably be a worthwhile read. But those who have no intention of doing such things, I would skip this book.

Basically this book directs the reader to get the most of his Heart rate monitor and helps very well to change the reader into a more dedicated amateur or professional athlete by giving us the information (always backed with scientific literature) and the more pragmatical advises to improve our training. I find very easy to follow the books instructions in order to find my lactate threshold and organize an annual training plan (something I haven't). I think the book was written with a lot of expertise behind the author and he actually put all that info and experience in the hands of the reader. With that, the simplest Heart rate monitor transforms itself in a powerful tool.

As with other Friel books I've read, there is an abundance of outstanding, detailed and reasoned information in this book. Probably more detail than any non-professional athlete needs, but it is an outstanding resource. I think it is well worth the money for someone who wants to understand the physiology and theory regarding workouts in order to maximize his/her fitness.

This book was o.k. in the sense that it did explain certain useful aspects of training with a monitor that you would not recieve elsewhere. I felt that book had a lot of fillers that were hard to understand and did not really apply to the layperson looking for basic information on how to get the most out of your monitor.

I have used a heart monitor in some form for the last 15 years, and I have been looking for a book that would be a one stop manuel. I would recommend this book to the athlete that is detail oriented, but would not give this book to first time users of heart monitors;there are better ones out there for that purpose. All in all, you will find this book useful for some aspects of your training.

Mark Barry

It was an interesting book and it was very helpful. It described a great way of finding your Anaerobic HR. It also was great in allowing you to test your fitness by checking the amount of your "coupling". Where the book/method falls short is that you are required to have seven HR zones, where most HR monitors only have five. Also, the sample workouts were not easy to follow and I have found only had a limited usefulness.

The author clearly has a wealth of knowledge and practical experience with heart rate monitors and heart rate monitor training. If you're looking for a "beginner's guide to using a heart rate monitor" this might be a little too complex for you.

However, if you are a serious athlete whose sport requires caridovascular strength and endurance, then this book is a great fit for you.