Why should you add a heart rate monitor to your workouts? There are a lot of people who will say you don't need this training tool. I disagree. For the past twenty years, I have been training with a monitor, and getting fitter and better every year because of it. It’s a weapon. It’s an advantage. I guarantee you will do better with one than without one. isn isn’t doing better the goal?

Before the introduction of heart rate training (circa 1983), the most prevalent method of assessing exercise intensity was perceived exertion. This is a way of determining how hard you're training based on your perceived feeling of effort. In a gross way, it works. However, for truly efficient training, it doesn doesn’t work very well. Instead, don a heart rate monitor and start enjoying the enormous benefits.

Here is a beginning list of 25 reasons to use a heart rate monitor and to train in heart zones. I invite you to email me at sally@heartzone.com and tell me your personal reasons for training with a monitor. I will not only personally write back to you, but I’ll also add your experience to the list.

1. It saves you time.
2. It makes your training more efficient.
3. It is a smarter way to train, because you have information to use for managing your workout.
4. It is a link between the mind and the heart.
5. It is allows you to train in your fat-burning zones.
6. It can keep you from training too hard.
7. It serves as a kick to motivate you to train harder.
8. It is a biofeedback monitor that helps you manage your emotions.
9. It is a fat-burning monitor that helps you to manage your weight management program.
10. It is a personal monitor that helps you train in the right zones, in order to achieve the most physical benefits.
11. It is a stress monitor that provides you with information on your current stress levels.
12. It is accurate and reliable.
13. It is your own personal coach.
14. It tells you when you are within your training zones.
15. It tells you when you are outside of your training zones.
16. It is a way to assess how fit you are.
17. It is a way to determine if you are getting fitter.
18. It is a tool to use to do better in competition.
19. It is an easy way to measure your resting heart rate.
20. It is an easy way to measure your threshold heart rates.
21. It is an easy way to measure your ambient heart rate.
22. It is an easy way to determine whetheovertrainedvertrained.
23. It is a way--but not an easy one--to measure your maximum heart rate.
24. It is an easy way to determine what emotional heart zone you are in.
25. It makes training easier and more fun.
26. It is fun to train with a heart rate monitor.

The best way to learn each of these lessons is to encourage a friend to train with you using a heart rate monitor--you can teach her everything you know. I encourage you to do sometime in the next 24 hours. If you can’t find a friend or family member to train with, at ask someone you think would be interested in hearing about your new training venture to listen to you talk about why heart zone training is a great way to effectively live and train, by listening to your body and heart!