This is a guest article by Amy Kessler.Amy has been into health and fitness for herself for the past 10 years.

Most of us already know the importance of getting enough cardio exercise to help strengthen our heart. Your heart has to pump blood from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. The stronger it is, the more efficiently it can do this. And that is actually quite a load when you think about it! Using a heart rate monitor (or HRM) during workouts is a great way to make sure you are working your heart hard enough to make it stronger. Your heart rate needs to be in the right zone for different fitness goals, and an HRM will help you make sure you’re in the correct zone.

Your heart rate will tell you how hard you are working during an exercise. The harder you work out, the higher your it will go. By monitoring your heart during a workout, you’ll be able to tell if your under-training or over-training. Once you get accustomed to using an HRM and become familiar with your normal patterns, you’ll also be able to tell if something is off or you need to back off.

Your resting heart rate is just what it sounds like it is. This is a measure of the beats per minute when your body is at rest. Ideally you want to measure your resting heart rate as soon as you wake up and before you get out bed in the morning. Take this measure for 5 consecutive days and take the average to find your accurate resting heart rate. A low number means fewer beats per minute. This means your heart can effectively circulate blood with fewer beats than for someone out of shape. You can lower your resting heart rate by exercise, getting enough sleep, avoiding stress and eating right. As you get in better shape, you’ll also notice that your resting heart rate will be lower. This is because your heart is getting stronger and more efficient with exercise.

Your maximum heart rate is the maximum number of times your heart can beat in one minute. The only way to accurately measure this is to have a medical test. Since that isn’t always possible, the next best thing is to use a calculation based on averages. A good HRM will calculate this for you automatically based on your age and gender. Having this measure will allow you to train at your most effective level. Also, using your own HRM will give you much more accurate results than the monitors found on cardio equipment.

There are many debates about target zones and fat burning zones. Don’t worry too much about this. Lower zones just mean you’ll have to train longer than if you’re working at a higher intensity. As you know, you can walk farther than you can sprint before you hit exhaustion. Another way to think of this is that a week of spin class will burn off more than a week of walking. You can still get the same results walking. It will just take longer. That being said, by overdoing it and pushing yourself too hard, you can hurt yourself or burn out. There is such a thing as over-training.

You should know your intensity levels however. Once you know your maximum heart rate, calculate where you should be for each phase of your workout. You should be at 60% of your max to warm up and cool down. A moderate pace is 65-75% and high intensity workouts should take you to 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. I wrote my calculations down on a note card and put it in my gym bag. I took the card with me while working out and referred to it to make sure I was training where I needed to. Eventually I memorized the numbers and can just look down at my HRM and know where I am.

As you use your heart rate monitor, you’ll become more in tune with your body. Learn to listen to it to adjust your workouts. You’ll have good days and bad days, so adjust accordingly.

Amy has been into health and fitness for herself for the past 10 years. This is a passion and one she takes very seriously. Although not a professional in the fitness industry, she hopes the knowledge she has gained over the years will help others get motivated to get in shape.