What is fitness?

During a fitness exercise, your heart pumps more oxygen through the blood from your lungs to your muscles. The harder the training, the more fuel (oxygen) the muscles need and the harder your heart needs to work to pump oxygen-rich blood to the muscles. If you are in good shape, your heart can pump more blood per heartbeat. This means that your heart rate whilst resting and your heart rate during exercise drop.

lose weight or improving cardio vascular fitness

It is important to monitor your heart rate during training, since the heart rate level determines the result of your training. Do you want to lose weight or improve your condition? If your goal is to lose weight, it is best to practice at 60% of your maximum heart rate. If you want to improve your condition, this will be 85% of your maximum heart rate.

Heart rate controlled training programs

The body stores energy in two ways: carbohydrates and fat. During exercise, we use a combination of these two. In case of great efforts, the body often chooses for fast burning energy (carbohydrates). During exercises with a low intensity, the body mostly chooses for a long-lasting energy reserve (fat). Since relatively more fat is stored in the body, compared to carbon hydrates, this kind of training can be performed for a longer period of time (duration sport).