the scale is not the only indicator – breaking latest news

Weight may not be the most accurate measure of fitness progress. Trainees often measure their improvements by monitoring the scale.
Muscles, however, weigh more than fat and can, therefore, increase weight which, it is clear, is an important indicator of general health. Tests that are easy to do at home, such as theheart rate measurementmay reveal much more about progress than a scale can.

What makes the difference, more than the weight, the body composition which helps determine fitness, he explains Gianfranco Beltramispecialist in Sports Medicine and Cardiology, vice president of the Italian Sports Medicine Federation.

Analyzes such as impedancemetry and plicometry or the Dexa bone densitometry technique are methods thanks to which it is possible to evaluate how much percentage of lean massOf fat mass e you water are present in the individual and if these are in an optimal ratio, taking into account sex and age to ensure the best efficiency of the organism. But physical fitness also depends on many factors: efficiency of the cardiorespiratory system, strength, power, muscle elasticity, dexterity, coordination, balance, resistance, posture. These are all qualities that can be improved with training. Regardless of the type of athlete you are, one of the most valid and least anxiety-provoking parameters for evaluating your physical condition and recovery after effort is measuring your heart rate.

Easy tests to do at home

The easiest way to record your pulse is to wear a modern watch. Alternatively, manually count the pulse for 15 seconds on the wrist or neck and multiply the number obtained by 4 to get beats per minute. The fitter you are, the more your heart rate decreases with the same intensity of exercise, continues the expert.

Another easy and practical way to see progress Record average heart rate after a workout and measure week-to-week changes performing, if possible, the same activity. If after the same exercise program or the same period of running at the same speed the heart rate is lower this can indicate an improvement and the effectiveness of a training program.

Also the reduction of heartbeats measured upon waking up in the morning, when you are still in bed, indicates an improvement in your physical fitness. The lower the value, the better your cardiovascular fitness because the heart pumps more blood with each beat. When the heartbeats in the morning of a sportsman who is training are higher than the previous day, this can indicate a failure to recover the effort made.

The ideal pulse

At rest, a normal heart rate in healthy adults can range between 55 and 85 beats per minute. That of highly trained athletes can sometimes drop below 40 beats per minute. Certainly constant aerobic training capable of gradually reducing the heart rate at rest over time, continues the sports doctor. This adaptation is linked to changes in the autonomic nervous system of the heart, characterized by a reduction in the sympathetic tone, therefore less adrenaline which causes the heartbeat to increase, with a prevalence of the vagal tone which, on the other hand, causes them to reduce: this phenomenon is called vagal hypertonicity relative.

The recommendation of consult your doctor if heart rate at rest consistently higher at 90-100 beats per minute (tachycardia) or in case of resting values below 55 beats per minute (bradycardia) if not justified by the practice of aerobic sports such as cycling and running. There are pathological conditions of the heart that cause bradycardia and in this case, if the heart muscle fails to pump enough blood to the brain and other organs, it can have serious consequences.

The force

Finally, equally important indicators are those that are monitored outside the gym. The greater or lesser difficulty with which actions of daily life are performed that involve energy expenditure and fatigue, such as doing housework and stairs, carrying a child in your arms or dedicating yourself to gardening, tell us how we are, concludes the expert. On the other hand, the evaluation of the improvement in strength reveals the maintenance time of an isometric contraction, as in the case of the plank, or the increase in the overloads raised (maximums) or in the number of repetitions that can be performed by lifting a certain weight .

The importance of emotional balance

One thinks of the heart as a metronome with its typical constant movement, but it is not. Heart rate variability, which measures how much the heart rate fluctuates from beat to beat, is a useful measure of fitness. Processed by special software, the electrocardiogram recorded with just three electrodes or even with smartwatches provides a tracing, defined tachogramwhich detects heart rate variability that changes in response to factors such as breathing rhythm, emotional states, anxiety, stress, anger, relaxation, thoughts, explains Beltrami.

Physical form, in fact, also depends on variables related to mental, emotional, social and emotional balance that influence the feeling of well-being and performance. A healthy individual shows a good degree of heart rate variability which responds quickly to all these factors by modifying itself so that the organism adapts in the best possible way to the different demands that the environment places on us.

Get moving with the most suitable playlist

What is the ideal playlist for training? The one with songs that have a tempo of around 120-140 beats per minute. Costas Karageorgis, a sports psychologist at Brunel University who works with Olympic and national athletes to create personalized playlists, knows this well. He immediately realizes if an effective trace: the subject starts moving his head or tapping his feet. Le power song they also have strong extra-musical associations: positive emotions, images and meanings that they trigger, explains psychologist Kelly McGonigal, of Stanford University, in her book The Joy of Moving (Giunti). Popular song collections have texts that emphasize persistence and determination or “talk” about physical activity. This is one of the reasons why Eminem’s Till I collapse is the most popular workout song. Karageorghis found that Eye of the tiger (Rocky III’s theme) helped participants work harder during a strength challenge.