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Hey, Morpheus,
Tell me how hard I should exercise today?
Earlier this year, I wrote an article about how a higher waking heart rate can give you important insights into your health. It can help you determine how intense your workout should be for the day, or whether you should exercise at all.
Enter: The Morpheus System, which takes health awareness and fitting exercise intensity to another level.
What is Morpheus?
Using a chest strap and an app, Morpheus measures your waking HRV (Heart Rate Variability). With your personal details, an algorithm calculates your precise maximum exercising heart rate for that day. Sticking to this suggested heart rate range gives you the best opportunity to maximize your workout and, more importantly, safeguard your well-being.
On waking, while still in bed, you'll strap on the chest strap, connect to the app, press play, and relax for 2.30 minutes.
Given you have already loaded in your personal details; age, wellness history, exercise history, minor dietary details, sleeping habits and your typical lifestyle, the App will clearly show your maximum exercise heart rate for this day. E.g. 134 bpm.
What is HRV?
Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the slight fluctuation in the time between your heartbeats. Factors such as wellness, sleep quality, lifestyle, mental and physical stress, activity intensity, and diet can influence HRV. This metric is calculated based on a 1 to 3-minute resting test and produces a numerical value. Generally, a higher number indicates a better balance of stress and wellness on that day.
The Morpheus Value
The Morpheus number will ensure you draw the most benefit from your workout.
E.g. Heart health, blood balance, lung strength, immune strength, and efficient recovery.
Furthermore, Morpheus will guard against 'overdoing it' and putting your system and health at risk.
I've been using Morpheus for six months and have found that the accuracy and guidance have improved with continued use. The app takes into account my HRV history over time, providing me with a more accurate guideline to follow each day.
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My TOP SIX dietary howlers - and better alternatives
Qualification pre-requisites: Wipe out the gut biome, light up & fatten up the liver, hammer the pancreas and decimate the brain.
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Sort of food
Proper food
1
Soft drinks/ Energy drinks
Carbonated water, adding fresh lime
2
Industrialised white bread
36-hour sourdough (Durum wheat is best)
3
Commercial sauces – tomato, bbq etc.
Make your own; tahini, vinaigrette, relish
4
Crisps, Corn Chips etc
Air-fried salted sweet potato & kale chips
5
Processed meats
Biltong (real) - CLICK
6
Donuts
Homemade protein bars - CLICK
Of course, the dose makes the poison, so a little ain't gonna kill ya! But, no one is eating just one dorito.
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How quickly does your exercise HR return?
💓 My favourite way to measure my fitness progress is by tracking how quickly my heart rate decreases during & after exercising.
💓 As heart rate recovery speeds up, it indicates improving fitness and health.
Fitness is important to me, and it involves two main aspects: the efficiency of supplying working cells with oxygen (O2) and the speed of clearing waste products such as lactic acid (C₃H₆O₃). The more oxygen available and the less lactic acid build-up, the better my potential athletic performance.
Physiological improvements are measurable. One way to measure aerobic conditioning is by observing how quickly the heart rate lowers during exercise when practising intermittent effort spikes.
Testing
In my case, my aerobic threshold is 146 beats per minute, which means I can sustain just under this effort for more than 2 hours. If I push harder and my heart rate surpasses, say 156 bpm, the accumulation of lactic acid limits my performance as it overrides the incoming oxygen.
My 20-year fitness testing set uses a stationary bike to measure time, heart rate, and accurately calibrated power. During the warm-up, I gradually increase my heart rate to 120 bpm and escalate the wattage to 250 over a 15 minute period. The main set consists of 30 reps of 15 second intervals at 600 watts alternated with 30 seconds at 50 watts.
A successful completion of the 30 reps requires that my heart rate doesn't exceed 155 bpm at 600 watts and must return below 140 bpm at 50 watts each time. If my heart rate exceeds 155 bpm I must stop and concede that rep. Furthermore, if my HR doesn't lower in time (<140 in 30 seconds), it's considered a fail, and I remain at 50 watts until the next (hard) split, and my heart rate will show lower than 140 bpm.
Typically, it takes 6-8 weeks of training in the early season to successfully complete this set, indicating positive physiological changes such as a stronger heart muscle, more robust and flexible blood vessels, increased red blood cell count, and greater cellular oxygenation.
As a mini-test, if you are currently sitting, check your resting heart rate manually or using a smartwatch (e.g 70 bpm). Now, get up and walk around, take the stairs and elevate your HR to, say, 100 bpm. Return to your seat and calculate the time it takes to return to your resting HR. The faster, the better for this repeatable test.
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Your City2Surf training update!
🏃♀️ If you plan to win, follow Eluid Kipchoge for tips – CLICK HERE
🏃 If you plan to push it up the hill, check out my Enduro "training" Model – CLICK HERE
🏃♀️ If you plan to shuffle through and enjoy the sights – run three times a week, with your longest session on the weekend. Don't run harder than your relative 60% effort; use the walk:run method – say walk 2 (minutes): run 8 (again, never harder than your 60%) for around an hour.
🏃 If you plan to walk'n'talk and take a few pics at Dover Heights – walk as often as your life will allow, with more being better.
🏃♀️🏃For the complete 8-week C2S programs for all interests - CLICK HERE