|
Home / Exercising / Fitness tests / Endurance tests / Heart rate tests / Orthostatic test
Orthostatic Heart Rate Test
Introduction
One good way to assess for overtraining is through an orthostatic heart rate test.
An orthostatic heart rate test will help to determine how close you are to being on the verge of overtraining, which will then let you know when it's time to back off.
|
What is the point?
Overtraining is a very serious condition that some high level athletes really need to be paying attention too. If they are not monitoring their current exercise output along with how much rest they are getting they can really set themselves up for injuries and a lack of recovery. If this condition is left to progress long enough, the individual may be required to take a number of weeks to months off in order to fully allow the body to heal itself. This test lets you know how close you are to pushing your body too hard.
The point of the Orthostatic Heart Rate test is to find out if your are pushing yourself too hard on your training regime.
What do you need?
- the know-how to take your pulse
- a clock or stopwatch
How do you do the test?
- Lay down and rest for a period of fifteen minutes or so. This will allow your body to bring its heart rate back down to a calm level if you have been up and moving around in the past few minutes.
- Record your pulse rate, as determined by beats per minute.
- Stand up and then calculate your pulse rate once again in the standing position.
- After you have arrived at these two numbers, calculate the difference between both heart rates and that is your score.
|
 |
What results you'll get :
If the difference you have is greater than fifteen to twenty beats per minute then this is a very strong signal that your body is not recovery effectively from your workouts and is currently under a great deal of stress. If this is the case, you should be looking at reducing both your intensity and volume of your workouts immediately or even possibly taking a full week off, allowing only for simple exercise such as walking.
What is being measured again?
These tests measure your body's ability to recover from your workouts. Your ability to recover from your workouts will help you to know if you are pushing yourself too hard.
|
|
