Using Heart Rate to Set a Tempo for your 5K

Most discoveries are made by accident or serendipity. Is this really left to chance? I don't think so. When you search for something, you'll find it.

I would like to share my exercise experience so that other aspiring runners can benefit from my expertise as a doctor, chemistry & human biology major, and an athlete. If we use 25 years old as our prime, I'm a bit past that...but my knowledge and running results will prove to be useful evidence that our bodies don't wear out as we get older, we just keep re-hashing bad habits that cause our health to decline.

Heart rate training has been the most useful tool to gauge my body's ability to improve cardiovascularly...and avoid injury. What's that worth?! -Quite a bit, when a person realizes that exercise injuries are what curb out desires to stay fit.

By using your heart rate to gauge your exercise, your biochemistry can work WITH your body rather than AGAINST it. Applying these principles can and will accelerate your 5K times as shown by my personal results in this post. I live to serve as an example to others.

As a general rule, if you exercise by keeping your heart at a lower rate, you will soon be able to progress and speed up without causing your body to exert any more energy than needed.

For example, say you run a particular route near your house because it's your favorite. Keep track of your time. Purchase a heart rate monitor off of ebay. I got mine from EDiscount Bike on Ebay for around $40. This is a great deal. The brand is Sports Instruments, and mine was called the ECG model. It's perfect, and looks good compared to the expensive name brand ones that look like something from Star Trek.

Start off slowly. Most people's tendency is to run hard and leave themselves ragged at the end. Stop right now, the NO PAIN NO GAIN days are over, we're going to start exercising sensibly here...

Keep your heart rate at about 135-145. In this HR zone your body will have the ability to burn more fat rather than sugar for energy. What's the difference? you get about 9 times as much energy burning fat for energy in this HR zone that you do from sugar in a higher HR zone. I won't go into the biochemistry here...it's very simple math though (1 glucose=36 units of energy when burning fat compared to 1 glucose=4 units of energy burning sugar) The difference is the presence of oxygen to your muscles, so keep that heart rate lower.

At first this method will drive you nuts because you may have to walk certain portions of your run or slow down so much that you feel like "the tortoise". Keep at it, pretty soon you'l be able to complete the entire run without stopping. Hills and other terrain will eventually be a breeze too. Remember to keep track of your time, yet keep the heart rate the same. Take a quick look at my times below to see how it works...

for the chemistry and biology dorks out there...and interested athletes, doctors, etc, the chemistry is simple...When your heart rate is much above 150 you go into a CATABOLIC reaction, meaning that your body's tissues are not able to repair as quick as they are tearing down. Proteins are being eaten out of muscle, muscle fibers will begin to tear before long, and oxygen certainly isn't being used very well or circulated to your tissues...this is called Anaerobic activity and is burning sugar without the presence of oxygen. This is why sprinters never become distance runners, they can't handle it. They also aren't treating their heart in a friendly manner. This type of metabolism is detrimental to your health for long periods of time, yet is a much needed part of the body's stress response and Adrenal "Flight or Fight" Response.

The alternative is working-out and exercising in an Aerobic state (or as close to it as possible). This means that your body is still able to exercise, yet meanwhile make oxygen available to muscles, cells, tissues, etc. Your body likes oxygen, don't you? In the presence of oxygen, you can burn sugar from fat and make 36 ATP for each glucose you burn, while you only get 4ATP when burning glucose without oxygen.

Still not convinced?!

When I'm finishing my last 400 yards of a 5K or 10K, I'm sprinting. Nobody else I've run against has passed me at the finish. I'm not anywhere near to winning the races I run, but nobody has the energy left to beat me at the end because their gas tank is on empty.

If you grasp these principles, you'll do great. I wish someone had told me this when I played soccer in high school and college, it would have made a real difference.

Reviewing the times and date below, you can see that a break from conditioning tends to place me back where I started, yet it takes a short amount of time to get back to my previous exercise goals once I would begin exercising again and using the monitor. Notice that on 10-23-07 my 5K time was 32.01 and just 2 weeks later it was 26.45. That's a 5 minute 16 second difference, in just 2 weeks. AT the SAME Heart Rate! "Hello, McFly."

Be Well. Get Adjusted. Seek Chiropractic.

Running Times:

Heart Rate Zone- 145-155 Beats Per Minute

Note:(time in BOLD are race times, other 5K times are conditioning runs using the Heart Rate Monitor) All of the runs are done at a heart rate of 145-155. All race-day runs are not monitored, yet you can clearly see that they improve.

04-20-06 5K 33.33
04-23-06 5K 31.28
04-26-06 5K 30.19
05-01-06 5K 29.14
05-03-06 5K 28.23
05-04-06 5K 28.51
05-06-06 10K 43.55 Rocky Coast 10K-Boothbay, Maine
05-10-06 5K 27.58
05-12-06 5K 27.27

01-09-07 5K 32.56
01-12-07 5K 28.31

09-30-07 5K 21.31 Second Empire 5K Race
10-21-07 5K 21.07 St Augustine's 5K Race
10-23-07 5K 32.01
10-25-07 5K 28.59
10-27-07 5K Hooker Memorial 5K Race
10-28-07 5K 19.47 CASA 5K Race
11-06-07 5K 27.47
11-07-07 5K 26.45
11-10-07 5K 19.09 Ronald on the Run 5K
11-11-07 10K 42.13 Old Reliable 10K
11-20-07 5K 27.07

Chiropractic and Pediatric Care

Choosing the right healthcare team for a mother and newborn is probably one of the most distressing choices that can face first time parents. Beyond that, what if something is wrong? Can birth defects be avoided? The literature certainly indicates that birth defects and child developmental problems can certainly be avoided, or atleast identified early enought to ensure proper development.


The first step is...don't panic. From the beginning of fertilization until giving birth, pregnancy can be a challenging event; for the mother and baby. There are many chemical changes that occur during pregnancy that can place a significant stress on muscles, ligaments, bones, and other tissues.

Ever wonder why pregnant women get stretch marks? It doesn't occur to every woman, and it certaintly isn't just due to stretching. It may come as a shock, but healthy moms don't experience this change. This type of appearance occurs primarily in pregnant women and overweight individuals due to Increased Cortisol levels and Insulin Sensitivity. It is called Catabolism. Catabolism means that the body is cannabilizing (eating) itself to meet its protein needs, which are insufficient.

Pregnancy presents such a stress to hormones and digestion that it often will impair the mothers digestions of protein and other much-needed nutrients from food. Will this starve the growing fetus?...To some degree, but the mother is generally the one who will suffer the most because she has poor digestion and absorption of protein and is trying to meet the demands of eating for two. Proper nutritional recommendations, which many physicians are not trained to give, is necessary to balance these effects. Unfortunately, most medical educations do not include nutritional training due to such a strong focus on Pharmacology (drugs).

Because of this lack of training, generalized nutritional recommendations are often prescribed from recent "buzz" words or trends, such as an all-in-one prenatal vitamin or multi-vitamin. Even after just a few years of nutritional training, many novice doctors would reasonably know that nature did not intend for "all-in-one" supplements for something as complex as the human body. This is where natural intelligence meets intellect, or nature vs. man's reasoning, rather.

It is particularly recommended that prenatal vitamis with copper be avoided, due to it's effect on raising estrogen levels. Many spontaneous abortions or miscarriages can be caused by high estrogen levels in relation to low progesterone (progesterone, not progestins-the drug form, is protective to the fetus and keeps the body from recognizing the placenta and developing baby much like it recognizes a tumor...for more information read about the formation of a trophoblastic cancer cell)

Please subscribe to this blog's RSS Feed because there will be a follow up at some point comparing a growing cancer tumor and a developing fetus. The significant difference between the two is that progesterone protects the baby from being treated like a growing cancer (trophoblast). Tests that measure a body's production of a chemical marker called HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin), can either be identifying a pregnant female, a female with cancer, or a male with cancer. Understanding this relationship is also key to understanding how to stop cancerous growths.

The chemical and hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy have a very specific effect on ligaments, tendons, and muscles that support the spine and other joints. Low back pain is the most common symptom among pregnant women. The ligaments are preparing for birth, yet they shouldn't be stretching so much. The combining effect of insulin (blood sugar fluctuations) and cortisol (anti-inflammatory hormone) will create ligament laxity (stretchiness) which is the most basic cause of low back pain and sciatica (leg pain often radiating to some other area, often the knee or foot. Gentle Chiropractic techniques are very favorable with this type of condition. Many Chiropractic tables are designed to allow a woman to lie on her stomach, safely, while having her back examined.



Since muscular, ligament, and joint misalignments often are preceded by chemical and nutritional changes, it is also wise to search-out a doctor who is well-versed in physical symptoms as well as chemical/nutritional/hormonal ones.



An Applied Kinesiologist (AK) is trained in all of these areas...you may find an AK doctor by visiting http://www.icakusa.com/ to search for an AK doctor near your home, or by visting our website at http://www.chapelhillchiropracticcentre.com/, to reserve an appointment with Dr. Fox. In office evaluations, as well as phone consultation, are available to determine if Applied Kinesiology and Chiropractic is appropriate for you.

What is Applied Kinesiology

Over the years, many professions, including chiropractic, physical therapy, osteopathy, allopathy, and massage, have developed useful techniques and methods to alleviate chronic/acute pain, rehabilitate muscles, relieve headaches, remove sciatica, and provide comfort and healing to patients.

Applied Kinesiology is a method of diagnosing the nervous system and discovering intereference in the nervous system and related tissues, including muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, and vascular/lymphatic structures. Since George Goodheart discovered Applied Kinesiology in 1964, it has grown and incorporated many different techiques across a wide diversity of professions. Most doctors trained in Applied Kinesiology are Chiropractors, yet the technique is available for any licensed doctor to learn. Applied Kinesiology, an advanced method of testing the nervous system, takes years to learn and often a lifetime to master, making it much different than traditional Kinesiology, which is taught in some undergraduate colleges.

Muscle testing is the primary method by which Applied Kinesiologists diagnose nervous system imbalances. This testing ability allows a properly trained Applied Kinesiogist an added tool in uncovering underlying causes for a patient's condition. Muscle testing does not replace standard method of diagnosis, yet it complements them. This means that doctors trained Applied Kinesiolgy may also use other forms of testing to validate their findings, including x-ray, MRI, blood, saliva, hair mineral, or stool testing, etc.

"Patients prefer Applied Kinesiology methods of testing because it is more comprehensive than most musculoskeletal techniques in discovering muscle and joint dysfunctions."

The way in which our nervous systems are designed often allows for many different causes for our pain or discomfort. The brain and spinal cord, the master control system of our body, sends thousands of nerves to different parts of our body by way of the spinal column. At time, the same nerve that controls a muscle may also have control over a particular organ or gland. In this manner, a muscle injury can cause an impairment in an organ/gland, or a problem developing in an organ/gland will cause dysfunction in a related muscle. This is called "referred pain". A type of referred pain that many people are familiar with is left arm pain because of a heart problem, heart attack, etc. A second, less familiar syptom, is mid-back or right shoulder blade pain due to gallbladder congestion or "gall stones".

So why is there pain? And What can I do about it? Can a Chiropractor Help?

Chiropractic manipulation is very effective at relieving joint pain associated with muscle imbalances, particulary low back pain, neck pain, and headaches. In fact, pain relief is noted almost immediately by many chiropractic patients. Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology offer an unbeatable pair, which combines the highly effective methods of diagnosis by Applied Kinesiology and standard Chiropractic exam, with the ability to use Chiropractic manipulation in conjuction with other popular methods such as physical therapy, massage, lymphatic release, myofascial release, cranial and sacral adjustments, as well as acupuncture.

What types of problems is Applied Kinesiology useful for?

This list can be very extensive, though many patients seek the advice of a Chiropractor-Applied Kinesiologist for joint pain in the spine and extremities (including foot, ankle, knee, shoulder, wrist, and any other bony articulation).

Other common problem that Applied Kinesiologists are able to help with are as follows:

Joint pain
Muscle Pain
Thyroid (hyperthyroidism/hypothyroidism)
Adrenal Gland Fatigue/Adrenal Gland Exhaustion
High Blood Pressure, Low Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Liver/ Gallbladder dysfunction (Gallstones, etc.)
Blood Sugar Imbalances, Diabetes and Diabetic condition
Acid Reflux, Hiatal Hernia, Heartburn
Sciatica
TMJ (Temporo-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction)
Numbness/Tingling in Joints
Female & Male Hormonal Balance

About the Author:

Dr. Ryan E. Fox is a Chiropractor and Applied Kinesiologist at the Chapel Hill Chiropractic Centre, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been trained in over 600 hours of Applied Kinesiolgy and additional training outside of his Chiropractic degree, earned at Logan College of Chiropractic. Dr. Fox provides outpatient Chiropractic and Applied Kinesiology services as well as nutritional consultations, in-office or by phone. To seek further consultation, please call the Chapel Hill Chiropractic Centre at 919-968-4417 to reserve an appointment