Right,so I did a hardcore skipping session last night.I was alternating between steady pace side to side foot shuffles and fast pace sprint style skipping,taking short breaks in between.I did this for half an hour.For the entirety of the session,my heart rate was above 160 and usually in and around 190-200.
Now I’ve always been taught that in order to increase fitness,heartrate needs to be kept at 160 bpm+ for a decent period of time.However,even at the end of my half an hour,I wasn’t out of breath or anything.Sure,my heart felt like it was gonna explode out of my chest,but I could have had a normal conversation with someone and wasn’t panting very hard at all.
So my question is,should I therefore conclude that doing this sort of session will not aid my fitness,or should I not be worried and be pleased that my heart rate is consistently so high during a session like this??
Be pleased. I remember my first VO2 sessions in swimming my heartrate was consistently 180-200. However I felt pretty good. After a few more sessions at that pace it was 160. My times got shorter ridiculously quickly. My advice would be to be shorten the rest periods and see in a few weeks if your endurance/sprinting is improving on the pitch. If not then think about dropping it then.
I’m thinking that either your HR monitor was not working properly or you were misreading or something. If your heart rate was at 190-200 for more than a few minutes you would be totally gassed, much less able to easily carry on a conversation. Once you cross anaerobic threshold (175ish at the high end) you only have a couple of minutes maximum that your body can sustain power on anaerobic sources.
I would check your heart rate monitor or something.