Heart rate monitoring has limited to no practical value for.....

Heart rate (HR) monitoring has limited to no practical value for programming or assessing intensity during gym-based resistance training in endurance athletes. Its primary, evidence-supported applications remain cardiovascular sessions: intervals, recovery days, and endurance/aerobic work.

Why HR is a poor metric in the gym for endurance athletes!

Resistance training (strength, hypertrophy, power, or strength-endurance circuits) is predominantly anaerobic or mixed, with short-duration efforts, high mechanical tension, and significant isometric or eccentric components. Heart rate responds differently here than in continuous or interval aerobic exercise:

• Lag and dissociation from true internal load. HR rises secondary to catecholamine release, muscle mass recruited, and pressor responses (including Valsalva or breath-holding), not as a direct reflection of oxygen demand or metabolic stress in the same way continuous cycling or running does. Peak HR during a heavy squat or deadlift set often occurs after the set and does not scale cleanly with relative intensity (%1RM) or effort the way it does with %VO₂max or lactate threshold.
• Rest intervals dominate the session profile. Most quality gym programs for endurance athletes use 2+ minutes rest between sets. Average session HR is therefore heavily diluted by recovery periods and does not represent the training stimulus.
• Better markers already exist and are superior. Load (absolute or relative to 1RM or estimated daily max), velocity (if using linear position transducers or similar), volume (sets × reps × load), time under tension, and session RPE (or repetition-in-reserve) provide far more valid and actionable information for progression, autoregulation, and injury-risk management. These directly target the neuromuscular and structural adaptations endurance athletes need (force production, tendon stiffness, running/cycling economy, injury resilience).

Wearing a chest strap or optical sensor during gym sessions frequently leads to misinterpretation: elevated HR on compound lifts is treated as “Zone 4/5 work,” recovery is judged by how quickly HR drops between sets (which is influenced by many non-training factors), or athletes unnecessarily restrict intensity because HR “is too high.” None of these improve outcomes for strength qualities that transfer to endurance performance.

Where HR monitoring is useful and appropriate.

For an endurance athlete the legitimate applications are almost exclusively within the cardiovascular domain:

• Interval sessions (VO₂max, threshold, anaerobic capacity work): HR (or better, HR + power/pace + RPE) helps confirm that work bouts reach the intended intensity zone and that recovery intervals allow sufficient partial recovery without drifting into chronic high-intensity accumulation.
• Endurance / aerobic base sessions: Keeping HR in prescribed zones (especially Zone 1–2 on easy days) is one of the simplest, most validated ways to enforce intensity discipline and support mitochondrial, capillary, and cardiac adaptations while managing overall training stress.
• Recovery and easy sessions: HR (and trends in resting HR or HRV when used longitudinally) provides an objective check that “easy” remains easy. Many endurance athletes chronically under-recover; HR feedback is useful here.
• Field or unstructured sessions where power, pace, or RPE alone are harder to control (trail running, group rides, etc.).

Even in these contexts, HR is rarely the sole programming tool. Power meters, GPS pace, lactate, or RPE are often more precise for intensity prescription; HR serves as a useful complementary or confirmatory signal, particularly for internal load and recovery status.

Practical recommendation

Remove the HR monitor for gym sessions. Program and progress resistance work with load, velocity, volume, and RPE. Reserve the monitor (chest strap preferred over optical for accuracy during movement) for the sessions where cardiac and metabolic intensity zones actually matter: intervals, recovery rides/runs, and longer aerobic endurance work. This keeps the tool matched to the physiology it was designed to measure and avoids noise or false constraints in the weight room.

In short, use HR monitors for data that provides relevant data, track and manage the data, but then you have to use the data for programming.... which most don't..... because they don't know how...... We use them A LOT. Garmin is our choice.

If you want to see why we build champions or have questions about our programs, reach out.

Yours in health and fitness, Greg