At the end of my treadmill interval training, the machine kicks out my average heart rate and something called a performance index. My google-fu has faile me. Does anyone know a good resource for me to get information on what performance index is and what it says about me?
I am assuming you mean a treadmill in a gym or health club setting rather than a medical testing setting.
If so, you have to look at the manual to see. What I would do is get the make and model of the treadmill and find the website of the manufacturer. They probably have a manual for the treadmill you can download.
Before you can make sense of the numbers, you must know your maximum heart rate. All the formulas are next to worthless as max HR can vary widely from person to person.
As an example, my max HR is 187, my predicted( 220 subtract age=max HR) is 171.
You can have a doctor or sports lab do a treadmill stress test or self-administer.
Here are several self tests.
Could you describe what the performance index says?
The session i do is
1 min 6 k/h
2 mins 8.5 k/h
2 mins 10.3 k/h
2 mins 8.5 k/h
2 mins 10.3 k/h
3 mins 8.5 k/h
3 mins 10.3 k/h
3 mins 8.5 k/h
3 mins 10.3 k/h
3 mins 8.5 k/h
3 mins 10.3 k/h
2 mins 8.5 k/h
1 min 12 k/h
Heart rate gets as high as 175 (Im 33 so internet says max = 187)
mean heart rate 146 or so, PI = 36
or at least those were yesterday’s figures.
Unfortunately, that PI number means nothing without knowing how it’s derived.
You do need to determine your actual max HR. Once you do, try this calculator to find your HR training zones.
I’m 49 and have the same (actual) max HR as you despite being 16 years older. This is why you need to get the true figure rather than an estimate.
Without an accurate figure you may shortchange yourself or be working too hard.
There are people who have max HR much higher or lower than predicted by
formula.
I coach high school cross country, during the summer I’ve had some of the kids running with a HR monitor.
One of them, eve though his predicted max is 203, he ran 10 miles at a HR of 195-205 and was hitting 220 on the track without distress.
just back from the gym armed with the make of the treadmill. helped my google along quite nicely
From the technogym website:
Performance index
The Performance Index (Pi) was invented by Technogym to give a concise and easily comparable assessment of performance in a workout.A heart rate monitor must be worn for a minimum of 3 consecutive minutes to obtain a result.
The index is based on a rating scale ranging from 0 to 99. The higher the rating, the greater your aerobic capacity.
If your performance index increases, this means that you are exercising more intensely without increasing your heart rate.
The criteria used to calculate the performance index makes it possible compare tests taken by people of different ages.
The results can only be compared where the exercise duration and intensity are constant.
not enough info to understand in absolute terms what it’s saying, but I can use it as a relative measure on myself from now on to see improvement.
Cheers guys.