Derval O'Rourke: This lentil and pear salad is a great healthy heart option

Try my easy to prepare lentil and pear salad.

I wear a watch that tells me the time but also tracks various measures of my ‘health’. Heart rate tracking is a standard feature on many wearables from Apple watch to Garmin to Fitbit. This week I’ll chat about heart rate in relation to health and for the recipe I’ll share with you a lovely healthy heart option.

Let’s start with understanding the basics.

What is your resting heart rate?

This is exactly as it says, your heart rate when you are not active. It might vary between 60 beats per minute and 100 beats per minute. Highly fit people are typically lower than 60 while endurance athletes are often below 50. Resting heart rate is a marker that I tend to keep an eye on, mainly because it’s an easy feature to monitor on the smartwatch I wear. Remember many factors can influence heart rate, including:

• Age
• Fitness and activity levels
• Being a smoker
• Having cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol or diabetes
• Air temperature
• Body position (standing up or lying down, for example)
• Emotions
• Body size
• Medications

How does exercise affect heart rate?

When you’re exercising, your heart beats faster to deliver the nutrient and oxygen-rich blood your muscles need to keep you moving. This means you can use your heart rate as a gauge of how intense your workouts are — the higher your heart rate, the harder your body is working.

What do you need to know about your heart rate and exercise?

If you’re just starting your fitness journey, it’s probably too early to dig into your heart-rate data. Any form of physical activity that gets you moving and gets your heart pumping above your baseline is progress. But eventually, understanding your heart rate can help you stay focused on your long-term fitness goals, like losing weight or increasing your speed.

What you need to know about maximum heart rate

This is the rate at which your heart is working at its upper limit. Your maximum heart rate plays a major role in setting your aerobic capacity. Heart rate can help you answer the question, “Are my workouts effective?” To find that answer, you’ll need to first figure out your maximum heart rate. Every human body is different with varying maximum heart rates. This number isn’t always straightforward, because there are other factors to consider but a very basic calculation, subtract your age from 220. For example, if you’re 40 years old, your MHR would be 220-40 = 180 bpm.

How does maximum heart rate impact training?

Simply put heart rate training is using your heart rate to gauge your exercise intensity and aiming to be within certain zones of heart rate depending on what your training goals are. Once you know your MHR, you can then calculate your heart rate training “zones,” which help guide your workouts.

Here’s a general look at what these zones mean and what you can achieve in them:

• 50%-70% — Moderate — This is basic endurance. It is sustainable for long periods of exercise and fat burning.
• 70%-85% — Vigorous — This is to improve aerobic fitness and muscle strength.
• 85%-95% — High Intensity or Anaerobic — This is very intense and can increase speed.

Heart rate zones might not be something that you need to pay attention to but also it might be an additional piece of information that helps you achieve your goals. Regardless it is always important to check with your doctor before drastically changing any fitness routine.

Lentil and pear salad

recipe by:Derval O'Rourke

This salad is a lovely healthy heart option.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Total Time

 5 mins

Course

 Starter

Ingredients

• 1 tin cooked green lentils, drained

• 1 tin of pears, in natural juice

• large bunch of rocket

• handful fresh mint, roughly torn

• 100g feta cheese, crumbled

• For the dressing:

• 2 tbsp Olive oil

• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Method

1. Add all ingredients, except the olive oil and vinegar, to a large mixing bowl. Toss well to combine.

2. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil and white wine vinegar.

3. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve with some fresh bread on the side.