Purchasing a heart rate monitor is an excellent way to help you track how hard you are working during your exercise sessions and make sure you progress with the results you see.

A heart rate monitor will usually be used most for cardiovascular exercises since the whole objective during this type of workout is to increase this measure.

When using a heart rate monitor you want to get the reading and then calculate what percentage of your max you are working at.

Generally to determine the maximum number of beats per minute you could work at you take 220 and subtract your age. So for example, someone who is 30 years old would have a max of 190 beats per minute.

Now let's say this individual had a reading of 160 beats per minute. Since 160 divided by 190 is about 84%, this person is working at 84% of their maximum capacity.

For moderate paced workouts you want to be somewhere between 60 and 75% of your total capacity and for higher, more intense workouts you can work from 75% to 90%. Note that going past 90% will be causing a great deal of stress on your body and this should only be done by those who are more advanced in their conditioning level.