Heart Rate Monitoring – Tennis As Cardio

I recently went for a cardio tennis workout with my heart rate monitor in tow.  What I learned was pretty interesting.

Heart Rate In A Tennis Cardio Workout

Now that I have a way to measure my heart rate when exercising, I’ve started collecting data about how different activities impact my heart rate.  While I’ve started to amass some information about how my heart rate is affected by weight lifting and running, other activities are still up for grabs.  So, when I went for a tennis cardio workout the other day, I strapped on my Garmin heart rate monitor to see what would happen.

We started off with a short warm-up and went immediately into fielding tennis balls.  While I generally consider tennis good exercise, in light of what I’ve recently been learning about simple aerobic fitness, I can see where playing a tennis match may not provide the same level of conditioning as simply going out and hitting balls for an hour.  The cardio benefit from sustained activity should be greater than the intense shorter duration activity that’s more associated with competitive events.

Looking at the graph of my heart rate during the course of our workout, you can see that my average heart rate was was 140 bpm, and my max heart rate was 165 bpm.  Taking 70-80% of my max heart rate as an “ideal” aerobic workout, this puts me right in the middle of the aerobic zone.  This is where you can achieve the greatest health benefits from sustained cardio, and with the exception of a short water-break at 30-minutes, my heart rate stayed pretty consistently in the aerobic zone.

So, if this is any indication, we can chalk one up for cardio tennis as a great way to get the benefits of an aerobic workout, without the monotony that some people associate with running, cycling, or other “traditional” aerobic activities.