Help understanding aerobic/anarobic chart

Thank you, again, for the help. I really appreciate your patience.

Grumpy from dawn till dusk said:

To get Anaerobic effect you will have to have some short intervals with effort and pulse, that you can only keep up for a really short time

Grumpy from dawn till dusk said:

And you will have used up all of your reserves, used more oxygen that you could breathe during that time and thus be completely out of breath

Ok so today I focused on what you said hereabove. I mentioned in another thread that this morning I went for my first (and failed) Lactate Threshold Test, but as it wasn't very long, I went back to the gym this afternoon and following ovekvam's gracious suggestion to take a look at interval training, I checked what our treadmills had to offer. Found one that I thought would do the job. See below. I note that the peaks and bottoms are A LOT more pronounced than when I row on the rowing machine. As in my heart was accelerating and decelerating faster than when rowing. I also note that my Max HR was adjusted from 175 (achieved on the rowing machine before) to ... 185 today !

Question/comment:

1) does this mean that running on the treadmill is better than rowing for the purpose of getting some anaerobic benefit ?

2) the issue I have with running and the reason why I am rowing/cycling instead, is because I am afraid of impacts on my knees. 3 of my friends destroyed their knees while running so I chose lower impact training instead. Is this something you have in mind or your knees are just find and you just... run ? Could you comment ?

A side comment that after this afternoon run on the treadmill, the watch is asking me to rest for... almost 4 days. I'm handicaped lol !

Thank you

The trick is to have a slow progression. Don't increase the intensity or volume of your training fast. Your body needs time to adapt. Most people who end up injured have done too much, too fast.
I also think it is smart to have at least 2 percent incline on the treadmill to focus the load more on your heart, and less on your joints.

ovekvam said:

I also think it is smart to have at least 2 percent incline on the treadmill to focus the load more on your heart, and less on your joints.

Hooo extremely interesting, I had not considered that. Yes, absolutely, loading more my heart and less my joints, sounds very attractive to me given my concern for injuries. I'll do that.

ovekvam said:

Most people who end up injured have done too much, too fast.

I strongly suspect I am guilty of overdoing it right now. I'm gonna slow down a bit. I'm not under pressure to urgently fix any health issue thankfully.

Question: as I was saying in another thread my HR is a little high, around 75 to 80 (down to 65 at night). Right now typing in front of the computer, 85. The watch allows me to track my resting HR. Would a gradual decrease of my resting HR be a good and objective indication that I'm becoming fitter overall ? In fact, when I look at the chart of my resting HR since I picked up exercising, there is a downward trend, it's a slow trend, but I think it is quite clear. There are days when my resting HR spikes, and I know these days I've been drinking alcohol. Let me see if I can post a screenshot.

I had a number of events with friends in the past few days which have broken the downward trend. But I think until a week ago or so, it seems to me that there was a downward trend. Not super pronounced, but a little bit. Or am I... imagining things ?

It is common to see a decrease in resting heart rate as you get in better shape, but it is a slow process. You will probably see a clear trend from year to year.

JRKingOfBeer said:

does this mean that running on the treadmill is better than rowing for the purpose of getting some anaerobic benefit

I would not say that in general, but of course some kind of sports use more muscles at the same time than others. For example, with running it is a lot easier to achieve a high pulse then with biking, in my experience.

Also (and that might be a factor with rowing), some sports are „natural“ like running, while others (like rowing) need more technique and some not so commonly well trained muscles, so that you might hit a barrier here, before you get the highest possible load and pulse.

JRKingOfBeer said:

3 of my friends destroyed their knees while running so I chose lower impact training instead. Is this something you have in mind or your knees are just find and you just... run ? Could you comment ?

Mhhh, the general idea is not bad. Better be careful and progress slowly.

For my personal situation: I started running on a regular basis for fitness reasons (no competitions or stuff), when I was 17 and now I am 42 and have no issues with my knees.
In the meantime, after I was 30, I started with half marathons and have done some of them, including more intense runs and increased volume.

I think partly this has to do with genetics and I am lucky to have good knees. But also there is one factor, I want to mention: Weight.

Running will most likely have more impact on your knees and other joints, if you are overweight. A good tip, which everyone should listen to that wants to get fit is: Do weight exercises and low impact cardio first, lose weight and then start running on a regular basis.

During my 25 years as a runner, I have weighed between 67 and 73 kg at a size of 179 cm, so always been rather slim - which probably helped my knees 

Also, I always said to myself, I will reduce or stop training, if something hurts, as I do sports as amateur and for my benefit and health.
Last year, I increased my workload to 1500 km the year. At the moment, one of my ankles hurts and I will reduce running and do more rowing and biking.

JRKingOfBeer said:

But I think until a week ago or so, it seems to me that there was a downward trend. Not super pronounced, but a little bit

Might be so, but like ovekvam said: It will take some time.
Also pulse is individual, this is true for Max HR and also for resting HR.
Alcohol has a bad influence on resting HR, but most of us are no Ascetics
Personally I like a little scotch or bourbon sometimes and still have a resting HR of 48. „The dose makes it poison“

I had some knee issues a couple of years when I was mainly bicycling. The injury is called IT band syndrome or runner's knee. The problem was not caused by the bicycling, but lack of stretching and too weak gluteus medius.(a hip muscle). After some dedicated strength training and stretching, I got rid of it, and my knees have been working great after that, also when I started running. Using the joints makes them stronger, as long as you don't progress too fast. 

Guys thanks for the input again.

My weight is 55kg and my height 168cm so weight is probably not an issue. And my 3 friends who got problems with their knees were lightweight too, BUT... based on what you're saying, lack of muscle building might have been their problem for all 3, as I know they were not doing any. Zero.

For the time being I have no issue with my knees, probably because as I said earlier I've been doing low impact cardio exclusively (rowing, cycling and brisk walking).

But the fact that running might be a bit more efficient in getting the heart pumping, perhaps I should add some running gradually. May be I could add to my weekly exercise sessions something like 20 minutes running at say 10km/h to start with and see what happens ?

Ok, thank you. I will try to resist the temptation.