The easiest and most effective way to design a fitness program which is personalized to you is by basing it on your individual heart rate patterns. If you want to exercise effectively and prevent injury, you need to understand certain basic terms and concepts surrounding how your own heart reacts to stress.
Some of the central aspects of your own individual heart rate that you need to understand include your maximum heart rate, aerobic and anaerobic thresholds and your resting heart rate. This will allow you to develop a program tailed to you.
Heart rate refers to the speed at which your heart pumps blood. It is measured in beats per minute (bpm). As your body requires more blood your heart pumps faster. However, it also pumps faster when you are stressed, sick or your system is ineffective, so be wary of always pushing yourself hard.
The measure of your baseline health and fitness is your resting heart rate. This shows how hard your heart has to work just in order to maintain your body without any extra demands on it. One of the most important reasons to exercise is to train your body to be able to do more with less effort. As such, generally speaking, as you get fitter, your resting heart rate will go down. Your heart will be able to pump more blood with less effort.
As such, knowing your resting heart rate at the beginning of a program will give you an indication of your current fitness and whether you improve.
The best time to measure your resting heart rate is when you wake up, before getting out of bed. All you need is a watch that can count seconds. It is also possible to take it after any extended period of lying down, for example if you had been watching TV, as long as it wasn't too exciting.
Your pulse can be easily found in two places, but the strongest pulse is in your carotid artery, on either side of your throat. Place your index finger and middle finger on the pulse point, but try not to push too hard as you can cut off the flow to your brain and make yourself pass out.
Now, time yourself and count how many times it pulses in ten seconds, starting by counting 'zero'. Then times this by 6 and you have your resting heart rate in beats per minutes. (You can also count for 30 seconds and times it by 2, if you feel this is more accurate, or count for the full 60 seconds, as with only a 10 second timeframe, miss-counting by one can have a much larger effect.)
The general ranges are: Below 60 = fit, 60-80 = average, 80-100 = high but still okay, and 101+ is not good and you should talk to your doctor.
As your resting heart rate does vary a bit, partly from miscounting, but also from sickness or waking up from a nightmare, it is best to record your rate every morning for about a week to try and average it out.
Finally, if you are a serious athlete, or are starting a new program which will push you hard, you should be taking your resting heart rate every morning before getting up to work out. The reason for this is that generally your resting heart rate will increase around 10bpm if your body is trying to fight illness or is overtrained. If you are registering higher than usual heart rates, you need to think about having an easier training session that day.
Some of the central aspects of your own individual heart rate that you need to understand include your maximum heart rate, aerobic and anaerobic thresholds and your resting heart rate. This will allow you to develop a program tailed to you.
Heart rate refers to the speed at which your heart pumps blood. It is measured in beats per minute (bpm). As your body requires more blood your heart pumps faster. However, it also pumps faster when you are stressed, sick or your system is ineffective, so be wary of always pushing yourself hard.
The measure of your baseline health and fitness is your resting heart rate. This shows how hard your heart has to work just in order to maintain your body without any extra demands on it. One of the most important reasons to exercise is to train your body to be able to do more with less effort. As such, generally speaking, as you get fitter, your resting heart rate will go down. Your heart will be able to pump more blood with less effort.
As such, knowing your resting heart rate at the beginning of a program will give you an indication of your current fitness and whether you improve.
The best time to measure your resting heart rate is when you wake up, before getting out of bed. All you need is a watch that can count seconds. It is also possible to take it after any extended period of lying down, for example if you had been watching TV, as long as it wasn't too exciting.
Your pulse can be easily found in two places, but the strongest pulse is in your carotid artery, on either side of your throat. Place your index finger and middle finger on the pulse point, but try not to push too hard as you can cut off the flow to your brain and make yourself pass out.
Now, time yourself and count how many times it pulses in ten seconds, starting by counting 'zero'. Then times this by 6 and you have your resting heart rate in beats per minutes. (You can also count for 30 seconds and times it by 2, if you feel this is more accurate, or count for the full 60 seconds, as with only a 10 second timeframe, miss-counting by one can have a much larger effect.)
The general ranges are: Below 60 = fit, 60-80 = average, 80-100 = high but still okay, and 101+ is not good and you should talk to your doctor.
As your resting heart rate does vary a bit, partly from miscounting, but also from sickness or waking up from a nightmare, it is best to record your rate every morning for about a week to try and average it out.
Finally, if you are a serious athlete, or are starting a new program which will push you hard, you should be taking your resting heart rate every morning before getting up to work out. The reason for this is that generally your resting heart rate will increase around 10bpm if your body is trying to fight illness or is overtrained. If you are registering higher than usual heart rates, you need to think about having an easier training session that day.
About the Author:
If you like this, then learn more about maximum heart rates. Stop by my fitness blog where you can find out all about different fitness programs and advice.
No comments:
Post a Comment