The most effective way to measure how hard you can exercise and also when you should lighten up is based on knowing various aspects of 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 heart beat 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.
Having found the pulse point, time yourself for six seconds and count how many times it pulses, remembering to start by counting 'zero'. You then multiple this number by ten in order to establish your beats per minute.
A general guide is that a resting heart rate below 60 means you are very fit. 60-80 is average, and 81-100 is high but still okay. If your resting heart rate is consistently over 101bpm, this is not very good and you should think about seeing your doctor.
It is best to record your heart rate every morning for a week to try and get an average as its quite easy to have an unusual reading, such as waking up after a nightmare, or falling back asleep as you count.
One final point is that if you are serious and are pushing yourself hard, for personal reasons or because you are a competitive athlete, then you should take your heart rate every morning upon waking. An increase in resting heart rate of 10bpm or more indicates that your body is stressed, either fighting an illness or from being overtrained. You should therefore reduce training on these days, which will help you to remain injury and sickness free.
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.
Having found the pulse point, time yourself for six seconds and count how many times it pulses, remembering to start by counting 'zero'. You then multiple this number by ten in order to establish your beats per minute.
A general guide is that a resting heart rate below 60 means you are very fit. 60-80 is average, and 81-100 is high but still okay. If your resting heart rate is consistently over 101bpm, this is not very good and you should think about seeing your doctor.
It is best to record your heart rate every morning for a week to try and get an average as its quite easy to have an unusual reading, such as waking up after a nightmare, or falling back asleep as you count.
One final point is that if you are serious and are pushing yourself hard, for personal reasons or because you are a competitive athlete, then you should take your heart rate every morning upon waking. An increase in resting heart rate of 10bpm or more indicates that your body is stressed, either fighting an illness or from being overtrained. You should therefore reduce training on these days, which will help you to remain injury and sickness free.
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