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.
The speed that your heart pumps blood around the body is measured in beats per minute (bpm). As more blood is required by muscles, etc., your heart will pump faster. Keep in mind that your heart rate will be higher when your body is also stressed, sick or working ineffectively, so high heart rate is not always a good thing.
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.
Because of this, it is important to know your resting heart rate at the beginning of a new fitness program, so that you will be able to see how much your fitness improves and current fitness levels.
It is very simple to measure your resting heart rate. All you need is a clock that counts seconds. The best time to take your resting heart rate is as soon as you wake up, before you have gotten out of bed. However, it can also be taken after any extended period of lying down with no movement, such as watching TV.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The speed that your heart pumps blood around the body is measured in beats per minute (bpm). As more blood is required by muscles, etc., your heart will pump faster. Keep in mind that your heart rate will be higher when your body is also stressed, sick or working ineffectively, so high heart rate is not always a good thing.
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.
Because of this, it is important to know your resting heart rate at the beginning of a new fitness program, so that you will be able to see how much your fitness improves and current fitness levels.
It is very simple to measure your resting heart rate. All you need is a clock that counts seconds. The best time to take your resting heart rate is as soon as you wake up, before you have gotten out of bed. However, it can also be taken after any extended period of lying down with no movement, such as watching TV.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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