How to know if you are working too hard or not hard enough when doing aerobics
erobic exercise is a great way to improve your overall fitness, control your weight, strengthen your heart and lungs, and have a little fun too. Your goal in doing aerobic exercise is to raise your heart rate over a certain period of time, work different muscle groups in your body, and get oxygen into your lungs. In fact, the word aerobic means "with oxygen". There are several different types of exercises which are considered to be "aerobic" exercises. For example, brisk walking, bicycling, jogging, jumping rope, swimming, aerobic dancing, and using many different exercise machines all qualify as aerobic exercises.
Exercises are aerobic exercises when the heart rate is raised to about 70 to 80 percent of the maximum heart rate. Usually, when doing aerobic exercises, you can begin with a warm up and end with a cool down. These heart rates will be lower than the main part of the workout. With your heart rate in this zone, about half of the calories you burn will come from fat. You will burn more calories at a more intense workout, but the amount of calories burned from fat goes down.
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How do you know when you are working out at the right intensity when doing aerobic exercise?
The key to knowing if you are in an aerobic zone is to know what your heart rate is during your workout, and compare that to what you think your heart rate should be. A simple way to measure your heart rate is to take a finger and press down on your wrist, neck, or directly over your heart. Have a watch handy with a second hand. You can either count the number of beats during an entire minute to get the most accurate heart rate, or count the number of beats during a 10 second period of time, and then multiply the result by six. You can take your pulse before your workout. This is your resting heart rate. You can check your pulse periodically during the warm up, during the more active part of the workout, and during the cool down. If you are using an exercise machine such as a treadmill or elliptical trainer, consider using a model that has the ability to monitor your heart rate during your workout. You can also purchase a heart monitor to wear while you are walking or jogging.
What should your heart rate be at 70% to 80% of maximum?
Everybody is different. We all have different weights, heights, and body compositions. We therefore have different resting heart rates, but age is the greatest factor in determining your maximum heart rate. A simple way to calculate it is to take the number 220 and subtract your age, and then multiply it by .7 for 70% or .8 for 80%. For example, if you are 35 years old, you would use want to at least achieve at least a target heart rate of 130 beats per minute, but not more than about 150 beats per minute. If your heart rate is lower than the aerobic target heart rate, then pick up the pace a little, if it is faster, slow it down just a bit.
Another simple way to make sure that you are not working out too little or too much is to pay attention to your breathing. You should notice that you are breathing faster and deeper, but you should not be so out of breath that you cannot speak without running out of breath.
