What should your maximum heart rate be when doing aerobics?
Aerobics are a great form of exercise that can help you to live a happier and healthier life. A good aerobic exercise program can help build a stronger heart, and stronger lungs, but also can lead to general better well being. Like any exercise, aerobics needs to be done, at least at the beginning, under the supervision of a trained athlete who knows what they are doing and how to teach someone the basics. Aerobics may seem difficult at first, but like anything else it takes practice and patience to get good at it. As you work out more you feel better and become better at working out, so that the whole thing gets easier.
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If you are just starting a workout or aerobics program, do not give up too soon. Realize that it will take time and that you will need a bit more practice. There are several things you should know to make your workout more productive. The chances are that you have decided to take up aerobics because you want better health. Sometimes we make these sorts of decisions because our health is poor, or because we want to loose weight. Whatever your reason for choosing to start an aerobics program may be, you want to get the most out of the workout, both for your health and for your appearance. One of the tools you can use to help do this is your body's natural heart rate. The body's heart rate is the number of beats that it beats in a single minute. When resting the body has a heart rate known as the resting heart rate. In exercise the body can reach a maximum heart rate, which is the number of beats over which the heart should not be beating per minute in extreme activity. Going over the maximum heart rate can be very dangerous-the maximum heart rate is not the rate that you should try to reach in exercise.
You will need to calculate your maximum heart rate before aerobics. This is done by subtracting your age from the number two hundred and twenty. If your age is twenty seven, subtract twenty seven from two hundred and twenty. This number is the maximum heart rate. Now to find your lower range for heart rate activity while exercising multiply the maximum rate by sixty five percent. For example:
220-27=193 (Maximum heart rate)
193*.65=124 (Lower range zone)
To work out the higher range zone for exercise, multiply the maximum heart rate by eighty five percent. For example:
193*.85=164 (Higher range)
Based on this example, this person would have a target heart rate of 124-164 while exercising. This is the range in which a person should be while exercising. When you exercise at the lower range your body tends to burn more fat. Towards the higher range it burns more calories. This means that the body will use more carbohydrates than fat at this rate. In the lower range the body will burn more fat because the body can use more oxygen at this level, and hence more fat. Determine which of these is beneficial to you, and be sure to consult a doctor to find out which end of the range they think will be best.
You can measure your heart rate while doing exercise by placing your hand on your pulse and counting the number of beats in ten seconds. This number should then be multiplied by six to get the heart rate. It would probably be best, however, to use an electronic heart rate monitor to do this.
