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 most variable aspect which also demonstrates your general cardiovascular fitness (compared to you, of course) is your resting heart rate. This is the rate that the heart beats at just to maintain all the normal systems without extra demands. The healthier and more effective your system is, the lower this rate will be as your heart will be pumping more blood with less effort.
Therefore, it is important to measure at the beginning of a program what your current resting heart rate is, which lets you know how fit you are now, and gives you a basis to see if you are improving later.
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.
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.
Further, if you are serious about a new exercise program, particularly if you are an athlete, it is highly recommended that you take your resting heart rate every single morning. The major reason for this is that your resting heart rate will generally go up about 10 bpm if your body is starting to fight an illness, and is a good indicator that you should cut down on your training until it returns to normal. This is an excellent way to avoid over-training.
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 most variable aspect which also demonstrates your general cardiovascular fitness (compared to you, of course) is your resting heart rate. This is the rate that the heart beats at just to maintain all the normal systems without extra demands. The healthier and more effective your system is, the lower this rate will be as your heart will be pumping more blood with less effort.
Therefore, it is important to measure at the beginning of a program what your current resting heart rate is, which lets you know how fit you are now, and gives you a basis to see if you are improving later.
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.
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.
Further, if you are serious about a new exercise program, particularly if you are an athlete, it is highly recommended that you take your resting heart rate every single morning. The major reason for this is that your resting heart rate will generally go up about 10 bpm if your body is starting to fight an illness, and is a good indicator that you should cut down on your training until it returns to normal. This is an excellent way to avoid over-training.
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