Fitness for Life

   Have you ever wondered why it's important to know your maximum heart rate (MHR)? Let's say you walk 4 days a week and lift weights 2-3 days a week. You eat healthy food and feel good. Knowing your MHR can enhance your fitness level and help you to stay within a healthy range cardiovascularly when you exercise. And after a heart attack and/or surgery, when the heart is weaker, knowing your numbers can keep you in a safe zone during exercise.

   Maximum heart rate is the highest number of beats per minute (bpm) your heart can reach during maximum physical exertion. Using you MHR you can then find your target heart rate. There are three ways to calculate it. The simplest method is to use an age-based formula of 220 minus your age. This is the most commonly used one on many kinds of cardio exercise machines.

   A second method is the the Karvonen Formula, which uses your age and fitness level to determine your target heart rate zones. It's a more personalized number and recommended for people who are experienced exercisers.

   And the third one is VO2 max, which stands for maximal oxygen uptake and refers to the amount of oxygen your body is capable of utilizing in one minute. It's a measurement of your capacity for aerobic work and can be a predictor of your potential as an endurance athlete.

   If you're training for an event it's important to have a reliable measurement of the intensity of your training as well as how hard your heart can work when it's pumping at its maximum capacity. This will help make you stronger and recover faster. Heart rate training zones are calculated by taking into consideration your maximum heart rate and your resting heart rate.

  There also are devices such as heart rate monitors that are easy to use and very effective when training for an endurance event or working toward strengthening your heart.

   Training in this zone will develop your cardiovascular system.The body's ability to transport oxygen to, and carbon dioxide away from, the working muscles can be developed and improved. As you become fitter and stronger in this zone it will be possible to run some of your long weekend runs at up to 75%, You will also be burning fat and improving your aerobic capacity.

The Anaerobic Zone - 80% to 90%

   When you are exercising hard, your body builds up lactic acid. During these durations, the amount of fat being utilized as the main source of energy is greatly reduced and glycogen stored in the muscle is predominantly used. One of the by-products of burning this glycogen is lactic acid. Lactic acid is a very fast fuel that can be an advantage to athletes'  during exercise. The body uses lactic acid as a biochemical middleman for metabolizing carbohydrates. There is a point at which the body can no longer remove the lactic acid from the working muscles quickly enough. By exercising within 80 to 90 percent of your MHR as a training method, you can stay longer within that Anaerobic Zone and your body becomes better able to deal with lactic acid.

The Red Line Zone 90% to 100%

   Training in this zone is possible for only short periods of time. It helps to develop speed. This zone is reserved for interval training and only the very fit are able to train effectively within this zone.

   Determining your resting heart rate (HR_rest) is very easy. Find somewhere nice and quiet, lie down and relax. Position a watch or clock where you can clearly see it while lying down. After 20 minutes determine your resting pulse rate (beats/min). Use this value as your (HR_rest).

The easiest is the age-based formula.  220 minus your age (A) = estimated max heart rate (MHR) 

MHR X .60=( ) 60% 

MHR X .70=( ) 70%

MHR X .80=( ) 80%

 

   Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. BMI is used as a screening tool to identify possible weight problems for adults. If your BMI is high, you may have an increased risk of developing certain diseases including: high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol and blood lipids (LDL) -Type 2 Diabetes, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, female infertility, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)  and urinary stress incontinence. To determine if excess weight is a health risk, a healthcare provider would need to perform further assessments.

Try this BMI calculator from the Center for Disease Control.