The easiest and most effective way to design a fitness program which is personalized to you is by basing it on 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 own heart reacts to stress.
Understanding your own heart rate, your maximum heart rate, your anaerobic thresholds, and your resting rate is pretty much fundamental for beginning any sort of serious exercise program. If you want a program that is tailored to you and not someone else, base it on your heart rate patterns.
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.
As such, knowing your resting heart rate at the beginning of a program will give you an indication of your current fitness and whether you improve.
Working out your resting heart rate is super easy and needs only a clock that counts seconds. It's best to take your resting heart rate just after waking up, but any time you have been lying still and not moving for a period of time will work (this is one of the few times I'm going to recommend watching TV, so enjoy it.)
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.
Once you have found the pulse and can count it, time yourself for ten seconds and count the number of beats, starting at 'zero'. Multiple this number by 10 and you have the beats per minutes. You can also use other divisions of 60 such as 10 seconds and multiple by 6, or 30 and times by 2 etc.
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.
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.
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.
Understanding your own heart rate, your maximum heart rate, your anaerobic thresholds, and your resting rate is pretty much fundamental for beginning any sort of serious exercise program. If you want a program that is tailored to you and not someone else, base it on your heart rate patterns.
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.
As such, knowing your resting heart rate at the beginning of a program will give you an indication of your current fitness and whether you improve.
Working out your resting heart rate is super easy and needs only a clock that counts seconds. It's best to take your resting heart rate just after waking up, but any time you have been lying still and not moving for a period of time will work (this is one of the few times I'm going to recommend watching TV, so enjoy it.)
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.
Once you have found the pulse and can count it, time yourself for ten seconds and count the number of beats, starting at 'zero'. Multiple this number by 10 and you have the beats per minutes. You can also use other divisions of 60 such as 10 seconds and multiple by 6, or 30 and times by 2 etc.
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.
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.
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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