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.
While maximum heart rate appears to be more related to age than fitness, your resting heart rate shows a direct correlation to your improved health and fitness. It is the speed at which your heart beats when there are no other demands made of it. If you are healthy and fit, your heart will be able to move more blood with less effort, and so will have a lower resting heart rate.
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.
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.
There are two places you can easily find your pulse. First is the radial artery on your wrist just below your thumb. This is not as strong, but easy to find. Remember to only use your index and middle finger to feel for the artery, as your thumb has its own pulse and can confuse the counting. The other place is your carotid artery in your neck, which can be found on either side of your throat.
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.
It is suggested that: 60 or below beats per minute: = a fit athlete. 60- 80 bpm = average. 81-100 bpm = is high, but ok. 101 bpm = not so good, think about seeing your doctor.
In order to get the most reliable number, you should consider trying to take it every morning for about a week. This will average out any miscounting or unusually high rates from nightmares etc.
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.
While maximum heart rate appears to be more related to age than fitness, your resting heart rate shows a direct correlation to your improved health and fitness. It is the speed at which your heart beats when there are no other demands made of it. If you are healthy and fit, your heart will be able to move more blood with less effort, and so will have a lower resting heart rate.
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.
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.
There are two places you can easily find your pulse. First is the radial artery on your wrist just below your thumb. This is not as strong, but easy to find. Remember to only use your index and middle finger to feel for the artery, as your thumb has its own pulse and can confuse the counting. The other place is your carotid artery in your neck, which can be found on either side of your throat.
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.
It is suggested that: 60 or below beats per minute: = a fit athlete. 60- 80 bpm = average. 81-100 bpm = is high, but ok. 101 bpm = not so good, think about seeing your doctor.
In order to get the most reliable number, you should consider trying to take it every morning for about a week. This will average out any miscounting or unusually high rates from nightmares etc.
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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