Cardiovascular
Exercise - Part Two
Part One
By
Chad Tackett
For maximum
effectiveness and safety, cardiovascular
exercise has specific instructions on the
frequency, duration, and intensity. These
are the three important components of
cardiovascular exercise that you really need
to understand and implement in your program.
In addition, your cardiovascular program
should include a warm-up, a cool-down, and
stretching of the primary muscles used in
the exercise. The last article, part one of
this two part series, explained the proper
methods of warming-up, stretching, and
cooling-down and discussed the frequency and
duration of a sound cardiovascular routine.
You learned that
cardiovascular exercise should be done a
minimum of three times a week, a minimum of
20 minutes per session and should be done
after a 5-10 minute warm-up (at a low
intensity of 50-60% of max HR) and a 5-10
minute cool-down (at a low intensity of
50-60% of max HR) should follow. Once your
muscles are warm (after warm up) and after
the cardiovascular exercise, you should
stretch those muscles used in the exercise.
This article, part
two, discusses how to monitor exercise
intensity and heart zone training.
There are several
ways to monitor the exercise intensity. The
best way to test the intensity is to take
your heart rate during the exercise, within
the first 5 minutes of your cardiovascular
exercise session and again just before the
cool-down.
There are two ways
in which you can check your heart rate
during exercise. The most accurate one is to
purchase a heart-rate monitor that you strap
around your chest. It will give you feedback
on a digital watch that tells you exactly
what your heart rate is at a specific time
in the exercise session. The other way to
obtain your heart rate is by palpating (feeling)
either the carotid artery, the temporal
artery, or the radial artery. The easiest
site is either the cartoid or the radial
artery. The cartoid artery may be felt by
gently placing your index finger on your
neck, between the middle of your collar bone
and jaw line. Palpating the radial artery is
done by placing your index and middle finger
on the underside and thumb-side of your
wrist.
When you're taking
your heart rate you measure it in beats per
minute (counting the number of beats for 60
seconds). For convenience, many people take
their pulse for 6 seconds and multiply that
number by 10, or simply add a 0 behind the
number just obtained. So, if in 6 seconds
you counted 12 beats, that would mean your
heart rate was 120 beats per minute (bpm).
Although counting for 6 seconds is most
convenient, keep in mind that the longer the
time interval used, the more accurate the
results will be. For example, counting your
heart rate for 30 seconds and then
multiplying that number by 2 will give a
slightly more accurate reading than counting
your heart rate for 15 seconds and
multiplying by 4, or 10 seconds and
multiplying by 6. What ever time interval
you use, be consistent.
Heart Zone
Training
How do you know if
you are training too intensely or not
intensely enough for what you want to
achieve? This is where Heart Zone Training
comes in. Refer to the chart below. The top
of the chart reads "Maximum Heart Rate,"
which is 100% of your heart rate (the
fastest your heart will beat). This is
different for everyone. To use Heart Zone
Training you must first determine your
maximum heart rate (max HR).
You can determine
your max HR one of two ways. One way is to
use the age predicted max HR formula,
whereby you subtract your age from 220. So,
if you are 40 years old, your predicted max
HR would be 180 bpm. The other method, which
is much more accurate and more
individualized, is actually having a medical
or fitness professional administer a max HR
test for you, which is usually done on a
stationery bicycle or treadmill for several
minutes and requires very hard work. Thus,
only those cleared by a physician should do
this test. We do not explain how to
administer this test because only trained
professionals should do so. Please refer to
the Global Health and Fitness Personal
Training Directory for professionals in your
area (may or may not be trained in
administering a max HR test).
Once you have
determined your max HR, you will need to
decide what zone you want to train at. There
are five different training zones separated
by 10% increments, each having different
characteristics and benefits.
Healthy Heart
Zone
The first zone is
called the Healthy Heart Zone. This is
50-60% of your max HR. This is the easiest
and most comfortable zone within which to
train and is the one that is best for people
who are just starting an exercise program or
have low functional capacity. Those of you
who are walkers most likely train at this
zone. Although this zone has been criticized
for not burning enough total calories, and
for not being intense enough to get great
cardiorespiratory benefits, it has been
shown to help decrease body fat, blood
pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases
the risk of degenerative diseases and has a
low risk of injury. In this zone, 10% of
carbohydrates are "burned" (used
as energy), 5% of protein is burned and a
whopping 85% of fat is burned.
Fitness Zone
The next zone is
the Fitness Zone, which is 60-70% of your
max HR. Once again, 85% of your calories
burned in this zone are fats, 5% are
proteins and 10% are carbohydrates. Studies
have shown that in this zone you can
condition your fat mobilization (getting fat
out of your cells) while conditioning your
fat transportation (getting fat to muscles).
Thus, in this zone, you are training your
fat cells to increase the rate of fat
release and training your muscles to burn
fat. Therefore, the benefits of this zone
are not only the same as the healthy heart
zone training at 50-60% but you are now
slightly increasing the total number of
calories burned and provide a little more
cardiorespiratory benefits. You burn more
total calories at this zone simply because
it is more intense.
Aerobic Zone
The third zone, the
Aerobic Zone, requires that you train at
70-80% of your max HR. This is the preferred
zone if you are training for an endurance
event. In this zone, your functional
capacity will greatly improve and you can
expect to increase the number and size of
blood vessels, increase vital capacity and
respiratory rate and achieve increases in
pulmonary ventilation, as well as increases
in arterial venous oxygen. Moreover, stroke
volume (amount of blood pumped per heart
beat) will increase, and your resting heart
rate will decrease. What does all this mean?
It means that your cardiovascular and
respiratory system will improve and you will
increase the size and strength of your heart.
In this zone, 50% of calories burned are
from carbohydrates, 50% are from fat and
less than 1% is from protein. And, because
there is an increase in intensity, there is
also an increase in the total number of
calories burned.
Anaerobic Zone
The next training
zone is called the Threshold or Anaerobic
zone, which is 80-90% of your max HR.
Benefits include an improved VO2 maximum
(the highest amount of oxygen one can
consume during exercise) and thus an
improved cardiorespiratory system, and a
higher lactate tolerance ability which means
your endurance will improve and you'll be
able to fight fatigue better. Since the
intensity is high, more calories will be
burned than within the other three zones.
Although more calories are burned in this
zone, 85% of the calories burned are from
carbohydrates, 15% from fat and less than 1%
are from protein.
Redline Zone
The last training
zone is called the Redline Zone, which is
90-100% of your max HR. Remember, training
at 100% is your maximum heart rate (maximum
HR), your heart rate will not get any higher.
This zone burns the highest total number of
calories and the lowest percentage of fat
calories. Ninety percent of the calories
burned here are carbohydrates, only 10% are
fats and again less than one percent is
protein. This zone is so intense that very
few people can actually stay in this zone
for the minimum 20 minutes, or even five
minutes (you should only train in this zone
if you are in very good shape and
have been cleared by a physician to do so).
Usually, people use this zone for interval
training. For example, one might do three
minutes in the Aerobic Zone and then one
minute in this Redline Zone and then back to
the Aerobic Zone (this is called interval
training and will be discussed further in a
future article).
I hope you have
found the information in this article
helpful. You now have the knowledge to
achieve the results you desire and the
benefits your body deserves.
Your greatest
challenge, however, is not learning new
cardiovascular exercises or the proper
technique; it's not learning the heart rate
zone to train at for your goals and
interests or how to monitor the intensity.
Nor is it deciding when to try new
cardiovascular exercises. The greatest
challenge facing you at this moment is
deciding whether you are willing to take
action and make time for yourself and make
cardiovascular exercise a priority.
When you begin
achieving great results, the excitement and
fun you experience will make the change well
worth the effort. Action creates motivation!
Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the
wonderful benefits of an effective
cardiovascular exercise program.
Chad Tackett is President of Global Health & Fitness. Learn how you
can have your own personal online trainer, dietician and motivator at Global
Health & Fitness.
Part One
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