Workouts are an elusive thing. We have so much to think about. Here we will measure workout intensity using heart rate. This is how hard you need to work out safely and get the result you need.
Why do you have to measure workout intensity?
This is simple to answer—it takes a certain intensity to lose weight. You must burn more calories than you intake in order to get a certain result. If you want to tone or body sculpt, you have to exercise at a certain intensity. Most of the time people go into a workout frenzy without understanding if they are working out too much or too little.
How to measure heart rate
As we get older the heart rate slows. The way to measure the target heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. So if you’re 35 years old, your target heart rate would be 185. Then once you’ve established this, you would determine the beats per minute your heart should be beating while performing aerobic exercise. You determine this by keeping in mind that if your heart rate is 185 BPM you want your heart beating at 50 to 80% of that number.
You should be exercising at the low end of that number if you are an aerobic exercise beginner to make sure you are safe health-wise while still achieving an optimal result. If you are more competitive in sports or a runner then you can go from the middle to the high end of that number.
It is always recommended that you get a physical before you begin any aerobic exercise. You can discuss the goal you have with your physician and find out what exercise routine is best for you. Sometimes you don’t need to do heavy aerobic exercise in order to lose weight or tone. But in the case of the target heart rate after you get the green light—start with the lowest impact class you can attend.
Where to measure heart rate
There are two areas on the body you can measure heart rate. The best place is the carotid artery at the side of the neck. The other is the radial pulse located at the base of each thumb.
Once you are used to your aerobic workouts you won’t have to track your heart rate each time to measure workout intensity—it will become like second nature and you will habitually work out at the rate which will give you your optimal result.