Pam Strand (00:00):
Welcome to the Longevity Gym, the place to be to learn about fitness, health, and wellbeing in your middle years and beyond. Hello, my name is Pam Strand and I'm your podcast host. Today's episode is the second part of a discussion on cardiovascular exercise. In my previous episode, episode 13, I explored with you what cardiovascular exercise does for our bodies and our lives, and we talked specifics about what parts of the body are trained in this form of exercise, how it improves our physiology, and how to make a plan that will produce results for you. In today's episode, I want to go a little deeper into how to calculate and use target heart rate zones and how to measure your progress. Let's get started. Intensity is an essential component to cardiovascular exercise in order to receive its benefits. It's a question that's often asked, how hard should I work out?
(01:01):
As with any exercise, it's a must to exercise at an intensity that is safe and healthy for you. If you have any questions, be sure to seek medical guidance. Your doctors and or cardiologist, if you see one, may have specific guidelines for you to follow. As you know, the point of cardiovascular exercise is to elevate your heart rate in order to gain its benefits such as reduced risk of chronic diseases, improved heart health, better lung capacity, healthier blood vessels, arteries and veins, more regulated blood sugar, and enhanced mental health and wellbeing. Cardiovascular exercise is a very important part of living longer, stronger, and healthier. Intensity of cardio exercise is measured through heart rate levels during exertion, and what we're going to talk about today is how to calculate and use your maximum target heart rate as a means of monitoring the rate of your effort.
(02:08):
There are two steps to this calculation. First is to determine your maximum target heart rate, and the second is then to apply certain percentages to that rate that would designate what would be low to very high intensity for you. If you use a fitness tracker like a Fitbit or Apple Watch, these devices will automatically calculate your maximum target heart rate and then measure the levels you achieve during your exercise sessions. I think it's a great tool. It makes this whole thing a lot easier to measure, to monitor, but you can also do the calculations on your own. There are various formulas used, but the simplest and straightforward use age and resting heart rate the most, well-known is the simple calculation of 220
(02:58):
Minus age. If you're 64 like I am, my maximum target heart rate using this formula would be 220 minus 64, which equals 1 56. Then I would apply a percentages to this number to quantify where the thresholds are for me of low, moderate and high intensity. I'm going to go ahead and put information on these formulas in the resource section in the show notes below. Here are the four standard thresholds to know. Again, all of these percentages are calculated off your maximum target heart rate. Below 40% of that rate is considered low intensity. 40 to 59% is moderate intensity, 60 to 85% is moderate to high intensity or moderate high to high intensity, and then 86 to a hundred percent of your maximum target heart rate is very high intensity.
(04:03):
As I mentioned a moment ago, this is an area that I believe a fitness tracker is a wonderful tool since it automatically calculates these levels for you and it also typically factors in your resting heart rate, which is a formula that's more comprehensive than simply subtracting your age from 220. Devices allso track the thresholds you reached during an exercise session and then they accumulate the time you've spent in each threshold and create a history over weeks, months and years. They're a great tool. I know people worry about becoming obsessed with their numbers, but I think it's an important spot check on ourselves to ensure we're hitting levels of intensity that are going to improve and sustain our health. So let's talk a little bit about below 85% and above 85% because I think there's some important differentiations here. The thresholds below 85% or 85% and below your maximum target heart rate is where you are training endurance, so being able to be in motion for long periods of time, which is pretty valuable in our everyday lives. Training in these thresholds is known as aerobic exercise and it's typically what people think of when they think of cardio. And it's also where most of the cardiovascular benefits that I described above take place. I think that these are the thresholds (those below 85%) I think these thresholds are good for everyday life, everyday health and fitness. They are also some good guidance if you're just a beginner or you're coming back into exercise after a significant layoff. Because if you're just starting out
(05:56)then targeting that 40 to 59% threshold is probably the best starting point for you, and then focus on progressing where you can exercise in the 60 to 85% level most of the time. As always, meet your body where it is and over time build up your ability to reach and exercise in the higher intensities. Going above 85% is a very intense level of exercise and training, think sprinting, jumping, and anything that requires a relatively short burst of energy. In this threshold, you are training for stamina, power and speed. It's known as anaerobic because it taps the energy systems that aren't dependent upon oxygen, and it certainly takes an advanced level of fitness to train in this threshold. And you don't, or maybe more truthfully can’t, stay at this threshold for long intervals during an exercise session. One reason is that a byproduct is a buildup of lactic acid.
(07:09):
Once that begins to happen, and you know what I'm going to say next, if you've had some experience being in this intense level of training, it feels like someone has tied heavy weights to you and you can barely move. I'm most familiar with this level of training in my competitive swimming days. In fact, athletes have specific workouts designated where they train their anaerobic threshold, which means building up their ability to perform high intensity activities without an excessive buildup of lactic acid. It's tough training both physically and mentally. Whatever level of intensity is your goal. Again, be sure to follow what is safe and healthy for you and follow any guidelines your doctors might have.
(07:58):
Next, I want to talk about how to measure progress. That's an important piece of the puzzle here. Metrics of success can be subjective based upon your perceptions and observations and they can be objective or objective or quantified. Let's look at both. Examples of subjective measures of progress Include asking yourself questions like this, is my exercise getting easier? Do I see that I'm moving faster with less effort? Are movements in my everyday life getting easier, like climbing flights of stairs, walking across a parking lot, taking walks with friends or playing around a golf. Or checking with yourself Does it feel easier to play with my kids or my grandkids? Do I have more energy and stamina in my everyday life and how quickly after I stop exercising, does my heart rate go down and I stop
(08:54):
Breathing so hard? That's a good one. Am I sleeping better? Do I have a greater sense of wellbeing? These are just some questions that can be helpful to ask yourself periodically to get a sense if your fitness level is getting better. You may even want to write the answers to these questions in a journal or log so you can go back and read about your progress. Now, let's turn to the objective measures. There are two main ways to score, if you will, your cardiovascular fitness. With these metrics, you get a baseline and then you redo the numbers or check in periodically to see how the score moves. VO two max is the gold standard and that measures the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and its tissues use during exercise. When I first entered the fitness field, calculating your VO two max meant going to a lab to get hooked up to a bunch of fancy equipment or doing a treadmill test with a personal trainer, but this is another area where fitness trackers can be a great help. I know the Fitbit calculates VO two max for you and provides a score that indicates how well you're doing.
(10:11):
The second way to score your cardiovascular fitness is with a measurement called heart rate recovery. It's a great metric to gauge cardiovascular fitness and it's pretty easy to do so it's a quick way to get a spot check on how you're doing. This measures how quickly and by how much your heart rate drops after intense exercise. The quicker and the more it drops, the higher the level of your cardiovascular fitness gyms and personal trainers can help you perform this fitness test. Resting heart rate can also be used as a measure of cardio fitness. The ideal or the healthy range for resting heart rate is between 60 and 74 beats per minute.
(10:59):
Whether you are using subjective measures or the specific numeric measures, remember that these metrics are influenced by more than just your cardio exercise, so it's good to take a holistic view of your progress. In addition to what's happening with your exercise note or take note of other things going on in your life. For example, being under stress can make your metrics look worse if it does, and if it is and you're not taking it into consideration, you may be tempted to work out harder and even get down on yourself for sliding backwards. Most exercise or more exercise could burn off the stress, but it could also be counterproductive because it would just add more demand to your body when what it needs is less demands and more time for rest and recovery. Maybe you've changed your
(11:52):
Diet, adding healthy foods or consuming more processed foods due to a hectic schedule that can help, that can hinder these metrics. Also, hydration levels have a lot to do with what happens with these metrics, so you want to make sure you're well hydrated. How's your sleep going? How's your energy level going? How's your rest going? What are you doing to allow your body to recover from exercise, not to mention to recover from life. And how do those efforts seem to be working? All of these things are part of this holistic look and assessment of how things are going for you. The body is made up of several complex interdependent systems. Improving one system likely improves another. If one area of your life like nutrition, your work or your relationships take a hit, it could lower you over all performance temporarily.
(12:50):
The body is resilient though, and we can be too. Being flexible, being open to taking new action, being willing to change course if something is not working for us, putting the foot on the gas pedal if there's an opportunity to up our game or backing off for a while if the body or mind needs a break. When we approach exercise from this perspective, we give our bodies and our minds what they need to improve their function, and after all, isn't that what fitness is about, supporting our body and minds and giving them what they need to function the best in the moment and over time?
(13:34):
That's a wrap. If you incorporate any of these ideas either in this episode or the previous one into your workouts and even into your life, I'd love to hear how it goes for you. Please email me. My email address is pam@strandfitnessonline.com. I'm also happy to answer any questions that you might have. I also want to invite you to sign up for my newsletter. It's a great way to know when new podcast episodes go live, and I also share news about offerings in my emails. There's a signup form below, or you can go to my website, which is strand fitness online.com. There's a signup form at the bottom of my homepage. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you soon.