Day 3 – Heart Health

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of consultation with a doctor if you are building a workout routine after years of being sedentary or having had cardiovascular complications, diabetes, active chronic disease or any medical concerns. This is a no brainer. You must know your limits and those limits will be provided by your physician.

Once you are prepared to move forward and begin a routine, if you meet the guidelines set forth in this blog, you will be among the top 50% of Americans with respect to maintaining the recommended level of activity set forth by the AHA. Not bad for a couple of weeks of work, eh? This means that 50% of Americans do not meet the minimum recommended amount of activity on a weekly basis.

bell_curveWhat this means is, by just starting to workout, you will be at the top of the bell curve and soon after will be in a category of athletes that is not shared by the bulk of Americans. There are some pros and cons to this. The pros are obviously the health benefits you will achieve and the fact that you distinguish yourself by your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. The con is not so obvious. In some cases you will feel alienated by your friends. Many people who you meet will look at you with some form of resentment. You will be in a minority of people and you will experience prejudice as a result.

Ready to move forward? Great! I’m tired of being in the minority.

For the next 2 weeks, set aside 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. That’s it. The AHA provides a simple outline. 3 days a week you perform a moderate routine for 30 minutes. Two days a week you perform a more intense routine for 20 minutes. Let’s break this down.

You have your heart rate monitor, your Lycra, your trainer and your bike. The first thing we need to do is establish your max heart rate. There are many ways you can do this. The safest and most effective way is to visit your physician and obtain a stress test. From this your max heart rate can be determined. Basically, your max heart rate is a rate in beats per minute (BPM) that you cannot exceed. This is an all out sprint for 30 seconds until you want to die.

deadliftproYour heart rate as a result is about as close to your max as you’re gonna get. Interestingly, your max heart rate is not a fixed value. You can, and will increase your max capacity through training diet and exercise. Just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean you max will decrease. The rule of thumb is that your max is 220 minus your age. I’m 43, so, my max should be 177 BPM, however, the last I tried, I achieved a heart rate of 195 BPM. I don’t like this rule of thumb because the difference between a few beats per minute can make or break you. If my max was actually 170BPM and I used 177 as my target, I would be in a world of hurt and training at level of intensity much too high for my goals. Once you have found your max, write it down and calculate your training zones. Many heart rate monitors will do this for you and will also convert your heart rate into a percent of max.

Your heart rate as a percent of max is easy enough to calculate. Simply take you current heart rate and divide it by your max. Take that number and multiply by 100. Hence

(177/195)=0.90
0.90×100=90
90%

We’re going to create 5 heart rate zones based on a percent of max (POM)

As you can see, each zone defines the level of effort you are placing on your body and in turn, the amount of effort you are asking your heart to put forward.

For the first 2 weeks, we are going to almost be exclusively training in Zones 1 and 2. Check out the Heart Health Category for these workouts

Once you’ve completed this, we will move forward and really begin burning some calories.