Heartsavers - Exercise
One of the best forms of exercise is walking, anyone
can do it, just put one foot in front of the other and then repeat the process.
Prevention of coronary heart disease.
Types of exercise
Much is said and written about exercise, but it really isn't difficult, in fact your body was built for it.
There are basically two types of exercise, Anaerobic and Aerobic.
Anaerobic, is short intense activity such as weight lifting, the body does not require any extra oxygen for this type of exercise. A relatively inefficient use of energy it can generate large amounts of waste products in the body such as lactic acid. If you have sore muscles after a session of lifting heavy weights, that's the lactic acid in your muscles. Anaerobic exercises are an excellent way to build a muscular physique, but that's another subject and is beyond the scope of our publication.
The aerobic system of exercise is what maintains and builds a healthy heart. Good examples of aerobic exercise include walking, running, rowing, synchronised dancing and many more. With these your body requires extra oxygen, which means your heart must beat faster and pump more blood around your body, exercising and strengthening your heart muscle in the process.
The aerobic system of exercise is much more efficient and so you can exercise for a much longer period than, for example, lifting weights.
Once you understand the difference between the two types of exercise you can see why it is important to warm up and not begin by exerting yourself too much. If you start exercise too vigorously you will be drawing too heavily on your anaerobic resources and you'll soon tire. It takes a few minutes for your heart to start delivering the extra oxygen required as it switches to aerobic mode. The more often you exercise the more efficient your body will become at delivering that extra oxygen.
Intensity of Exercise
For optimum benefit you should exercise at between 45% - 80% of your maximum heart rate.
It's easy to calculate your maximum heart rate: you simply subtract your age from 220.
For example if your are age 40 220 - 40 = 180
Your maximum heart rate is 180 beats per minute.
45% of maximum heart rate = 180 x 45 / 100 = 81
80% of maximum heart rate = 180 x 80 / 100 = 144
You should therefore aim to keep your pulse rate between 81 and 144 beats per minute.
Obviously this is quite a wide range so you should begin exercising at the lower end of the range and gradually increase it over time.
To measure your pulse rate use the pads of your fingers and find the pulse at your wrist. Using the second hand of a watch begin counting the number of pulse beats felt during a ten-second period. Multiply this figure by six to get your pulse rate for one minute.
Take your pulse before, during and after exercise to properly monitor your exercise.