Heart Rate Calculations In Aerobic Fitness
An aerobic fitness workout is simply a series of aerobic fitness exercises that take you through three stages of exertion that can be measured by the number of times your heart beats per minute.
Aerobic fitness exercises will increase your heart rate from a resting heart rate to a warm up rate; into a heart rate that you set as a goal, known as the "training heart rate," and into a cool-down phase that brings your heart rate back down toward a resting heart rate level.
Calculate Your Aerobic Fitness Heart Rates
There is a bit of math involved in finding all the heart rate numbers you need to do aerobic fitness routines, but it is well worth the time and effort to do so.
Start with your resting heart rate. Take your resting heart rate five days in a row before you get out of bed in the morning. Find your pulse on your neck or wrist; count how many times your heart beats in ten seconds, and multiply that number by six to determine your bpm (beats per minute) rate. If your heart beats ten times in ten seconds, your resting heart rate is 60bpm.
Use your age to calculate your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is the number 220 minus your age. If you are 50 years old, your maximum heart rate is 170 (220-50=170). If you are 35 years old, your maximum heart rate is 185 (220-35=185).
Now calculate your heart rate reserve. This number is your maximum heart rate minus your resting heart rate. A 50-year-old who has a resting heart rate of 60 has a heart rate reserve of 110bpm ((220-50)-60). A 35-year-old who has a resting heart rate of 60 has a heart rate reserve of 125bpm ((220-35)-60).
Finally, you will calculate your training heart rate for your aerobic fitness workout. This is the rate your heart will beat when you have finished your warm-up and move on to the highest intensity level of your aerobic fitness workout.
One-half of your heart rate reserve plus your resting heart rate is the lower end of your training heart rate range. For that 50-year-old aerobic fitness exerciser we have been using as our example, the lower end of the training heart rate range is 115bpm. One-half of her heart rate reserve is 55 bpm, plus her resting heart rate of 60 gives us the total of 115. The upper end of the same person's aerobic fitness target heart rate range is 85% of the heart rate reserve plus the resting heart rate, or 153bpm.
Knowing the various heart rate ranges associated with aerobic fitness will help you work out safely and effectively.
