Why It Is GREAT To Workout Using Target Heart Rate + A HR Calculator!

Monitoring your EXERCISE INTENSITY is the MOST EFFECTIVE way to get the most out of your aerobic/cardio workouts. The best way to gauge your intensity is to use your HEART RATE.  You could go by a heart rate monitor, which I definitely suggest doing (I will be doing a blog post on the various types of HR monitors available very soon).  But if you don't have a monitor yet, you can take your pulse for 6 seconds, counting how many times your heart is beating during that time and then add a 0 to it and you will have an estimated heart rate.   The HR monitor are very effective and accurate, the pulse method works, but is semi accurate!  

The best method for calculating your target HR zones is to use the Karvonen method.  Here is a link describing how to find your #s in order to accurately gauge where you should be:

KARVONEN LINK

Below I have also 2 links for Target Heart Rate Calculators.  These are a great tools as well, but a little more cursory than the KARVONEN method.  In these, you type in your heart rate and age into a calculator and then you get a zone in which is generally the most effective for you to work out in....  to improve your fitness and to efficiently burn calories.

Link #1:  http://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/heartrate.htm

Link #2:  http://exercise.about.com/cs/fitnesstools/l/bl_THR.htm

Look for the next blog post soon discussing different types of HR Monitors!!