Cardiovascular Exercise Principles and Guidelines : Part 2
By Chad Tackett
For maximum effectiveness and safety, cardiovascular exercise
has specific instructions on the frequency, duration, and intensity.
These are the three important components of cardiovascular exercise
that you really need to understand and implement in your program. In
addition, your cardiovascular program should include a warm-up, a cool-down,
and stretching of the primary muscles used in the exercise. The last
article, part one of this two part series, explained the proper methods
of warming-up, stretching, and cooling-down and discussed the frequency
and duration of a sound cardiovascular routine.
You learned that cardiovascular exercise should be done
a minimum of three times a week, a minimum of 20 minutes per session
and should be done after a 5-10 minute warm-up (at a low intensity of
50-60% of max HR) and a 5-10 minute cool-down (at a low intensity of
50-60% of max HR) should follow. Once your muscles are warm (after warm
up) and after the cardiovascular exercise, you should stretch those
muscles used in the exercise.
This article, part two, discusses how to monitor exercise
intensity and heart zone training.
There are several ways to monitor the exercise intensity.
The best way to test the intensity is to take your heart rate during
the exercise, within the first 5 minutes of your cardiovascular exercise
session and again just before the cool-down.
There are two ways in which you can check your heart rate
during exercise. The most accurate one is to purchase a heart-rate monitor
that you strap around your chest. It will give you feedback on a digital
watch that tells you exactly what your heart rate is at a specific time
in the exercise session. The other way to obtain your heart rate is
by palpating (feeling) either the carotid artery, the temporal artery,
or the radial artery. The easiest site is either the cartoid or the
radial artery. The cartoid artery may be felt by gently placing your
index finger on your neck, between the middle of your collar bone and
jaw line. Palpating the radial artery is done by placing your index
and middle finger on the underside and thumb-side of your wrist.
When you're taking your heart rate you measure it in beats
per minute (counting the number of beats for 60 seconds). For convenience,
many people take their pulse for 6 seconds and multiply that number
by 10, or simply add a 0 behind the number just obtained. So, if in
6 seconds you counted 12 beats, that would mean your heart rate was
120 beats per minute (bpm). Although counting for 6 seconds is most
convenient, keep in mind that the longer the time interval used, the
more accurate the results will be. For example, counting your heart
rate for 30 seconds and then multiplying that number by 2 will give
a slightly more accurate reading than counting your heart rate for 15
seconds and multiplying by 4, or 10 seconds and multiplying by 6. What
ever time interval you use, be consistent.
Heart Zone
Training
Healthy Heart Zone
Fitness Zone
Aerobic Zone
Anaerobic Zone
Redline Zone
This article was provided by GHF.
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