Exercise is essential in achieving a healthy lifestyle. Cardiovascular is a great way to use the body's large muscles in order to increase your heart rate and burn fat and sugar. Monitoring your heart rate during exercise simply shows the intensity of exercising. There are many different type of aerobic exercises, and different ways to achieve a desirable fitness level. .
Intensity is an important factor in a great fitness program. Intensity is how strenuous the activity is. Generally to establish the intensity of the exercise, a combination of a person's VO2 max and rate need to be established. VO2 max is the maximum capability for the body to transport oxygen from the air, through the lungs and blood, to the various muscles. It involves the heart's ability to pump blood to the muscles. The first step in finding the intensity someone should workout at is finding their maximum heart rate. This can be calculated by the simple equation 220-AGE, someone that is 15 would have a maximum heart rate of 205, for an example. Now for someone in poor condition, they should exercise at 60% of their maximum heart rate. Someone in good shape should typically exercise at 70%-85% of their maximum heart rate. A typical 15 year old should exercise with a heart rate of about 154 beats per minute.
There are other methods to calculate different heart rates too. The resting heart rate also indicates a person's fitness level; the lower the heart rate, the more in shape they are. To calculate an accurate Resting Heart Rate (RHR) it should be measured three days in a row before getting out of bed. One must measure the amount of beats per ten seconds using a watch. Multiply this number by six, and this is the resting heart rate. Another method to find the pulse while exercising is the Karvonen Method. The equation is: %intensity/100 * (Maximum HR - Resting HR) + Resting HR. The typical 15 year old would exercise at about 171 beats per minute.