Finding Your Target Heart Rate
by Kenna Simmons
Posted 2/17/07
If you’re sweating through a yoga or Pilates class, or feeling the burn as you lift weights, you may be convinced you’re getting a great workout. You may be building strength and flexibility, but you probably aren’t burning as many calories – or doing your heart as much good – as you think you are. For that, you’ll need to add true aerobic exercise that gets you moving at or near your target heart rate.
That was the case with participants from two recent yoga and Pilates studies at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, who were convinced they were getting more aerobic benefit than measurements showed. Neither exercise put participants’ heart rates into the target zone, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine. Your target heart rate is 60 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate.
“Your target heart rate is a way of gauging an appropriate dose of exercise,” says Cedric Bryant, PhD, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise, which sponsored the studies. If your heart beats within the target range while you are exercising, then you are getting the maximum cardiovascular and calorie-burning benefit.
The fitter you are, the more you should aim for the top of the range. For general wellness, Bryant says, maintain target heart rate for 30 minutes per day; to lose weight, aim for the low end of the range, and exercise longer to burn more calories.
Don’t dump your yoga or Pilates routine, which have benefits for people with arthritis. “They improve muscle strength, balance, endurance and flexibility,” says Bryant. “Just supplement with aerobic activities such as walking, swimming or biking.”
Calculate Your Target Heart Rate
1) Subtract your age from 220
2) Multiply that number by 0.6 and 0.9
3) Exercise, keeping your heartbeats per minute within that range
(Arthritis Today, November-December 2006)
