How to Start an Exercise Program

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Just a simple two piece watch and chest-strap heart rate monitor. Your goal is to be able to monitor and record your training progress.

The heart rate monitor is like your car’s tachometer. It is the best method of obtaining your ‘Biofeedback’. It lets you know if you are ‘over-revving your engine’ (your heart) or just purring along. You will soon notice that your heart rate will decrease doing the same workout over and over. When you heart rate begins to drop you can then add more intensity to your work out.

The heart rate ‘zone’ that you work out at is up to you. What are your goals? Better aerobic conditioning? Losing some weight? The heart rate zones you choose to work out at are calculated by your age and fitness level.

I recommend that you work out in your fat burning range until you have difficulty getting into your high fat burning range by walking only.

To identify your fat burning range use the following guide.

4. Begin with a walking program where your goal is to achieve a slight shiny sweat glow on your forehead three quarters of the way through your workout. You should feel good after your workout and not overly tired or sore. Continue with your walking program and slowly increase the intensity of your workout to stay in your desired heart rate zone.

After a time you will notice that you can work harder and still keep your heart rate level in your desired range. When this occurs you can now slowly incorporate power walking or a little running into your work out. This is called interval training. This is the number one way to achieve cardio/aerobic fitness.

The perfect scenario would be to walk for about twelve minutes until you are warmed up and your heart rate has slowly increased from your resting heart rate to the low end for your heart rate zone. At this point you quicken your pace and hold that pace until you reach the upper limit of your desired heart rate zone.
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Step 3:
Your Maximum aerobic Heart Rate Zone in Beats Per Minute (bpm) is:

example: (180 - 45 years old – 10 (new to exercise) = 125 bpm

Step 4:
Subtract 20 from your Maximum aerobic Heart Rate Zone to obtain your aerobic fat burning range. 125bpm – 20 = 105 bpm.

In this example our heart rate for aerobic activity should be over 105bpm but should not go over 125 bpm to remain in the aerobic fat burning zone.

Where do we Get our Energy

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The key to healthy fitness is to exercise as much as possible in our aerobic state and use Fat for fuel.

How we begin our exercise program dictates our results. If you warm up slowly over twelve minutes your heart rate can increase slowly and you allow your body to adapt to the exercise and your energy requirements. Your body is then able to supply calories to your muscles from your fat stores.

We need to place gradual demands on our cellular fuel delivery system to remain in fat burning aerobic training.

A recommended book about exercise and fat burning is 'Slow Burn' by Stu Mittleman.

Contact: zlf@zestlife.

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Once you have reached the top of your heart rate zone slow down and walk until your heart rate level is back to where you began your run. When your heart rate drops to the point where you began your first run you can repeat another running interval.

So, for example, you begin your workout and you note that your heart rate is 70 bpm (beats per minute), after walking for ten minutes, you check your HRM and our heart rate is now 100 bpm, you then begin to run until your heart rate reaches 125 bpm. At this point you would begin to walk again. If during your workout your heart rate drops to 100 bpm again you would begin to run again and repeat this training routine. If by the end of your walk your heart rate is still over 100, no problem, just finish with a walk. Do not finish with running. Cool down and walk for the last ten minutes of your workout. You should feel nicely warmed up, relaxed and a little tired.

5. Write your workout details in your workout calendar. The date, time, length of workout, what you did and your starting heart rate, your high heart rate if you did interval training and your finishing heart rate. Check to see if your heart rate drops quickly back towards your resting heart rate range in the first minute or two after exercising. That is a good sign. Congratulations! You are on your way to better health and fitness.

Contact: zlf@zestlife.