Drug Medical Information

FITNESS CONCEPTS: EXERCISE FOUR TIMES A WEEK FOR 30 MINUTES AT YOUR TARGET HEART RATE (THR) – INTENSITY & TIME

Intensity (work per unit of time) is the aspect of your training that determines whether you are receiving any cardiorespiratory (heart-lung) benefits. Researchers have developed simple formulas to determine how much your heart rate must increase during exercise and how long you need to keep it elevated (20 to 30 minutes) to improve cardiovascular fitness. In the early stages of your newly started program, you will need to work up to 20 to 30 minutes of continuous activity slowly, in four to six weeks, rather than attempt to maintain such a high intensity in early workout sessions. To calculate your THR, complete Lab Activity 7.1: Finding Your Target Heart Rate at the end of this chapter.
Time (the duration of your workout) is the final third of the complete cardiorespiratory exercise session. Exercise duration is affected by intensity. Obviously, you cannot sprint at near-maximum effort for 20 minutes. If aerobic conditioning is your goal, the session should maintain your target heart rate for 20 to 30 minutes. If the purpose of your program is cosmetic—to lose weight and fat and to improve your appearance—duration is the key. In general, the longer you exercise, the more calories you burn and the more fat you use as fuel. If weight loss is your primary objective, it is important to keep in mind that walking three miles burns only slightly fewer calories than running three miles. The longer you walk or run, the more calories you use. It may be good advice to slow down your walking, pedaling, running, rope jumping, and so on, and exercise longer. To exercise longer, it is important to stay near the lower portion of your THR range. Once you reach your THR, you are not only burning a high number of calories, you are improving the cardiovascular system as well.
Running or walking three miles on each of two successive days also burns more calories than one six-mile run. This is because of the extra 60 to 150 calories burned because of metabolic rate increases (calories burned while the body is at rest) following the exercise period. In other words, two short exercise sessions burn more calories than one long session, since metabolic rate will become, and remain, elevated for several hours after each session. This extra calorie usage after exercise ceases is called afterburn. If you walk or run too far in one day and are unable to exercise the next day, you will eliminate one afterburn period and forfeit 60 to 150 calories. Late afternoon, when metabolic rates begin to slow in most people, may be one of the best times to exercise. You then burn calories while exercising and activate a faster metabolic rate for two to four hours at a time in the day when metabolic rate normally slows down.
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