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Improving Heart Rate and Pulse
Last Updated (Wednesday, 19 March 2008 06:29) Wednesday, 19 March 2008 06:20
Heart rate is a term used to describe the frequency of the cardiac cycle which is considered one of the four vital signs. Usually it is calculated as the number of contractions (heart beats) of the heart in one minute and expressed as "beats per minute" (bpm).
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Having a smooth regular pulse will help blood to flow smoothly and avoid the formation of varicose veins in later life.
When resting, the adult human heart beats at about 70 bpm (males) and 75 bpm (females), but this rate varies between people. However, the reference range is nominally between 60 bpm and 100 bpm. The resting heart rate can be significantly lower in athletes, and significantly higher in the obese.
The body can increase the heart rate in response to a wide variety of conditions in order to increase the cardiac output (the amount of blood ejected by the heart per unit time). Exercise, environmental stressors or psychological stress can cause the heart rate to increase above the resting rate.
The pulse is the most straightforward way of measuring the heart rate.
Using Pulse to Measure Fitness
There are times when its difficult to tell at what level of cardio you are performing and whether you are working hard enough or too hard. If you work too gently you may find you won't get the results for the time you are putting in and if you work too hard you may exhaust yourself and become prone to injury. Use this calculation to find out what your heart rate should be when training to get the most benefit.
The target heart rate calculation:
220 - your age = your maximum heart rate.
You don't want to work near your maximum heart rate as this forces your body into anaerobic rather than cardiovascular exercise. Anaerobic over long periods can lead to exhaustion and injury as mentioned above. So take two percentages of your maximum heart rate. One at 55% (easy workout) and one at 80% (tougher end).
Example. If you are 40 years old your maximum heart rate is 180. 55% and 80% of 180 are 99 and 144 respectively. So your target heart rate during any cardio exercise is between 99 and 144 beats per minute.
Pulse Check at Rest
Find the soft area on the inside of your wrist below the base of your thumb and next to the tendons that run up your forearm. Press two fingers lightly on this area. You will feel the pulse of blood pushing through the veins. Count the number of pulses for one minute. Your resting pulse rate simply gives you an indication of what your heart rate is doing when you're not exercising.
Your true resting pulse is actually the rate when you first wake up in the morning.. When you wake up find your watch and your pulse and count the beats for one minute. Do this before you get out of bed. If you have jumped out of bed, rushed around and had some coffee, then taking your pulse at this time won't indicate your true resting pulse.
Pulse Check during Cardiovascular Exercise
During the peak activity time of your cardio workout, check your pulse. At this stage do not count the pulses for a whole minute, as this will give an inaccurate reading because the pulse rate will drop if you stop exercising. Instead count the pulses over a period of just six seconds and multiply by ten to get your active pulse rate.
What to Do With This Information
By comparing your resting and active pulse rates you can see how hard you are working during your cardio session. If you are aiming for a light workout on a particular day, you will want to keep your pulse rate in the 55-65 per cent range. Or if you are really aiming to push yourself, then aim to keep your pulse in the 75-85 per cent range.
A fit pulse is in the range of 50-60. An average to fair fitness level is a rate of 61-75. Poor fitness is a rate of 75 or above. Professional athletes have pulses as low as 35!
Get to know your pulse and use our section on cardio workouts to work on increasing fitness, which in turn lowers your resting pulse keeping your heart and lungs at an efficient state.
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