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For your reading pleasure and learning–a variety of optimal health and well-being articles.
Exercise stimulates the senses, the mind, and the body
A run, after the rain
Late in the afternoon, I was fortunate to find thirty minutes to run with my dog. After the torrential rains, the bits of blue sky visible between the dark clouds lured me outside. The sunrays were beaming towards the ground, creating steam from the wet earth, warming.
Senses alive, I savored every moment of the waning afternoon. The smells are what I noticed first, they were so incredibly rich: an earthy aroma of wet dirt and leaves, a crisp freshness in the air, sweet wood smoke. I so love that smell, it is somehow soothing in its’ association with the Fall season.
The visual beauty was astounding: raindrops clinging to tree limbs and leaves, catching the sunlight, creating prisms of color; subtle variations on green—the dull green of the oak leaves, the deep green of the cedar and pine boughs, and most amazing of all is the iridescent greens of the mosses. I have long been fascinated by the mosses, particularly after a rain. What hearty life form this is! Dry and dull after a hot summer, having turned stringy and brown, but after a good rain—it’s a miracle! The moss comes alive, turning a gorgeous vibrant color, plumping up with water, resilient and quietly powerful. Other stimulating sights were the reds and yellows of the changing liquid amber tree leaves, the downed branches from the high winds, and most exquisite was the deep red of the madrone trunk, glistening in the afternoon light. Simply beautiful.
I was serenaded by many birds, their melodic songs seeming to celebrate the end of the storm, were music to my ears: piliated and acorn woodpeckers (yes, they have a distinctly different sound), chickadees, kinglets, house finches, and goldfinches. And the sound of the wind in the tall trees, swaying.
My sense of touch was stimulated as the gentle, fresh breeze ruffled my hair and caressed my skin, by the water drops from the tree limbs, plentiful leaves softening the trail, and by the incredibly supple yet tough feel of the mosses and lichens.
The dust is gone, perhaps for the year now, and that is a welcomed transition. I splashed through puddles on the trail. My heart, on a physical level, was working hard for me, responding well to being engaged in exercise. My spiritual heart was filled with joy for the abundant beauty of the woods after a rain storm, and gratitude for my desire to be out in that natural beauty, moving my body, appreciating that movement, and seeing my dog smile.
Target Heart Rate and Range: optimize your workout
Exercising within your target heart rate range will not only ensure an effective workout in terms of a fat and glucose burn, but also will provide an important aspect of exercise safety.
Key Phrases:
Resting heart rate: the heart rate at which you are at resting metabolic function. As in your heart rate upon waking luxuriously on a Saturday morning, and before moving much.
Pre-exercise heart rate: the heart rate immediately prior to initiating an exercise session. This heart rate will be faster than the resting heart rate.
Target heart rate range: the heart rate range between which you will gain a safe and effective exercise workout.
To calculate your individualized target heart rate range, you will need to find your pulse to determine your pre-exercise heart rate. Start with your index and middle fingers and place them gently on either your radial or carotid artery; either the artery that lies 3 inches below your thumb (radial), or on the neck, 1 ½ inches from your Adam’s apple (carotid). Find and feel your heartbeat, look at a second hand watch, then count how many heartbeats you feel in 15 seconds; multiply that number times 4, to know your one-minute heart rate. Example: 17 heartbeats felt in 15 seconds equates to a heart rate of 68.
My preference to calculate target heart rate range is to use the Karvonen Formula. As opposed to the standard 220 – your age formula, the Karvonen takes into account your pre-exercise heart rate, affording you the opportunity to dial in a specific and individualized target heart rate range for your exercise session. The formula is as follows:
220 – age – pre-exercise heart rate x 65%, x 85% + pre-exercise heart rate
For a 50-year-old woman with a pre-exercise heart rate of 68, it looks like this:
220 – 50 = 170 (max heart rate)
– 68 = 102
x 65% = 66; x 85% = 87
+ 68 = 134; + 68 = 155
target heart rate range = 134 – 155
Several external factors may affect heart rate: hydration status, level of fitness, adrenaline (stress) response, certain medications, and caffeine to name a few. Someone who is new to exercise and therefore may be “deconditioned” (less than optimal fitness level), will likely note that their resting, pre-exercise, and exercise heart rate is higher than what is age predicted.
When writing an exercise prescription for this 50-year-old woman beginning an exercise program, we would start at the 65% level of exercise intensity, so that her exercise heart rate stays around 134 beats per minute. As she works up to 5 – 6 exercise sessions per week over the course of 6 – 8 weeks, her exercise prescription will be modified, allowing her to increase her exercise intensity to work at higher heart rate response, at 155 beats per minute.
As the heart muscle becomes more conditioned, each contraction becomes more efficient, so that ultimately fewer heartbeats per minute are required to pump the same volume of blood. In the real world this translates as a lowered resting and pre-exercise heart rate, as well as a lowered exercise heart rate response, ultimately allowing the exercising person to increase their workout to achieve a higher heart rate response. Conditioning takes several months to achieve.
Another valuable aspect of determining the effectiveness and safety of your exercise program is to assess your Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). This is a subjective response, and it basically allows you to assign a numerical value to your exercise intensity. I use a modified scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being the amount of energy required to sit up in a chair, and 10 being a marathon effort. An RPE of 3 is moderate, 4 is somewhat hard, and 5 is hard. 3 – 5 is the range of perceived exertion that I include in an exercise prescription. (6 is very hard, 7 is very, very hard, and so on). An RPE of 6 and above is correlated with an anaerobic level of exercise; anaerobic means “without oxygen”—oxygen feeds the muscles and aids in fat burning, thus the presence of oxygen is favorable while exercising (and most other times as well!).
As a side note, athletes who are conditioned to train for competition are often at their anaerobic threshold; for most of us who exercise to stay in shape and optimize our health, maintaining an aerobic exercise program is suggested.
Future articles will address additional exercise considerations: frequency, type, duration, and how to mix it all up.
Have at it!
Posted in Articles, Exercise, HeartMatters e-newsletter, Move | 
Tags: conditioning, Exercise, fitness, target heart rate | 
2 Comments »Sunday Morning Ride
It would have been oh-so-easy to stay home this morning, cozy in my robe and slippers … but a date is a date, and it’s Sunday morning, which means bike ride. Dressed in double layers on top, full leggings, long-fingered gloves, thick socks, and a wind shell, we set out into the chilly fall morning. WooHoo, was it brisk! My core warmed up quickly, but my fingers and ears stayed frosty throughout the ride.
How invigorating. Rewarding. Fun. I am oh-so-glad for the ride!
Sunday is off to a marvelous beginning.
Sunday bliss
This may be the richest Sunday on record! The morning ride was bittersweet–relief from the hot summer temperature, but a stark awareness that Fall is soon to arrive. The smell of damp flora and the chill in the air was all about the change of seasons. A hard but brief rain would convince me for sure. Later, a two (yes 2!) hour massage. Absolute heaven. Now, the quiche is in the oven, green beans and garlic are ready to be roasted, artichokes are simmering. The afternoon light illuminates the kitchen, it is so cozy in there, and the smells are so tantalizing. Soon, I will sit with my family to savor a home cooked, locally raised dinner (the chokes come from Monterey area), basking in the joy that is my life. I am truly blessed.
Relaxation 101…Inhale calm, exhale tension
- Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
- Close your eyes and soften your jaw.
- Let your breathing become rhythmic and smooth. There is no need to force the breath. Notice your breath as it moves in and out.
- As you breathe in, see if you are able to imagine that you are breathing in a sensation of relaxation. With your exhale, imagine that your are breathing out any feelings of tension you may be holding. Just continue to do this for the next ten breaths. Each breath is smooth and rhythmic; each breath in brings a feeling of relaxation, each breath out releases tension or tightness.
- Assume a passive attitude. Don’t worry about how well you’re doing. When mindless thoughts occur (and they will!), simply observe the shift in your focus, let that go, and gently return your awareness to your breath.
- Continue for 2 to 3 minutes. Over time, work your way up to a 10-minute practice.
- When you have completed your relaxation, do not stand immediately. Continue sitting quietly, allowing other thoughts to return. Then open your eyes and sit for a moment before rising slowly.
- Take one more moment to express self-gratitude. Thank yourself for the gift you have just received—from you!
- Practice the technique once or twice daily. The regular practice of eliciting the relaxation response will allow for more ease and familiarity. You will also reap the recuperative benefits to your health.
