4.2018

Zion Nat'l Park, Columbine

HeartMatters e-newsletter

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!


HeartMatters News – Issue 3

logo for newsletter
In this issue…
Mindful Response
Eat Well
Get Moving!
Your Heart Matters July 2009

Issue 3


Greetings,

HeartMatters logoFor your reading and learning pleasure — Enjoy!



To Your Optimal Health,

Robin



Monthly Quote:


I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail

my ship.

–Louisa May Alcott

__________




Go to

www.heartmatters.pro

to see the new and improved website format!  Get caught up on Robin’s blogs.





_______

Invite Robin to speak at your next  conference, staff meeting, workshop, or service club meeting.




Mindful Response

60 seconds is all it takes…


It is well accepted that in our society, we are immersed in a fast paced way of life. Much is known about the potential negative consequences of unrelieved stress on both our physical and emotional health. While there may be some opportunity to alleviate your own personal stress triggers to some extent, two more realistic and immediate choices are available to you. One is to modify the manner with which you respond to a stress trigger, and the other is to practice the elicitation of a relation response on a regular basis.

Both of these choices are appealing, because both are attainable, pleasant, and very beneficial.


read more…


Navigate the Food Highway

Or how to enjoy eating well

Food temptation is everywhere! Tantalizing samples in the grocery store, candy and chips at the checkout stand, chocolate covered strawberries in the downtown specialty store window, and who can resist the aroma wafting from Cinnabon at the mall?

read more…



Get Moving!

Your body and mind will thank you for it



  • Decide on a physical activity that you enjoy and one that is readily available to you.
·    Think about expense, weather, and time management.
  • Write a realistic physical activity goal.
·    For instance, “I will walk 2 days this week for 15 minutes”, or “I will attend a yoga class this Friday”.
  • Consider enlisting an “exercise buddy”.
·    This is certainly not mandatory, but if there is a fun friend out there who is expecting your arrival for a walk or class, there will be an element of accountability that may keep you going. Not to mention the added fun and pleasure you will experience in the sharing.



Workshops

Learning and growth opportunity

For 20 years, Robin has been promoting optimal health and lifestyle by facilitating workshops and seminars on a wide spectrum of topics.

Her easy-to-understand manner and real-life anecdotes offer an informative and pleasant learning experience for all participants. Whether your group is interested in eating for health, fitness, risk factor identification and modification, or relaxation for stress management, Robin has the clinical knowledge to provide relevant, science-based information.  Let her bring her inspiring message about achieving optimal health to your company, professional group, or service organization.


learn more…



Take Action
__________________________________________________

About HeartMatters

The dynamic process of behavior change becomes a reality when you identify your health vision, from which we will create realistic daily and weekly goals that bring you ongoing success and forward movement. Optimal lifestyle management is a long-term commitment that is within reach. Contact me today learn how you can enjoy optimal physical and emotional health and well-being.


www.heartmatters.pro



HeartMatters News – Issue 2

logo for newsletter
In this issue…
Mindful Living
Eat Well
Get Moving!
Your Heart Matters June 2009

Issue 2


Greetings!

HeartMatters logoFor your reading and learning pleasure — Enjoy!


To Your Optimal Health,

Robin




Monthly Quote:





We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent.   Because this

is

our life.

–Steve Jobs


__________________


Invite Robin to speak at your next  conference, staff meeting, workshop, or service club meeting.



Mindful Living

Be Present In The Moment


Life is hectic!  Our days are filled with commitments, family, obligations, activities (hopefully exercise fits in here), shopping and cooking, reading, driving to and fro…it’s a busy day. Many of us live in a “hurry up and get it done” mode-either multi-tasking two or three activities at the same time, or while in the midst of completing one task, already thinking about what is next on the list to do.

When did we buy in to this mode of existence-getting as much done in one day as humanly possible?





Eat Well

Tricks of the trade…Restaurant Survival 101

Imagine This: A much-anticipated dinner at that new restaurant you have been so eager to try, perhaps in celebration of an anniversary or a promotion. It’s been a busy day without much time for lunch.  You are ravenous when the hostess seats you, and thrilled when the bread, oil, and balsamic vinegar arrives.  Marveling at the chewy texture of the ciabatta while enjoying a glass of wine, you contemplate the menu. Along with the divine roasted beet, arugula, and goat cheese salad, you enjoy a second and maybe a third piece of bread. When the entrée arrives twenty minutes later, you are amazed to find that you are no longer very hungry!

Of course you feel compelled to try the entrée, which is delicious, leading to an enticement for a couple more bites, and before you know it, you are uncomfortably full! Does this sound familiar?



read more…


Get Moving!

Your body and mind will thank you for it

Does the word “moving” conjure images of sweat, grunts, and aching muscles? Have you enjoyed a Zumba class on a Friday after work, only to rise Saturday morning with a stiff back? Or joined a gym with the best intention of managing your weight, gaining energy, and becoming fit, to find that after a valiant initial 6 week effort you have become quite skilled at finding more and more excuses that prevent your maintaining a workout schedule?

Moving does not have to be an Olympic effort. Movement should not be “hard”, unpleasant, or expensive. What moving should be is fun, varied, stimulating, and within your comfort zone.


read more…



Workshops

Learning and growth opportunity

For 20 years, Robin has been promoting optimal health and lifestyle by facilitating workshops and seminars on a wide spectrum of topics.

Her easy-to-understand manner and real-life anecdotes offer an informative and pleasant learning experience for all participants. Whether your group is interested in eating for health, fitness, risk factor identification and modification, or relaxation for stress management, Robin has the clinical knowledge to provide relevant, science-based information.  Let her bring her inspiring message about achieving optimal health to your company, professional group, or service organization.

learn more…



Take Action
About HeartMatters

The dynamic process of behavior change becomes a reality when you identify your health vision, from which we will create realistic daily and weekly goals that bring you ongoing success and forward movement. Optimal lifestyle management is a long-term commitment that is within reach. Contact me today learn how you can enjoy optimal physical and emotional health and well-being.

www.heartmatters.pro



HeartMatters News – Issue 1

logo for newsletter
In this issue…
Relaxation As Medicine
Eat Well
Workshops
Your Heart Matters May 2009

Issue 1


Greetings!


HeartMatters logoFor your reading and learning pleasure — Enjoy!


To Your Optimal Health,

Robin


Monthly Quote:




Wheresoever

you go,

go with

all your heart.

-Confucius








__________________






Invite Robin to speak at your next  conference, staff meeting, workshop, or service club meeting.







Relaxation As Medicine

The Benefits of Quieting Your Mind

Adults experience an average of 50 stress responses a day!  Whether you are awakened in the night by a wrong number phone call, can not find your car keys in the morning, or share in a difficult conversation with a colleague, each stress response has a negative impact on your physical and emotional health.

One way to diminish this negative impact is to take a moment or two out of your busy day for an intentional relaxation break, called Eliciting the Relaxation Response.



read more…

Eat Well

Plan Ahead, Nourish Your Body and Mind

The demanding schedule of the busy professional may not include foods that support optimal health. Eating well does not take an excessive amount of time and can be realistically incorporated into even the busiest calendar.

Real food nourishes the body and the mind, benefiting physical and emotional health and well-being. Processed and fast foods do not support optimal health and are associated with an increased risk for diabetes, coronary disease, and cancer–just the opposite of real foods. Planning ahead to increase your access to real food takes about an hour per week and is a totally worthwhile endeavor!


read more…

Workshops

Learning and growth opportunity

For 20 years, Robin has been promoting optimal health and lifestyle by facilitating workshops and seminars on a wide spectrum of topics.

Her easy-to-understand manner and real-life anecdotes offer an informative and pleasant learning experience for all participants. Whether your group is interested in eating for health, fitness, risk factor identification and modification, or relaxation for stress management, Robin has the clinical knowledge to provide relevant, science-based information.  Let her bring her inspiring message about achieving optimal health to your company, professional group, or service organization.

learn more…



Take Action
About HeartMatters

The dynamic process of behavior change becomes a reality when you identify your health vision, from which we will create realistic daily and weekly goals that bring you ongoing success and forward movement. Optimal lifestyle management is a long-term commitment that is within reach. Contact me today learn how you can enjoy optimal physical and emotional health and well-being.

www.heartmatters.pro


"With you guiding me through the HeartMatters program, I was able to achieve a level of physical fitness that made regular and focused exercise feel more like a natural part of my day. I had slipped into a malaise that meant exercise could be ‘put aside’ for work or other important activities. Getting past this is a subtle but powerful accomplishment.

I really enjoyed playing and exercising with you outdoors (my preferred MO for our time together). The joy you bring to your work is wonderful. This flexibility put a kind of structure into my day that helped me ‘choose’ again – showed me how to take back some control of my schedule for important things like meditation and exercise.  It was also part of my journey of re-learning how to say NO to things. This represents additional forward movement for me.

Thanks Robin – I have really benefited from your work in more ways than just the obvious fitter, leaner, stronger me."

---J.E., Northern California,  Communication Consultant

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