1. Understand Your Body’s Need for Exercise
Regular physical activity helps
keep your muscles toned and strong, maintains bone strength and density,
and improves and maintains your heart and lung functions. Exercise also
builds stamina, improves flexibility, boosts your immune system, makes
sex more fun, reduces your risk of cancer, improves your reflexes,
lowers stress, and benefits your overall physical and mental health. But
even more important, exercise is a great way to ensure your metabolism
functions at maximum capacity.
Exercise can be divided
into three specific types: general activity, activities to build
stamina, and exercises to increase strength and flexibility. If you want
to age well, maximize your metabolism, and add many more active and
vibrant years to your life, it’s important to incorporate all three
aspects of exercise into your lifestyle. It’s also highly important that
you begin slowly, set realistic goals, and see a doctor before you
begin any new regimen. Don’t overdo it, but remember that the harder
you’re working, the harder your metabolism is working, too!
2. Understand the Importance of Heart Rates
When you know your resting heart
rate, you can make sure you’re reaching your full potential when you
exercise. That’s because your pulse, measured in beats per minute, tells
you how much effort your heart and body are putting in. The American
College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that you exercise at
aerobic intensity levels of 60 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate.
But, if you’re new to exercise, we recommend exercising so that your
heart rate is 60 percent or less of its maximum potential and
progressing gradually into higher levels of intensity so you don’t put
too much strain on the heart muscle.
While it may seem that you
are only putting in a light effort, you are still benefiting your
metabolism by training your cardiovascular system to work more
efficiently and by burning calories.
3. Determine Your Heart-Rate Zone
To estimate what your heart rate or pulse should be when you exercise, use this formula:
Subtract your age from 220. For
example: If you are forty years old, then the answer is 180. This number
is your estimated maximum heart rate in beats per minute.
Now, multiply that number (e.g.,
180) by .65 and .85. The two numbers (117 and 153) tell you the range in
which your heart rate should be during exercise.
You should spend the
majority of your exercise time with your heart rate in the lower part of
the range, reaching the higher part of the range only during brief
interval sessions. If you’re very fit, you can use a slightly different
formula to determine the range of your heart rate during exercise. As a
first step, subtract your age from 205, and then do the rest of the
calculations described.
4. Monitor Your Heart Rate When You Exercise
When you’re exercising, it’s
important to keep track of your heart rate so that you can make sure
you’re working out in a range that is maximizing your calorie-burning
potential. If you’re not working out on a machine that keeps track of
your rate, you can either use a heart rate monitor or two of your
fingers.
If you’re measuring manually, place
two fingers gently just below the top of the jaw on the side of your
neck over your carotid artery or over the radial artery located just
where your wrist bends. Count for 15 seconds, then multiply the number
of beats you felt by 4 to estimate your beats per minute (bpm). If
you’re doing this when you’re at rest, this number represents your
approximate resting heart rate.
If you prefer to have a
monitor keep track of your heart rate—which is, admittedly, easier when
you’re in the middle of a workout—find a heart monitor that includes a
strap that goes around your chest and a watch-like device that will
allow you to easily read the results.
5. Burn Those Calories
Your body is working all the time:
pumping blood, processing food, even thinking. The body’s unit of
measurement for the amount of work it’s doing is the calorie. When you
sit and think, you burn about a calorie per minute. When you take a
walk, your body might burn from 3 to 6 calories a minute. For every
liter of oxygen (per kilogram of body weight) you process during aerobic
exercise, the body burns 5 calories. The more energy you use, the more
oxygen you process, and the more calories you burn. Ideally, you should
burn 300 calories or more per exercise session.
Your body’s calorie usage
during any given activity is determined by your weight, your fitness
level, and the amount of work you’re doing. Because of the difference in
the muscle/fat ratio of their bodies, as well as their fitness levels, a
slight, older woman burns fewer calories taking a walk than a young,
muscular man.
6. Feel Free to Fidget
You probably know a few
fidgety people. These people’s bodies simply tell them to move more.
They’re always busy, always moving, and rarely sit still. They tap their
feet, drum their fingers on the table, and are constantly on the go! It
sounds silly, but fidgeting can actually burn between 500 and 1,000
calories per day, about 1 pound per week! So go ahead. Feel free to
fidget and watch your metabolic furnace burn up those calories!
7. Exercise Six to Eight Hours a Week
With 168 hours in each
week, it really isn’t irrational to suggest that you engage in 6 to 8
hours of deliberate exercise per week. Because of the time spent
sleeping, eating, driving, watching television, and sitting at a desk
working, most people lead fairly sedentary lives. Exercise vigorously
most days of the week and you’ll be more likely to achieve your physical
goals. Exercise, by the way, should require you to huff, puff, grunt,
and wince. Challenging yourself is how you make progress. If you set
aside deliberate time for legitimate exercise and work hard, your
body—and your metabolic rate—will respond accordingly.
