Exercise Calculations
It is vital for your training that you are constantly monitoring your progress and tracking improvement. However, you also need calculate how many repetitions (reps) you are performing, your heart rate and your oxygen levels. If you do so you can assure that your exercise is organized, safe and effective.
Target Heart Rate Calculator
Calculate your target heart rate by using this target heart rate calculator. Just plug in your age, and hit the button and the calculator will determine at which rate your heart needs to be when exercising to burn calories and acquire ultimate fitness levels and results!
What Is a Target Heart Rate?
A target heart rate is a strategic tool, but measurement that an individual, medical professional, and fitness experts use in order to achieve maximum health levels for cardiovascular health, and fitness levels for aerobic health and diet success. A target heart rate is the extreme opposite of the basal heart rate (which it is derived when the person is asleep or not in any movement), instead it is achieved when working out and performing exercise.
Training Zones
Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) — 50 – 60% of maximum heart rate: The easiest zone and probably the best zone for people just starting a fitness program. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!
Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) — 60 – 70% of maximum heart rate: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%.
Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) — 70 – 80% of maximum heart rate: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.
Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) — 80 – 90% of maximum heart rate: Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardio respiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you’ll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.
Red Line (Maximum Effort) — 90 – 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.
How to Monitor Heart Rate
Wearing a heart rate monitor is an easy, accurate method of checking your heart rate… but you don’t have a monitor. Here is another easy way.
The easiest place to feel your own heart beat is the carotid artery. Place your index finger on the side of your neck between the middle of your collar bone and your jaw line. (You may also use the radial artery on the underside of your wrist.) You can count the beats for a full 60 seconds or count for 6 seconds and add a zero at the end. If you felt your heart beat 14 times in 6 seconds, the number would be 140 for a full 60 seconds. Counting for only six seconds is a convenient method, of course it is more accurate to count for the full 60 seconds. You can use several varieties of this method (30 seconds x 2, 15 seconds x 4, etc.). The longer you count the more accurate your reading. Whatever you choose, be consistent in your method.
One Rep Max Weight Lifting Calculator
This calculator can be used to estimate how much you can lift for one repetition. This can give you a guideline on how many repetitions you should do for what weight you are lifting. You can work it out here.
What Is a Repetition and why should I measure them?
When performing, weight lifting exercises, a repetition or rep is a numeral used to determine the number of exercises that you are to perform for each individual type of weight lifting exercise.
In fitness, a repetition is defined as the performance of a single movement or exercise, through a full range of motion. A predetermined number of repetitions performed in a focused and rhythmic manner is termed the workout set, and the amount of weight or resistance used for the exercise is termed the load. Taken together, these three variables influence the intensity of a resistance training workout.
Within these factors, there is an inverse relationship between the repetition and the load. A heavier load will require a lower number of repetitions, whereas a lighter load will allow a higher number of repetitions. Depending on the goals of the workout, repetition and load can be adjusted along a continuum with high load and low repetitions at one end, and the reverse at the other. The load is often expressed as a percentage of one repetition maximum, or 1RM — the maximum weight an athlete can lift for a single repetition of a particular exercise.
VO2 Max Calculator
Find out what your VO2 max is by using this VO2 max calculator. Just plug in your gender, age, weight, time to walk a mile, and heart rate at the end of the mile, and you will have the answer in an instant!
What is VO2 Max?
VO2 max has been defined as: “The highest rate of oxygen consumption attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise”
As exercise intensity increases so does oxygen consumption. However, a point is reached where exercise intensity can continue to increase without the associated rise in oxygen consumption.
The point at which oxygen consumption plateaus defines the VO2 max or an individual’s maximal aerobic capacity. It is generally considered the best indicator of cardio-respiratory endurance and aerobic fitness. However, as well discuss in a moment, it is more useful as an indicator of a person’s aerobic potential or upper limit than as a predictor of success in endurance events.
Aerobic power, aerobic capacity and maximal oxygen uptake are all terms used interchangeably with VO2 max. VO2 max is usually expressed relative to bodyweight because oxygen and energy needs differ relative to size. It can also be expressed relative to body surface area and this may be a more accurate when comparing children and oxygen uptake between sexes.
Conclusion
These are a few calculations we recommend that you use often. This is because they not only give you a guide to how much exercise you should be doing. They also provide you with readings that you can benchmark from and measure progress.