Bring your resting heart rate down

What is your resting heart rate?

This is a person's heart rate at rest. The best time to find out your resting heart rate is in the morning, after a good night's sleep, and before you get out of bed. The heart beats about 60 to 80 times a minute when we're at rest. Resting heart rate usually rises with age, and it's generally lower in physically fit people. The more well-conditioned your body, the less effort and fewer beats per minute it takes your heart to pump blood to your body at rest.

What is maximum heart rate?
Maximum Heart Rate (Max HR) is the highest number of times your heart can contract in one minute. Max HR is the most useful tool to be used in determining training intensities, because it can be individually measured or predicted.

How to determine maximum heart rate?
You can define your maximum heart rate by
1) having it measured in an exercise test
2) using age-predicted maximum heart rate formulas.

Predicted Maximum HR There is a mathematical formula that allows you to predict your Max HR with some accuracy. It is called the "age-adjusted formula".

WOMEN: 226-your age = age-adjusted Max HR
MEN: 220-your age = age-adjusted Max HR

If you are a 30-year-old woman, your age-adjusted maximum heart rate is 226- 30 years = 196 bpm (beats per minute).

These formulas apply only to adults. The generally accepted error in age-predicted formulas is + - 10-15 beats per minute, which is due to different inherited characteristics and exercise training.

Ideal For	Benefit Desired	Intensity Level (% Maximum heart rate)
Light Exercise	Maintain Healthy Heart/Get Fit	50% - 60%
Weight Management	Lose Weight/ Burn Fat	60% - 70%
Aerobic Base Building	Increase Stamina Aerobic Endurance	70% - 80%
Optimal Conditioning	Maintain Excellent Fitness Condition	80% - 90%
Elite Athlete	Maintain Superb Athletic Condition	90% - 100%

For example, if you want to Lose Weight/Burn Fat: do your favorite exercise at 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate, based on your age, for at least 30 minutes a day, three times a week. To program your Heart Rate Monitor into your Ideal Weight Management Zone, use the Target Heart Rate Chart above.
From: Heart monitors