Workout Intensity: How Hard Should I Be Working Out?

A good effective way to avoid hitting a plateau during your fitness goals is to make sure you're always working out in your target heart rate for your age. When your body speed increases, naturally so will your heart rate to match the intensity that you're asking your body to reach. To high too fast if you're an individual that hasn't worked out consistently, isn't the smartest thing you should do to your body. You should start off with a lower exercise heart rate, until you can consistently stay in your range for 30 minutes consistently. You will find your target heart rate by following this simple formula: 226-your age if you're a woman, and 220-your age if you're a man. The number you receive will be represented as your maximum heart rate. A person won't need to reach their maximum heart rate intensity in order to achieve the results that they want, but the higher the beats per minute you can achieve, the more calories you'll burn off. If you divide heart rate target zones by percentage of the person's maximum heart rate, it breaks out into five zones. Each zone has different benefits, and in my opinion all the zones will help an individual become healthier!

The first fitness zone is called the Healthy Heart Zone. In this fitness zone, a person will still be able to carry on a conversation with the person next to them on a nearby treadmill or elliptical machine. This zone is very comfortable no matter the age of the person exercising. You will more than likely be walking if you find yourself in this zone, and if you're a senior citizen age person, I'd advise you start in this zone until you can achieve your target heart rate zone for at least 30 minutes consecutively. Your workout in this zone won't give you the most cardiovascular benefits, but it will help decrease body fat, blood pressure, and cholesterol. The Healthy Heart Zone is 50-60% of your maximum beats per minute.

The 2nd fitness zone is called the Fitness Zone. In this fitness zone, you will burn more calories per minute than in the healthy heart zone because the exercise level is a little more intense. Since you will be going faster and covering more distance, you'll burn off more calories. The calories burned off will depend on the distance you cover and your weight more than any other factors. A person will get the same benefits as the Healthy Heart Zone, but obviously with the higher intensity, you'll burn off more calories. This zone is 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.

The 3rd fitness zone is called the Aerobic fitness zone. This is the zone where people will experience benefits like endurance, stamina, building new blood vessels, and increasing your heart and lung capacity. With the increase in your workout intensity, you will burn more calories in the same amount of time, because you're covering more distance in the same time. Calories burned depend most on distance and your weight. You will not be able to achieve this intensity by walking, you may have to switch to jogging to get into this heart rate zone. This fitness zone is 70-80% of a person's maximum heart rate.

The 4th fitness zone is called the Anaerobic training zone. This intense exercise will improve the amount of oxygen you can consume, which is also referred to as your VO2 maximum/volume. This heart rate level is when your body begins to produce lactic acid. You burn more calories with the lower heart rate training zones, because you're covering more distance per minute. You will not be able to achieve this heart rate by walking, you'll need to switch to jogging or running. This zone is 80-90% of your maximum heart rate, and very well could be the last zone you'll need to reach fantastic fitness results.

The 5th and last training zone is called the maximum threshold or red-line training zone. In this zone, You can't go anymore intense, and most people can't stay in this zone for more than a few minutes. This zone should only be used for short bursts, where you work intensely for a minute and then drop back down to a lower intensity for several minutes, and then repeat again. You should consult with your doctor to make sure you can work out at such a high heart rate safely. I've heard of long distance runners, or Olympic sprinters training in this zone, but not average people. You'll burn lots of calories per minute in this zone, but it's just not as practical or safe for most average individuals who want to achieve fitness results.

If you're an individual who hasn't been working out in months, and know that you're not where you need to be concerning cardiovascular fitness, it's never wrong to start out at a very conservative heart rate. If you can easily stay in a zone for 30-45 minutes consecutively, then it might be the time to search for a higher training zone.

Now that you know your target heart rate, check your pulse regularly as you exercise. An easy way to do this is to count your pulse for 6 seconds using your watch or a clock, and then multiply this number by 10 to get your beats per minute. You can feel your pulse in several ways, such as by placing your fingers firmly over the inside of your wrist or on your neck just below the angle of your jaw. You can also place your palm over your heart and count the number of beats that you feel. Most workout facilities have treadmills, and elliptical machines that have heart rate monitors built-in with the machinery. If it's in your budget, you can never go wrong with buying a heart rate monitor that you can wear at all times during exercise.

In conclusion, nobody ever wants to experience a fitness plateau. To avoid plateaus, simply change up your workout routine, by either increasing your intensity, or adding weight resistance to your cardio workouts. Always make sure that you have someway to monitor your target heart rate zone, because your heart rate controls ultimately how many and what type of calories your body is burning off.

My name is Pierce Calloway, and I'm currently a personal trainer at the YMCA in Albany, OR. My online store can be found out at http://www.thebosuball.com/, where I sell fitness products that anyone can use! My goal in life and fitness is to share the love of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. God has created our bodies to do amazing things, and to reach people for him in many different ways in life. We need to instill the discipline and overall effort to make sure we're committing ourselves to the daily routines that will make us the most successful! Whether it's ministry or fitness, there are daily requirements of our bodies. When you decide to workout, please make sure it's at the correct intensity to make a difference. I tell people all the time that "something is better than nothing", but maybe I need to stop saying that to people. You really are selling yourself short when you are somehow receiving huge amounts of energy after your personal workouts. If we're burning calories and energy during a workout, then why should that equal bursts of energy for several hours??? Our bodies are telling ourselves, that we had a lot more to give! Please make sure you're working out at your prescribed heart rate for at least 30 mins. per workout, and if you need assistance with finding your target heart rate, please consult a trainer or doctor for help.

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Zumba Toning Sticks - Put Some Fun in Your Exercise Regimen

A lot of people fail to lose weight because they find their usual exercise programs extremely boring. Going to the gym every day, running on the same treadmill and lifting the same weights in exactly the same positions is bound to get on your nerves after a few days. So how do you lose weight then? The answer lies in Zumba - a refreshingly unique dancing course created by dancer and choreographer Alberto "Beto" Perez. Zumba is a strenuous and highly active fitness program which has its origins in Latin dance. It has caught the attention of various fitness chains because it pumps new life into an otherwise monotonous weight loss program. To further the impact which this unique aerobic program has on its participants, Zumba toning sticks have also been designed.

Losing weight and fat through Zumba alone is a lengthy process. Even though the tunes of Salsa, Merengue and Mambo melodies can get you to start dancing within minutes, losing body fat and strengthening the muscles takes time. To speed it up, the original innovators started teaching their students to use Zumba toning Sticks - light weight sticks to use while the regular dance routines to increase calorie burn. These Zumba toning sticks are like the regular XCO tubes which many dancers use in place of samba balls.

Doing Zumba with these sticks puts pressure on various other body parts in turn shapes up your overall frame much more rapidly. These tools have dumbbells fitted on them help in spreading the effects of the dance to various parts of the body while you are doing the routine. This eventually helps in burning a much larger number of calories than what you would burn with simple aerobic or weight lifting exercises. Many people have also experienced more fun while doing Zumba which keeps them highly motivated to lose weight.

After you have practiced your regular Zumba routines with these Zumba toning sticks for about three weeks, you will notice how well your balance and posture has improved. A certain muscle tightening in the abdominal, back and leg areas can be easily. This in turn motivates dancers to dance even more consistently. After 6-8 weeks, even highly unfit people can start doing lunges and squats with ease. However, ensure that you close each aerobic session with lateral stretching as this will properly cool your muscles and will prevent cramps and muscle deformities.

So the next time you begin feeling that you are getting nowhere with your fitness program, buy Zumba toning sticks and start learning Zumba!

We at Zumba Class Locator can help you find a Zumba class near you. You can also learn more about Zumba Toning Sticks at our website.

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The Beginner's Cardio Guide To Burn Fat And Get Abs Fast

I decided to provide you with the complete beginner's guide to cardio for a number of reasons.

First, many people start out with their cardio workouts wrong and end up losing out on results they could be getting, and therefore they don't reach their fitness goals as fast as they possibly could be.

Secondly, I feel that no one really explains where to start out as a beginner with cardio and how to progress with their improving bodies to promote ultimate fat loss.

And lastly, there are key tips to proper cardio that no one seems to understand, including experts, and I wanted to clarify most of this and explain the importance of these cardio "secrets."

All I want is to help you reach your true fitness goals and to help you burn fat permanently and dynamically through effective cardio. If you never knew where to start with cardio or you're looking for tips and secrets on how to improve your results, this is the guide for you, so pay very careful attention because this is where you'll start burning fat.

Never Start A cardio Session Without Stretching

What I tend to see with a lot of new beginners starting out looking to drop weight fast with cardio, is that they completely neglect stretching and jump right into their sessions.

This is a big mistake and you miss out on tons of results while increasing the chance of injury, which is bad if you want to stay committed to your workouts.

If you really want to get the most out of your cardio and promote fast calorie-burning, you need to simply take 5-7 extra minutes to stretch out and warm up your muscles prior to your cardio.

By doing this, you reduce any risk of injury, maximize your body's ability to perform longer and harder, and you prepare your body's natural fat burning processes and increase your metabolic rate prior to exercising.

The other thing is that you should stretch out 5-7 minutes after your cardio and cool down your muscles.

This helps them recover faster from what they were put through, naturally improves your body's ability to deal with excess weight, and you relieve the stress from your body which prevents muscle spasms and cramps after sessions.

So if there's one thing I'd like to stress, it's to stretch out as a beginner and never think your actual cardio is more important to burning fat than your stretching.

They're both equal and you won't get awesome results when you do one and not the other.

Increase Your Flexibility And Perform Flexibility Exercises

On the days that you don't perform cardio, or even the morning prior to your cardio workout, you should spend some extra time doing some flexibility training.

Most everyone (including myself) neglects flexibility and only focuses on muscle building and weight loss, which isn't bad, but it puts them at risk later in their life as they get older.

Flexibility is absolutely key to just being able to live healthy and long and is especially important for promoting faster weight loss.

The key to real weight loss is to constantly find ways to improve your metabolic processes and calorie burning, and one of those ways is by improving flexibility.

I suggest you get your flexibility up by performing 5-7 minutes of powerful exercises whenever you have time.

By doing this, you'll see that you can go longer with your cardio, burn more calories, and your body will be able to accomplish so much more than if you didn't have proper flexibility.

So, go out and take a gymnastics class or something, as long as you do something to increase your body's natural flexibility. There are so many flexibility exercises, but you just have to find the ones that work.

Start Off Slow And Progress To High Intensity Intervals

One of the most prominent problems with many individuals is their impatience. This includes me especially, because I don't want to wait to get results, I want to do anything and take any magic pill I can to get Ultimate Fitness Results.

However, life just doesn't happen like that and you can't just expect to lose 50 pounds of excess fat in one day and build a toned, muscular body within a week.

Anyone that tells you that is possible is just lying to you, and I don't want to fill your head with lies.

I want to give you the straight facts and let you know that it does take time to progress into hard cardio in order to lose massive amounts of weight, and it does take your dedication and commitment to get to that point one day.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I am saying that you can't jump straight into cardio and run 5 miles with a 40 lb. weight vest on for your first day.

You have to slowly introduce your body into much harder work in order to burn more fat, but as a beginner you're going to have to start off slow.

For example, if you've been lazy for the past few years and rarely get off the couch, then it may be a good idea to start off with some slow, steady jump roping in order to get your body into the habit of working hard again to burn calories.

On the other hand, if you have some small ounce of physical activity that you perform on a daily basis like play basketball for an hour at your local gym, then you may be able to progress past the "beginner" stage and move into something a little more challenging.

All I'm saying is that you have to listen to your body and study yourself to know what your body can handle, and what you're going to slowly work up to.

I will say this though, once you work up to extremely high interval training and begin burning insane amounts of calories for weight loss, you'll see a dramatic increase in your results.

However, you have to be smart for now, start off slow and take those few weeks of getting your body used to hard work through cardio.

Yes, the awesome results won't be instant, but the way you're going to get amazing weight loss results is by slowly working your way up there.

No one said achieving your fat loss goal was easy, but it can be much easier if you do it right by starting off slow and eventually working up to harder cardio sessions. Trust me, this is when I learned how to be patient and the reward for patience is Ultimate Results.

And finally, If you're looking for the absolute best tips for how to get six pack abs then I highly recommend you download my free eBooks which show you how to get six pack abs naturally with awesome secrets that truly work.

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