Monday, September 21, 2009

How Do I Start Exercising, and How Do I do It Safely

This is one of the most important questions especially since many obese persons may have medical problems. The simple answer is that you should have a full physical and talk to your physician before beginning any strenuous exercise program. I have to stick with this advice, however, many people will try to exercise without seeing their physician. Additionally the truth is that unless he does a stress test on you it is still important to do these recommendations.
So these recommendations are after you get a clean bill of health from your doctor you still need to follow these recommendations to stay safe.
Now the main reason why people get into trouble while exercising is that their heart requires more blood then they can pump or then can get through clogged arteries. The faster the heart beats the more oxygen and therefore the more blood it needs. If either the heart doesn't pump enough blood or not enough blood gets through the arteries to the muscle of the heart you can have either a heart attack or angina (chest pain without a heart attack from an oxygen hunger of the heart). Let me state clearly that if you get chest pain, pain radiating into your arm or neck or severe shortness of breath you should stop exercising and either call 911 or see your physician.
So, how can you know your limit so you are less likely to get into trouble. Well there is a rule of thumb that your maximum safe heart rate is that rate calculated by subtracting your age from 220. For example my age is 56 so my maximum safe heart rate is 164 beats per minute. To be safe you then take 85% of this number which is 139. So my maximum safe heart rate is 139. You can also use this calculator to calculate your max. safe heart rate: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/target-heart-rate/SM00083 .
You also need to know your target heart rate. This is the heart rate you should strife to hit to get maximal aerobic advantage. You should attempt to be above this number for most of your exercise program to get both maximal calorie burn and maximal conditioning. This target heart rate is 80% of your maximal safe heart rate or for me 115 beats per minute. When you use the calculator linked above you get two numbers. The first is your target heart rate and the second is your maximal heart rate.
If you do not have significant heart disease your body will find this range. If during exercise you go above your maximal safe heart rate there may be a significant underlying medical problem and you should stop exercising until you see your physician.
If you are not hitting your target heart rate you are not obtaining the maximal benefit you can obtain from your exercise regiment.

So how should you check your heart rate. The simple way is to take a momentary break and count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to get your heart rate per minute. An even simple way is for approximately $30 you can get a ring or wrist device that measures your heart rate and some also do your blood pressure (more about that in a moment) . I strongly recommend the later. I recommend that you use this every day you exercise for the first two weeks and then when ever you increase the intensity of your exercise.
In regard to blood pressure. When I started to exercise I wore a wrist band that measured heart rate and blood pressure and got scared the first reading I did. I had a reading of 170/110. What was the problem? Was I in that bad shape? Did I need to see my doctor right away (I called him on my cell right then)? We realized I had my wrist at my waist adding 21 inches between my heart and my wrist level. This is over 500 mm distance. That would be 40 mm of mercury (13 times heavier then water) so my blood pressure was actually 130 over 70 and when I retook my blood pressure with my wrist at my heart level that is the value I got. Science and physics is wonderful! It always works out, you just need to know all the variables.
As you exercise you will find two things. First, when you begin it may take a long time (15-20 minutes for me) till your heart rate returns to normal and as you get into condition a very short time (2-3 minutes now) for your heart rate to come down to normal. Second, you need to exercise harder to get your heart rate to target (I am now jogging up 25 flights of stairs {two flights at a time}). Faster recovery and need for harder exercise prove you are getting into good condition. Congratulations.

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