Very light exertion. This is one of the most widely used methods of determining whether you’re working out at the appropriate level of effort. Informal as it sounds, research has shown that it’s an accurate predictor of intensity. In recent studies where subjects were asked to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while running on treadmills, those who could comfortably do so also had heart and breathing rates that were within their target aerobic zones. The converse was also true: Those who were huffing and puffing their way through the recitation were generally running too hard. Running in the Cold.
How to Start a Walking Routine. Tracking your fitness doesn’t get cheaper, easier, or more convenient than the method recommended by exercise physiologist and coach Susan Paul of the Track Shack Foundation in Orlando. Take your heart rate for one minute first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. Put two fingers on your pulse, and time the number of beats per minute. Write the number down in your training log. As you get fitter, your resting heart rate will get lower. That’s because your heart is getting stronger, so it doesn’t have to make as many beats to pump the blood that your body needs. “When your heart rate gets lower," Paul says, "you know that your body is responding to the training and getting more fit.”
Pace. This term refers to the number of minutes it takes to cover one mile. So if it takes you 15 minutes to walk one mile, you would be walking a “15-minute” pace, which might be expressed as 15:00/mile. Most training watches—made by companies like Garmin, Polar, Timex, and Nike—calculate pace for you by tracking how far you’ve gone and how long you’ve been going. Or you can track it yourself by simply timing your workout and figuring out how far you’ve gone.
When you’re first starting out, it’s best to focus on the time you spend exercising, rather than pace, or the number of miles you cover and the amount of time it takes to cover those miles. It’s the time that you consistently spend working out that is going to determine how much fitness you develop and the overall health benefits you gain. As you get more comfortable running and walking, you can start to track your pace on each workout to gauge your fitness gains.
How to Pace Your Run. Tracking your heart rate with a monitor (which reads your pulse via a sensor built into a chest strap) tells you precisely how hard—or easy—you’re working. A heart-rate monitor will track how many beats per minute your heart is taking so that you can make sure you’re working within a particular percentage of your maximum heart rate during every workout. For instance, you’ll want to make sure that you’re running within 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate on most of your workouts.
But how do you find out your maximum heart rate? Most experts agree that a widely used formula—220 minus your age—may be inaccurate for most people. Use our heart rate calculator Other Hearst Subscriptions.
That said, even with an accurate max heart rate, there are still going to be limitations when you’re using a heart-rate monitor to determine how hard you’re working. If a heart-rate monitor accidentally gets wet, say from rain or sweat, it might stop sensing your heart rate. If you’re working out in a gym, other machines might interfere with the signals. If you’re dehydrated, if it’s a very hot day, or if you’re in pain, your heart rate might skyrocket, even if you’re running at a slower pace.
Perceived exertion. Using the Borg RPE (Relative Perceived Exertion) scale, you can monitor your intensity based on how you feel. This method uses a numbered scale from 6 to 20 for rating exercise intensity. You assign a number based on how hard you feel that you’re working. Resting heart rate.
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- 20- Maximum exertion
- 19- Heart rate zones during exercise
- 17- Very hard exertion
- 15- Hard exertion
- 13- Shoes & Gear
- 11- Light exertion
- 9- Health - Injuries
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- 6- No exertion at all
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