Friday, November 20, 2009

Cardio and you!

I've been hearing a lot of buzz words dealing with heart rate and exercise terms like VO2max, Target rate, aerobic, anaerobic, etc. The terms are vague and ominous sounding, but without a decoder I was not understanding them beyond knowing that target rate is best for fat burning. In this post I hope to remedy that. Click on the chart below, find your age across the top and directly below will be your heart rates associated with the various "buzzword" zones


Lets take it from the top down VO2Max this is where your body can no longer provide the muscles with the required oxygen to metabolize nutrients that provide energy. You can keep this rate for a while, but you will be feeling it in a day or two!

Next up is the almost as hardcore, but infinitely more sustainable Anaerobic zone - you still are running an oxygen deficit but you can keep this up for quite some time. While in the anaerobic range don't plan on holding long drawn out conversations or singing - your lungs have better things to do - you will also be feeling this the next day, but it's not too bad, once you get used to it.

I will combine aerobic and weight control zones into the same description - this is where your body burns fat most efficiently. it is also where you can actually hold conversations and concentration on running is not as essential.

The last zone Moderate I can only think that you can get here via walking to the fridge for pumpkin pie - to increase the burn of that workout pile the whipped cream high!

I spend most of my workouts in the anaerobic range. I rarely hit VO2max except when doing stairs or running while listening to Pantera. All this information and more can be found on wikipedia, I just thought I'd save the reader (and myself) additional hassle by posting it here.

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