Exercise for Your Health
Endurance
... to make the heart and lungs work better and with less effort ... to improve sleep and mental health ... to reduce the effects of stress ... to use more calories and burn extra fat ...
In order to improve your endurance, otherwise known as cardiovascular fitness or exercise tolerance, exercise must use oxygen or be "aerobic."
Important points:
- It must use the large muscles of the arms or legs.
- It must feel like moderate work, with faster breathing and more heartbeats each minute.
- It must occur regularly at least three times each week.
- It must be continuous for 20 minutes, not including warm-up and cool-down.
Endurance exercise
Choose an exercise that is convenient and enjoyable, and start now.
A good 6-week starter program of aerobic exercise is described here that will work for dancing, walking, biking, swimming, soccer, basketball, or whatever you choose. Remember to warm up and cool down, and don't increase your level more than once each week to allow your body to adapt to your new level of activity.
Weeks 1 and 2
Exercise continuously for 15 minutes three times each week, not focusing on distance or speed. Simply work on getting your time in while maintaining a steady pace and breathing deeply.
Week 3
Exercise for 20 minutes, three times this week. The exercise should feel like mild work, making you breathe deeply and feel warm. Your heart rate and
breathing will usually get faster while exercising...but will return to normal
very rapidly after stopping. You should not exercise so hard that you feel
you can't get your breath or your heart pounds uncomfortably.
Week 4
Exercise for 25 minutes, three times this week. The exercise should feel like moderate work and make you feel warm. You should be able to carry on a conversation without becoming more than slightly short of breath. Slow down if you cannot.
Week 5
Exercise for 30 minutes, three times this week. The exercise should feel like moderate work, just like in Week 4. Aerobic activity begins to burn fat and cholesterol after 20 minutes.
Week 6
Exercise for 35 minutes, three times this week. The exercise should feel like moderately heavy work.
If one of your goals of exercise is weight loss, 5 days of aerobic exercise for 35 minutes or more is recommended. After 6 weeks, you can either gradually increase exercise time to 45 or 60 minutes or increase the pace within the 35-minute time frame.
Finding your heart rate
If you are curious about how fast your heart is beating when you exercise, here is how to find your heart rate (beats/minute):
- Immediately after exercising, place the tip of your third finger lightly over the blood vessel in your neck located to the left or right of your Adam's apple, or place it on your wrist just below the base of your thumb.
- Count the beats you feel for 10 seconds.
- Multiply the number of beats by six to determine beats per minute.
- If your heart rate is above 170 beats per minute, you may need guidance about your exercise.