What Makes a Workout Cardio?
(Continued from Page 1)How High Should My Heart Rate Be? To get the most out of a cardio workout, you will first want to figure out what your maximum heart rate (beats per minute) is. To do that, subtract your age from 226 for women or 220 for men. Now, you don’t want to workout at your maximum heart rate. You want to workout in your target heart rate zone, which the American Heart Association suggests is 50% to 75% of the maximum heart rate for healthy people. You would calculate more toward 50% if you are just getting in shape and more toward 75% if you are in great shape. Here is a sample calculation for a 40-year-old woman just getting started in cardio workouts. 226 – 40 (her age) = 180 maximum heart rate (beats per minute) 180 x .50 = 90 heart beats per minute as her target heart rate Make it easy on yourself when you are working out, by figuring that the number of beats you need in just 10 seconds will be your target heart
