Since birth to the moment it stops your heart works inexhaustibly. In your life time your heart ticks more than two and a half billion times without a moment of rest. Assessing your heart rate, at which your heart beats, is a useful and easy way to evaluate how hard also your heart works at any given time. Your heart works harder and faster during exercising to cope with muscle demand for blood and oxygen. The faster it beats the more intensive the physical activity is. If you, during physical exercise, chart your heart rate you could have a very good way of monitoring the intensity level of your exercise.
Checking your pulse is the most common way of assessing your heart rate during exercise or rest and, the best time to evaluate your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is straight after waking in the morning and before you leave your bed. You could do this by placing your index finger anywhere an artery is going past close to the skin area such as the wrist, temple, and the back of your knee. Take your pulse for three or four different mornings, for a minute each time, and work out on the last day the average. Your RHR is a good indicant of your basic physical fitness level. Most of these values range between 50 and 75 beats per minute (bpm). The average resting value is about 70 bpm. However, individuals that are fit could have rates of low 40s.
Once you know your RHR you will want to find out what is your maximum heart rate (MHR).
Maximum Heart Rate is the number of beats per minute your heart could reach. It is a very important bit of data to be used as a marker for physical exercise intensity. Your MHR is genetically determent- you are born with it. A precise way to predict your MHR is to take a SubMax test from which you could then work out your MHR. However, the most basic way, serves as an estimate, of getting your Maximum Heart Rate is the 220 minus your age method. This means. If you are 40 years old your MHR is (220-40 =180 bpm).
Your RHR and MHR are crucial values to determent a different heart rate your Target Heart Rate (THR). This is the desirable rate during aerobic exercise; which enables your lungs and heart to gain the most benefit from your physical exertion. This depends upon your age and previous conditioning and training, Your THR for moderate physical activity should be between 50 and 70% of your MHR.
This implies if you are 40 years old individual your MHR for your age should be (220-40 = 180 bpm). In this case your 50% and 70% target rate would be:
50% level: 180 x 0.50 = 90 bpm and
70% level: 180 x 0.70 = 126 bpm.
For a high intensity physical activity your THR should be 70 to 85% of your MHR.
Another low tech but useful method is: During physical exercise you should undergo some difficulty in breathing; you should nevertheless be in a position to talk without too much try. If you have a lot of difficulty to talk your degree of exertion may be too high and you can not provide your muscles with adequate oxygen.
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