    
Barbra Nelson
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 05:16 pm: | 
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As a personal trainer it is my responsibility to determine a couple of things before I recommend any exercise. If you have two or more risk factors such as heart attacks in your family, smoking, high blood pressure...then you should definitely double check with your doctor, but if your only problem is that you are overweight, then I would want to know how you could handle a step test. At 20 years old a man in excellent condition with a resting heart rate (count how many beets per minute before you lift your head off the pillow in the morning for 3 days and take the average. this is your resting heart rate) should have a post 3 minute step test heart rate between 70 and 78 if his resting heart rate is between 49-55. A woman of the same age with a resting heart rate between 54 and 60 should have a post 3 minute step test heart rate between 72 and 83. To take a step test either ask your local gym or your doctor, or try it at home with a 12" step, a stop watch and a metronome or music recorded at 96 bpm (beets per minute). prior to taking the test make sure you haven't had any non-prescription heart rate altering medicine, caffeine, exercise or a large meal. You should be rested. Locate your pulse at your wrist using your first two fingers - not your thumb - to make sure you know where it is. step for 3 minutes (stop if you feel ill or faint). At the end of the three minutes, find your pulse at your wrist (keep your wrist below your heart) within 5 seconds after you stop stepping. Take pulse for one minute. If you fall within the numbers I previously mentioned you are in excellent shape and unless bothered by bad knees or ankles, should be able to continue running. If you resting heart rate is in between 71-73 and your recovery heart rate (after the test) is 107-114, you are considered below average for a male. At 74-78 resting and 118-124 recovery for a woman, you are considered below average. At these numbers you may want to consider taking it slow. I highly recommend fast walking over running, and checking your pulse to see if you are more than 80% of your resting heart rate at any time during your workout. If you exceed 80% you are probably pushing too hard and should slow down until recovered before increasing intensity again. An interval workout is great for a beginner or someone getting back into working out. |
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