A Great Fitness Workout

What Makes a great fitness workout? Combining a fitness workout with a strong calorie conscious diet can produce incredible results. I've lost 60 pounds and nearly 20 inches around my body by just using great fitness workouts I found online. Workouts consist of two important aspects, cardiovascular exercise and strength or weight training.

Cardiovascular exercise, sometimes just called “cardio”, is any activity which raises your heart rate level above normal, but not to the max. The best cardiovascular fitness workouts keep your target heart rate at between 50% (beginner) to 85% (athletes and the very fit). See the information about finding your heart rate for exercise, below. You can find free workout programs online at many sites, I recommend Sparkpeople for comprehensive free body fitness information

A cardio workout can be any exercise that raises your heart rate between 50%-85% of its max range. These include, but are not limited to the following: running/jogging, walking, Pilates, yoga, swimming, stair climbing, hiking etc.

The harder the exercise, the more muscles used during the exercise, the more calories and muscles built. If you're looking to stay healthy, but not lose weight, it's important to adjust your diet to you fitness routine. If you're looking to lose weight, its important to reduce your calories with food and exercise at between 55%-65% of your max heart rate.

Exercises that burn the most calories are: running/jogging, elliptical machine, stair masters, high impact aerobics, cardio kickboxing and swimming.

Exercises that burn the least calories are : Pilates, Yoga, walking, and anything done leisurely.

Keep in mind that while Yoga, Walking and Pilates burn less calories they also build more muscle, the yoga and Pilates, or can be done by anyone, walking. These two aspects are just as important as burning more calories.

For middle ground you can try doing stationary biking, recumbant biking, low impact aerobics, water aerobics, or wogging (fast walking almost running).

To find your resting heart rate (the number of beats your heart makes while resting ie sitting watching TV), count the number of pulses your heart makes during a 10 second period and multiply that by 6 (60 seconds = 1 minute). You can find your pulse by putting two fingers lightly against the inside of your wrist (as shown to the right). Once you have your resting heart rate (commonly called RHR), you can find your max heart rate (MHR) by using this formula : 206.9 – (0.67 x your age). To find the best training levels ie between 50%-85% of your (MHR(max heart rate) - RHR (resting heart rate))x Percentage. It sounds complicated when written down, but I will give you an example to make it easier.

In order to practice fitness workouts that maximize your cardio exercise you'll want to train at the minimum of 50% of your max heart rate. For weight loss, its best to do the maximum you are able without burning out.

When I take my pulse I counted 13 beats in 10 seconds.

I then multiply 13 by 6 (10 seconds x 6 = 60 seconds) which gives me 78 beats per minute

78 beats per minute is my resting heart rate ( while I sat here and typed I took it :))

Because I exercise frequently, and I'm trying to lose weight, I would like to exercise at approximately 70% of the target heart rate window (between 50%-85% of MHR)

Therefore I would find my max heart rate

206.9 – (0.67 * 38) =181.44

Now I will subtract my resting heart rate from this amount

181.44 – 78 = 103.44

mulitply that by the 70% I want to work my heart at

103.44* 70% = 72.48

add that to my resting heart rate

1. + 78 = 150.48

That is where I want to keep my heart rate at when I'm working out to get the results that I want. You can calculate the least by plugging in your numbers, or you can do what I normally do, go online and find a heart rate calculator (aww I waited til you did all that work to tell you there's one online). It was definitely on purpose, as learning the formula will help you remember the reasoning.

Now you have the basis for a great cardio fitness workout, however you're not done. There is another type of workout which is equally important. The strength training workout.

To workout effectively, you'll want to strength train at least 2 times a week. The best results are at 3 times a week. It's important to note that working the same muscles everyday actually produces less results. Understanding why may not be important, but I will explain anyway. Muscles take nearly 48 hours to repair and build, if you do not give them this time, they will become overworked which causes strain and increases the time to build. If you must train everyday, work different muscles.

If you want to build more muscle, it's best to use the highest weights you can bear when lifting and do many reps and sets. If your objective is to keep muscle while losing weight, or just tone your muscle mass, then use a moderate amount of weight, still tough to do reps with but not so tough you can't lift after 5 times, and do 12-15 reps and two sets. If you want to look like a body builder, you're going to have maintain only 6%-9% body fat. if you're not going to manage that, do not worry about looking bulky. For men, if you want a body like a bodybuilder, strength training and weight lifting are not enough. You will have to adjust your eating habits. Think of a football player, (American football), and you will understand what I mean. American football players are big guys, but they are also muscular, very very muscular. However, because most do not keep body fat percentages low, they do not look muscular.

Now you have the basics of a good fitness workout. Cardiovascular exercise and strength training. Now hop on that bike and get moving!