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EXERCISE AND FITNESS GUIDELINES
Monitoring Your Intensity
When you are doing cardiovascular workouts, it is important that you work at the
appropriate intensities when you are first starting out. It is also important that you
workout at a variety of intensities after you have built a fitness base.
Research in recent years has indicated that one of the best ways to monitor your
cardiovascular intensity is to pay close attention to how you are feeling when you
workout. Most individuals can do a very good job of choosing the correct intensities
if they simply categorize how they feel into one of four intensity “zones.”
These zones could be described the following ways:
When you are first starting out, you should exclusively work in the Zone 1 and Zone
2 intensities. After a few weeks, you can occasionally incorporate Zone 3 and Zone 4
intensities for short periods of time. Remember, when you begin to incorporate Zone
3 and Zone 4 intensities, you will find that you will likely have to drop down to Zone
1 intensities shortly thereafter as brief recovery periods.
For variety, you can spend a little bit of time in each of the four Zones during one
workout, and then spend your time in just one Zone during the next workout.
Prenatal woman should always remain at Zone 1 and Zone 2 intensities, and anyone
unaware of their current medical condition should also avoid Zone 3 and Zone 4
without prior clearance from their doctor.
These Zones can be translated into target heart rate numbers if your fitness product
has a grip or telemetric heart rate counter. Research has shown the best way to do
this is not to establish heart rate numbers based upon age, but rather based upon
how you feel.
Zone Description
1
Easy
Warm-up
Cool-down
2
Challenging, but comfortable
Steady endurance pace
3
Challenging, and slightly uncomfortable
Race pace
Borderline out of breath
4
Breathless
Not maximum, but winded
Can’t keep the pace very long