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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 impor-
tant 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 home
fitness product has a grip or telemetric heart rate counter. Research has
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 for very long
FITNESS GUIDE
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