THE BEST WAY TO MEASURE your workout intensity is by monitoring your heart rate. Your heart rate is basically your pulse. Your target heart rate is what your heart rate should be while you are exercising. Staying within your target heart rate can help you have productive, safe workouts.
If you are exercising too far below your target heart rate, you won’t reap all the benefits of exercise. But if you are too far above it, you are going to get tired and overheated, and you are more likely to injure3 yourself. Beginners who exercise too hard, too fast are often the ones to drop out.
You can also measure your heart rate on your own.
Equation for a good workout
An easy way to identify your target heart rate is by figuring out your age-predicted maximum heart rate.
1. Figure out your maximum heart rate: Subtract your age from 220 = maximum heart rate in beats per minute.
220 is our maximum heart rate at birth.
If you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate is 190 beats per minute (220-30 = 190).
2. Find your target heart rate: A good target heart rate to aim for is 55-90 per cent of your maximum heart rate. to find that number, multiply your maximum heart rate by .55 for the low end of your target heart rate zone. Multiply your maximum heart rate by .90 for the high end of your target heart rate zone.
To determine the target heart rate for a 30 year old the maximum heart rate, 190(220 minus the person’s age), and multiply that by .55, which equals 104.5. That’s the low end. For the high end, multiply 190 by .90, which equals 171. The target heart rate zone for a 30 year old i 104 to 171 heartbeats per minute