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Heart Rate Monitors for Exercise

Monitoring your heart rate is a good way to keep track of how hard you are exercising. Your heart rate is the same as your pulse - the number of times your heart beats each minute. Heart rate monitors are a good and convenient method for measuring it.

When you do cardiovascular exercise you should give your heart a good workout, but without over doing it.

Resting Heart Rate

The number of times your heart beats when you are sitting still is your resting heart rate. It is usually between 60 and 90 times a minute for most people. Many things can cause some people's to be different though. One of them is how fit you are. People who are more fit tend to have a lower resting heart rate. Also, stress, various medications and genetics can change your resting heart rate.

Target Heart Rate Zone

To exercise your heart in a way that helps your heart get healthier it is important to exercise within your target zone.

You can calculate your target zone by first subtracting your age from the number 226. This gives you your maximum heart rate. Then multiple that number by .5 - this is the lower end of your target zone. Then take that first number and multiple it by .85 - this is the higher end of your target zone.

Here's an example for a 38 year old woman: 226-38 = 188 (maximum heart rate)

188 x .5 = 94 188 x .85 = 159.8

The target zone for this person is then between 94 and 159 beats per minute.