How High to Get Your Pulse Above the Resting Pulse for Exercise

The Magic Number: Your Heart Rate Reserve

• By calculating your heart rate reserve (HRR), you can get a rough estimate of how hard you are working during physical activity. Once you have that magic number, you can use the appropriate percentage of your HRR to figure out just how high to get your pulse above your resting heart rate in order to burn calories, enhance your endurance or improve your sprinting capacity.

HRR: A Little Math Will Do Your Heart Good

• Calculate your heart rate reserve or "HRR." Start by finding your maximum heart rate, or "MHR," by subtracting your age from 220. Then determine your true resting heart rate by taking your pulse first thing in the morning before you even sit up in bed. Find your pulse at your wrist or throat and count the number of heartbeats you feel in 60 seconds. Do this three days in a row and then average those numbers to get your resting heart rate. Now you can calculate your HRR by subtracting your resting heart rate from your MHR. For training, you will then multiply your desired percentage of intensity by your HRR and then add your resting heart rate to that total to find your target heart rate.

Maximize Your Fuel Economy: Training to Burn Fat (But Not Necessarily to Lose Weight!)

• Easy to moderate workouts at 40 to 60% of your HRR encourage your body to dip into your fat stores, while high-octane workouts at 60 to 80% of your HRR call out for sugar stored in your muscles and liver. But just because you're plugging along in "the fat-burning zone" on the treadmill doesn't guarantee that the pounds will melt off. In order to lose one pound of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories, so prioritize the total number of calories burned per workout if your goal is to lose weight.

Farther, Longer: Training for Endurance

• When you begin cardiovascular exercise for endurance, aim to keep your heart rate within 40 to 50% of your HRR. Start with a relatively low number of minutes logged at each session. Even 15 or 20 minutes of activity may be enough to create a training effect if you are starting from the couch. Every two weeks, seek to increase your intensity of your workout by bumping your HRR up 10% and increasing the duration of your activity by 10 minutes. Eventually, you'll be able to comfortably sustain activity with your heart pumping between 70 to 85% of your HRR for 60 minutes or more.

Near the Red Zone: Training for Maximum Capacity

• Alternating short intervals of high-intensity activity at 80 to 90% of your HRR with brief recovery periods, not only amps up your total calorie burn but it may improve your health overall. When planning your exercise, build in two or three non-consecutive days of sprint training where you work hard for 30 seconds and then recover by working at 50 to 60% of your HRR for four minutes. Repeat this sprint and recovery cycle four times for a highly-effective, 30-minute workout. Be sure to talk to your physician before beginning a high-intensity interval training program or making other significant lifestyle changes.