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Maximizing
Your Aerobic Workout
Typical training goals of aerobic exercise programs
Why do you choose to perform aerobic exercise? If your answer
is to increase caloric expenditure to achieve weight loss,
aerobic exercise is an excellent choice. Aerobic exercise
burns more calories over a longer period of time. Other
responses might be to improve overall health, fitness, and
cardiopulmonary function. During aerobic energy expenditure,
your heart and lungs work harder and the systemic effects
of increased blood circulation are significant. Regular
aerobic exercise may aid in the prevention of obesity, heart
disease, stroke, diabetes, and depression. Some of you may
also want to perform regular aerobic exercise to increase
performance in activities that require endurance. The training
effects of an aerobic exercise program are many. However,
in order to achieve your desired goals, you must understand
the importance of the components or determinants of any
aerobic exercise program.
Determinants of your aerobic exercise program
Your aerobic exercise program must be tailored to meet your
specific training goals in consideration of your baseline
fitness level. Aerobic exercise is achieved by performing
an activity with enough intensity and duration to increase
energy demand in your muscles to the level that requires
energy production by using oxygen. Frequency, duration,
and intensity determine how much energy your muscles will
use during aerobic exercise. How many times per week are
you working out? For what period of time? At what level
of intensity? These determinants will establish the overall
effectiveness of your exercise program. By your assessment
of exercise intensity, duration, and frequency, you can
determine your approximate caloric expenditure and your
performance level or work capacity.
If you are a sedentary individual and you want to initiate
an aerobic exercise program, you should start with a low-intensity
program. Starting out slowly allows your heart and lungs
to become conditioned. Then, you can gradually increase
the frequency and length of exercise sessions. If you are
exercising frequently (five to seven days a week), but you
are having trouble achieving your training goals, you may
want to increase your training intensity while maintaining
the duration, and decrease the frequency to avoid the effects
of over-training. If you are a fit individual who is having
difficulty finding five days a week to exercise, cut your
program back to three days and increase intensity and duration.
You may be surprised how quickly you will achieve your training
goals.
The Importance of heart-rate monitoring
Performing exercise without monitoring your heart rate is
like lifting weights without knowing how much weight you're
lifting. In order to determine your baseline exercise tolerance
and create a program that is based on progressive, weekly,
short-term goals that will lead you toward your ultimate
training goal, you must monitor your heart rate. Guessing
how much energy you're using is very inaccurate, since many
factors can increase your perception of exhaustion without
your having reached true physiological fatigue. When you
first start heart rate monitoring, you will be surprised
at the workload and intensity you thought you were achieving
during exercise versus what the heart rate monitor actually
tells you.
Baseline aerobic exercise capacity
In order to determine your baseline aerobic exercise capacity,
subtract your age from 220. If you have never monitored
your heart rate you should start at 55 to 65 percent of
that number during your prolonged exercise session. For
example, if you are 20 years old, your maximum heart rate
is 200 (220 - 20), so you would exercise for 20 to 30 minutes
with your heart rate between 110 and 120 beats per minute.
You would then establish your progressive, short-term training
goals based on how you felt exercising at this level.
Proper nutritional support
The duration of your exercise session is influenced by your
work intensity and the amount of fuel that is available
in your aerobic engine's tank. If you have not replenished
your fuel stores from workout to workout, or if you used
up your fuel stores during exercise, your training intensity
will be limited, and your body may start breaking down muscle
tissue for energy. This will lead to decreased performance
and difficulty in achieving exercise goals. It also may
lead to injury in your joints, connective tissue, or muscles
due to fatigue.
You may be dieting while participating in an aerobic exercise
routine to achieve your weight-loss goals faster. But you
need to be careful to gradually and slowly decrease caloric
intake while increasing your frequency, duration, and intensity
of exercise. I recommend eating a well-balanced, nutritious
diet that includes food sources containing carbohydrates,
fats, and protein, as well as vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
If you eat well, you will be able to increase your training
frequency, intensity, and duration while reducing the risk
of over-training or injury. If you are able to exercise
with greater frequency, duration, and intensity, you will
achieve your training goals more easily. Undernourishment
will limit what you're able to achieve in training.
The importance of fluid intake during your workout cannot
be overemphasized, either. Your body uses fluids to cool
and maintain core temperature during exercise. If you run
out of fluids you can become dehydrated, overheat, and limit
the duration and intensity of your workout.
Rest and recuperation
More is not always better. Listen to your body. I believe
you can achieve excellent results from the three-day-a-week
aerobic and two-day-a-week resistance-training routine.
I also believe that occasionally your body will tell you
to cut your routine back to two-day-a-week aerobic and one-day-a-week
resistance training-especially if you consistently increase
your aerobic and resistance-training intensity levels without
increasing your nutritional support. Over-training can limit
your ability to work out with increased intensity, thereby
limiting your potential to achieve your goals. You can't
train very well if you're injured or burned out.
Summary
Train smart, train hard, eat well and sleep well, and you
will reach your goals sooner than you think.
Good luck, and may the treadmill rise to meet you, and
may the breeze of your wind trainer be always at your back.
Article Source: ABCNews.com
Article Author: Daniel L. Millrood
Net Reference 104
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