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Specificity
Different forms of exercise produce different results. The type of exercise that is carried out is specific both to
the muscle groups being used and to the energy source involved.
There is little transfer of the effects of exercise, i.e. from strength training to cardiovascular fitness. That is why
it is important to have an exercise program tailored to your specific needs.
Reversibility
If you stop exercising or do not do your program often enough, you will lose the benefits you have gained.
Regular workouts are the key to success.
Warm Up
Every exercise program should start with a
warm up
where the body is prepared for the effort to come. It
should be gentle and preferably use the muscles to be involved later.
Stretching should be included in both your
warm up
and
cool down
, and should be performed after 3-5 minutes
of low intensity aerobic activity or callisthenic type exercise.
Warm Down or Cool Down
This involves a gradual decrease in the intensity of the exercise session. Following exercise, a large supply of
blood remains in the working muscles. If it is not returned promptly to the central circulation, pooling of blood
may occur in the muscles.
Heart Rate
As you exercise, the rate at which your heart beat increases. This is often used as a measure of the required
intensity of exercise. You need to exercise hard enough to condition your circulatory system, and increase your
pulse rate, but not enough to strain your heart.
Your initial level of fitness is important in developing an exercise program for you. If you are starting off, you
can get a good training effect with a heart rate of 110-120 beats per minute (BPM). If you are fitter, you will
need a higher threshold of stimulation.
To begin with, you should exercise at a level that elevates your heart rate to about 65 to 70% of your maximum.
If you find this is too easy, you may want to increase it, but it is better to lean on the conservative side.
As a rule of thumb, the maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. As you increase in age, your heart, like other
muscles, loses some of its efficiency. Some of its natural loss is won back as fitness improves.
The following table is a guide to those who are “starting fitness”.
Age 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Target heart Rate
10Second
Count
23 22 22 21 20 19 19 18 18
Beats
per
Minute
138 132 132 126 120 114 114 108 108
Pulse Count
The pulse count (on your wrist or carotid artery in the neck, taken with two index fingers) is done for ten
seconds, taken a few seconds after you stop exercising. This is for two reasons: (a) 10 seconds is long enough
for accuracy, (b) the pulse count is to approximate your BPM rate at the time you are exercising. Since heart
rate slows as you recover, a longer count isn’t as accurate.
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