So you exercise a lot and the outcomes are really shining. For most of the exercise, the focus is on gaining the muscles or reducing your fat. This attributes and goals of your exercise training are easily measurable. But often, athletes forget about the most important factor regarding the exercise – what’s going on with your heart? How healthy is it? So how exactly can you measure your cardiovascular health to health of the HEART?
Resting Heart Rate and Maximum Heart Rate
Resting Heart Rate, as the name suggests is the rate of the pulses or beat rate of the heart when you are not pushing your body to do something – you are relaxed. The good way to measure your resting heart rate is to measure it at the time you wake up in the morning. The resting heart rate is a simple measure of your cardiovascular health. Usually, it varies from 60 to 100 beats per minute. On the other hand, you maximum heart rate gives a lot of info about the capability of your heart. The simple way to measure your maximum heart rate is to a demanding exercise and measure it just after that. But make sure you don’t push your limit. Pushing your heart rate to maximum can be dangerous. There is one more metric, heart rate reserve. Heart rate reserve is the difference of your maximum heart rate and resting heart rate. More the difference better is the health of heart.
Heart Rate Recovery
Heart rate recovery is the rate by which the heart regains in normal beat rate after a taxing workout. You can easily measure your heart rate recovery by doing an aerobic exercise and after two minutes measure your heart rate. The difference between the heart rate before and after the exercise is your heart rate recovery. The excellent range is considered to be 55 to 65 beats per minute. Why does it matter? The heart rate recovery shows the effects of your training. If there is a slight increase in your heart rate recovery after your training program, it’s good news. But if your heart rate recovery value is decreasing you might want to consult your doctor. You can improve your heart rate recovery through endurance training.