You probably already know that regular exercise is very important for you and you need to exercise moderately for 150 minutes every week or vigorously for 75 minutes every week. However, you also need to know how to exercise. When you hear the words moderate and vigorous, what do you understand? The answer lies in your heart rate.

You need to know about your heart rate during exercising. Then you'll be able to understand what vigorous and moderate means for you.

Maximum and target heart rates

To know about the heart rate for yourself, you need to take your age and subtract it from 220. That is an estimation of your maximum heart rate. There are other ways that can help you find this number but this is the easiest method. For example, if you are 50 years old, your maximum heart rate will be about 170.

The target heart rate during exercise is a percentage of your maximum heart rate. The target heart rate needs to be about 75%. For example, for the 50-year-old person, the target heart rate would be about 130 beats per minute. You can take your pulse to find out your heart rate. You can also find that out just going by how you are feeling. You should breathe heavily and have a light sweat going.

While 75%?

A heart rate of about 75% of your maximum heart rate is an excellent target. It's so because that place will help you burn fat. If your heart rate is above or below the target heart rate, you are burning carbohydrates.

The energy for our bodies comes mainly from 3 sources-carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Carbohydrates usually burn first. At about 75% of your maximum heart rate, the ratio of fat to carbs burned is highest. The burning of fat reduces the closer you get to your max heart rate.

Recommendations for exercise

According to the recommendations, you need 150 minutes per week of moderate cardiovascular exercise. The bare minimum is 30 minutes 3 times per week. Since the heart is a muscle, we need to condition it to improve blood flow to the brain and the skeletal muscles. That is why regular exercise is very important for us.

The recommended 150 minutes of exercise can be reduced with the help of interval training. If you do not have time for 150 minutes every week, you can include interval training in your workout to reduce the total time but get the same benefits. Interval training is also called high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It simply means increasing your base and heart rate for a brief period and then reducing the energy back for an active rest.

With this, you're trying to create hypermetabolic conditions. In such a condition, you are breathing fast, your heart is beating fast, and the body is eliminating waste products fast. Different scientific studies done on the subject found that HIIT can improve metabolic health. This is also beneficial for people who are at risk of diabetes. If you do not have enough time for a one-hour workout every day, you can still accomplish a lot using interval training.

A brisk stroll is also useful. It can help you lose weight, decrease your risk of heart disease and diabetes, reduce stress, slow mental decline, and help you sleep more soundly.