The talk test is a simple way to measure relative intensity. In general, if you’re doing moderate-intensity activity, you can talk but not sing during the activity.
Bring Science Home A physical pursuit from Science Buddies Key concepts The heart Heart rate Health Exercise Introduction Background Exercise that is good for your heart should elevate your heart rate. But by how much, for how long and how often should your heart rate be elevated? This has to do with how fit you are and your maximum heart rate, which, for adults, is about 220 beats per minute (bpm) minus your age. For example, if you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate would be 190 bpm. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends doing exercise that increases a person's heart rate to between 50 to 85 percent of their maximum heart rate. This range is called the target heart rate zone. The AHA recommends a person gets at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise—exercise that elevates their heart rate to the target heart rate zone—on most days of the week, or a total of about 150 minutes a week. Materials • Scrap piece of paper • Pen or pencil • Clock or timer that shows seconds or a helper with a watch • Comfortable exercise clothes (optional) • Simple and fun exercise equipment, such as a jump rope, bicycle, hula-hoop, two-pound weight, etc. Alternatively you can do exercises that do not require equipment, such as walking, doing jumping jacks, jogging in place, etc. You will want to do at least two different types of exercises, both of which you can sustain for 15 minutes. (Remember to always stop an exercise if you feel faint.) • Calculator Preparation • Practice finding your pulse. Use the first two fingers of one hand to feel your radial pulse on the opposite wrist. You should find your radial pulse on the "thumb side" of your wrist, just below the base of your hand. Practice finding your pulse until you can do it quickly. (You can alternatively take your carotid pulse to do this activity, but be sure you know how to safely take it and press on your neck only very lightly with your fingers.) • Measure your resting heart rate, which is your heart rate when you are awake but relaxed, such as when you have been lying still for several minutes. To do this, take your pulse when you have been resting and multiply the number of beats you count in 10 seconds by six. This will give you your resting heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). What is your resting heart rate? Write it on a scrap piece of paper. • You will be measuring your heart rate during different types of physical exercises over a period of 15 minutes. Choose at least two different exercises. Some examples include jumping rope, lifting a two-pound weight, riding a bike, hula-hooping, walking, etc. Gather any needed materials. (If you want to make a homemade hula-hoop, steps for doing this are given in the activity Swiveling Science: Applying Physics to Hula-Hooping .) Do you think the activities will affect your heart rate differently? How do you think doing each activity will affect your heart rate? Procedure • Choose which exercise you want to do first. Before starting it, make sure you have been resting for a few minutes so that your heart is at its resting heart rate. • Perform the first exercise for 15 minutes. While you do this, write down the number of beats you count in 10 seconds after one, two, five, 10 and 15 minutes of activity. (You want to quickly check your pulse because it can start to slow within 15 seconds of stopping exercising.) How do the number of beats you count change over time? How did you feel by the end of the exercise? • Calculate your heart rate after one, two, five, 10 and 15 minutes of exercise by multiplying the number of beats you counted (in 10 seconds) by six. How did your heart rate (in bpm) change over time? • Repeat this process for at least one other exercise. Leave enough time between the exercises so that your heart rate returns to around its normal resting level (this should only take a few minutes). How did you feel by the end of the second exercise? How did your heart rate change over time for this exercise? • Take a look at the results you wrote down for this activity. Which exercise increased your heart rate the most? Which exercise increased your heart rate the fastest? Which exercise(s) elevated your heart rate to the target heart rate zone (50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, where your maximum heart rate is 220 bpm minus your age)? Do you notice any consistent patterns in your results? • Extra: Try this activity again but test different physical exercises. How does your heart rate change when you do other exercises? How are the changes similar and how are they different? • Extra: Measure your heart rate while lying down, while sitting down, and while standing. How does your heart rate change with body position? • Extra: Repeat this activity with other healthy volunteers. How does their heart rate compare to yours? How does their change in heart rate while exercising compare to how yours changed? • Extra: Try this activity again but vary the intensity of your exercise. What intensity level elevates your heart rate to 50 percent of its maximum heart rate? What about nearly 85 percent of its maximum? Be sure not to exceed your recommended target heart rate zone while exercising! Observations and results After just a minute of exercise, did you see your heart rate reach its target heart rate zone? Did it initially jump higher for a more strenuous exercise, like hula-hooping, compared to a more moderately intense exercise, such as walking? If you did a moderately intense exercise, such as walking, you may have seen an initial jump in your heart rate (where your heart rate falls within the lower end of your target heart rate zone within about one minute of exercise), but then your heart rate only slowly increased after that. After 15 minutes, you may have reached the middle of your target heart rate zone. To reach the upper end, people usually need to do a moderately intense exercise for a longer amount of time (such as for 30 minutes). If you did a more strenuous exercise—hula-hooping, for example—you may have seen a higher initial bump in your heart rate (such as reaching the middle of your target heart rate zone after just one minute of exercise), and then your heart rate stayed about the same for the remaining 14 minutes of exercise. Overall doing a more strenuous exercise generally raises a person's heart rate faster compared to doing an exercise that is only moderately intense. More to explore This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. Subscribe Now!There are some people who becomes breathless even during a 10-minute warm-up while there are also those who can endure an hour or more without going out of breath and still being able to engage in a conversation. So the question is, is it because one is exercising more than the other? Well, the answer depends on the capacity and endurance of your heart. When the topic concerns your exercise and your heart rate, knowing your intended heart rate will make you be aware of how much effort you're exerting or how much more effort you need to put in. If you keep track of your heart rate while exercising and have an idea on what zone you need to be in, you can adjust your intensity while also saving some effort so that you can make the most out of your workout. Increase your heart rate Aerobic exercises can easily increase your rate and keep the blood flowing. Cycling, plyometric, skipping, swimming, and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) are all known to be aerobic exercises. If you perform any of the said aerobic exercises, you are working your heart, lungs, and circulatory system to supply nutrients and oxygen to the working muscles. Research also agrees on the fact that if you're good at aerobic exercises, you are likely to improve your overall health and lessen your risk of getting chronic diseases. According to the guidelines, the recommended heart rate should be 20-60 beats higher than your normal rate in which you are doing something like an intensity training that stimulates your aerobic system. If you know your target heart rate (THR), you can then determine if you're pushing yourself too hard and if it's time for you to slow down. But if the intensity is not that heavy, your heart rate is likely to be below the THR. For beginners, aim your exercise to be on the lower range of the target zone and increase it gradually to a higher range probably somewhere around 85%. Keep in mind these standard guidelines and as for people with any existing heart conditions, they should get their healthcare professional's advice first regarding how they can safely perform their exercise and any advice for their THR. Reasons why exercise is good for the heart Doing exercises will stimulate the heart to beat faster and constant practice will help strengthen it. In addition to that, there are also other benefits that are associated with the heart and exercise.
Get into the zone Before doing your target training heart rate, you should also know your resting heart rate, which is the amount of heart beats per minute when you're at rest. It's best to check this one as soon as you get out of bed in the morning. Generally, anyone between age 10 to 60, the average resting heart rate is around 60 and 100 beats per minute. Athletes and regular exercisers have a range of 40-60 beats per minute. At this point, you will know your target training zone from one of the following methods:
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Many fitness professional also use another method called Rate of Perceived Exertion. It may sound fancy, but it simply means that the measurement is based on a scale of 1-10 wherein 1 is "no effort needed to hold a conversation" and 10 being "you can barely breathe that you're panting so bad and that talking is impossible." The idea of this one is for you to observe how you feel during your exercise and workout at an intensity which can be challenging yet you are capable of continuing for a long period of time. If you're a beginner, you should at least be able to breath fairly comfortably to have a comfortable and safe level of exercise. Even if you'll be talking from time-to-time, you should at least be able to hold a conversation without any difficulties. |