A healthy heart during exercise – advice from Intercare

During exercise, it can be difficult to ensure that you neither over-exert yourself nor do you go too easy on yourself. Exercise is important, but according to the American Heart Association, it isn’t healthy to over-train either. Dr Pieter Snyman, a GP at Intercare Wonderboom, says that not all exercise is healthy but many people are not aware of this.

A great way to determine whether you need to slow down or work a bit harder is to use your heart rate as an indicator. There are two basic indicators you need: your resting heart rate and your target heart rate. Your resting heart rate is the beats per minute when you’re not active. Test this by taking your pulse as soon as you wake up in the morning by counting your heartbeats for 60 seconds. According to Dr Snyman, the average resting heart rate for an adult is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, while that of an active athlete is 40-60 beats per minute.

Your target heart rate is the heart rate you aim for while exercising and this is usually where it becomes complicated. It all depends on your age and how active you are. You also have a maximum heart rate which helps you work out your training zones. For instance, High Intensity Interval training will get to close to 100% of your maximum heart rate during intervals and you can monitor your rest between intervals by checking that your heart rate doesn’t fall below 60% heart rate.

Dr Snyman explains that there is a simple way to work out your maximum heart rate: take 220 and minus your age – this gives you a rough estimate of your maximum heart rate. We’ve made it even easier for you though – have a look at our heart rate table which will help you work out smart.

The most important thing is to know your body. Dr Snyman encourages all his patients over the age of 35 to exercise with a heart rate monitor. This way you can monitor your own progress in your fitness, but more importantly, you can detect when you need to rest. Of course it’s also important to go for regular checkups, eat a healthy diet, and remember that every good training plan has rest days included in it.