We all know the importance of staying active throughout the day. Walking is one of the easiest and most convenient ways of staying active. This inherent form of exercise requires no training and no equipment. Leaving the car in the garage and strolling to the grocery store, going for a walk during your lunch hour or after dinner are all ways in which we can stay active and alleviate stress throughout the day by simply walking.
Likewise, those who engage in walking as their primary mode of exercise argue that its psychological benefits far outweigh its physical benefits. This is absolutely true. Walking is a unique form of exercise in the sense that it can be used both as a relaxation and meditation exercise as well as a group exercise.
Unfortunately, although the benefits of walking to our overall well-being are numerous walking as a type of exercise will not provide us with any form of cardiovascular benefit. Walking for pleasure as a form of exercise is simply not strenuous enough to help us reach and maintain our individual target heart rates for an extended period of time. In order to reap any form of cardiovascular benefit from walking we must walk at a pace that will increase our heart rate to the level often referred to as the target heart rate and maintain this level of heart rate for at least 30-45 minutes.
The type of walking most of us engage in throughout the day such as strolling through the mall, pushing a shopping cart down the grocery store aisle and so forth does not meet this criteria. We attain our target heart rate during aerobic exercise. Target heart rate also known as The Fat Burning Zone refers to an individual’s minimum level of physical exertion during which cardiovascular fitness can increase. Of course, other factors such as age and weight are also taken into account when determining an individual’s target heart rate.
Target Heart Rate Formula
The Karvonen Formula is the most widely used method of determining one’s target heart rate. Below is an example of the Karvonen Formula for a 65 year old male with the resting heart rate of 77 beats per minute. In order to determine your resting heart rate take your pulse for one minute after a period of at least five minutes of inactivity.
206.9-(0.67 x 65) (age) = 163
163 – 77 (resting heart rate) = 86
86 X 65% (low end of heart rate) = 56
86 X 85% (high end of heart rate) = 73
73+ 77 (rhr) = 150 (high)
56+77 (rhr) = 133 (low)
The target heart rate zone for this individual would be 133 at the low end of the scale and 150 at the high end of the scale.
As you can see this 65 year old subject will find it almost impossible to raise his resting heart rate from 77 beats per minute to 133 beats per minute or higher simply by walking, unless of course, he engages in power walking. This fact is also true for individuals of all age groups.
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July 18, 2010 at 3:18 PM
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