Healthy Living

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For any aerobic workout to be effective you need to pay attention to how hard you are working. Too easy and you're not challenging your body, and therefore are not going to get the most results. Too difficult however and you are likely to tire early and be unable to finish your full workout.

A heart rate monitor is the most accurate way to measure how hard you are working. However, if you do not have one, you can still guesstimate. You can use what is commonly referred to as your RPE (rate of percieved exertion). Basically it involves assessing your ability to converse while exercising. If you can chat along a mile a minute, heck even sing or whistle, this would be at the bottom of the scale. Here you are obviously not working hard enough. If you are huffing and puffing and can't get a word out, this is upper end of the scale. Here, you are at risk for burning out too early. You want to aim for the middle of the scale. Here you can talk but it takes a little effort. This is where you know you are working your body, but you're not in danger of tiring out too soon.

Another issue with aerobic exercise is that you need to progress. Pay attention to your body. When something starts to get too easy, you need to up the intensity. If you never progress in your workout, you won't progress in your results either.

Also, the more you do any particular type of exercise, the more your body adjusts to it. Your body will get used to certain movements and suddenly you don't have to work quite as hard to accomplish the same goal. This is why is important to add variety to your workout. If you run 5 miles every single day, your body will get used to it and will no longer be challenged. Add in other aerobic activities such as biking, rowing, group fitness, etc. Keep your body from becoming complacent.

If you keep these things in mind, you will get much more from your aerobic workouts.

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