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Exercise | Auburn Medical Group

693 views · Published 4 April 2015 · 3:24 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: Auburn Medical Group · 2015 · Science & Technology

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Basic Exercise 

Welcome back to the Auburn Medical Group program for fitness.  Our first video introduced calorie counting using an app like My Fitness Pal.  In this video we will discuss the basics of physical exercise.

I have to start with a disclaimer.  Starting an exercise plan is harmless for most people, but if you have an injury, a pain, or a chronic illness you should consult your own physician before starting a new exercise routine.

The most important type of exercise is aerobic exercise.  This is activity which raises your heart rate to be able to provide enough oxygen to your muscles to support their increased use of energy.  There are many benefits to aerobic exercise besides just weight control.

Aerobic exercise also increases stamina and decreases fatigue, it strengthens immune function, and it decreases risk for several health problems, including but not limited to heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancers.

Almost any form of exercise can be aerobic if it is done vigorously enough.  The way we measure aerobics is by checking the heart rate or pulse.  This can be done by checking your pulse at any of several easy to feel arteries including the carotid artery in the side of the neck and the radial artery near the thumb side of the wrist.  The heart rate is measured in the number of beats per minute.  The target heart rate achieved varies depending on your age.  A general formula to determine your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age in years from 220.  This number is close to the maximum rate your heart can beat, although it is a little under for most people.  You want to get your heart rate somewhere in the range of 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate during your most intense exercise.  Some general maximum goals for different ages (are listed in this table) would be in the 160’s for teenagers, in the 150’s for people in their 20’s, around 155 for people in their 30’s, around 150 for people in their 40’s, 140 for people in their 50’s, the 130’s for people in their 60’s, and 130 for people in their 70’s.  

Try to keep your heart rate within 20 beats per minute of these numbers without exceeding the recommended maximum.  You can use the link in the description to use the calculator provided online by North Shore Medical Center in Massachusetts:
http://northshoremedical.staywellsolutionsonline.com/interactivetools/calculators/41,TargetHeartCalc  

When just starting a new exercise routine I recommend not even trying to achieve a particular minimum heart rate.  It is very easy to injure yourself when starting out.  Never push past what feels comfortable when starting out.  Then start with small goals, like just achieving your goal heart rate for a couple minutes at a time, and gradually increasing.  Eventually you want to achieve 150 minutes per week of aerobic exercise.

There is an excellent free app I used when starting to run called “C25K” which provides directions to take you from not exercising at all to running 5 kilometers over a period of 9 weeks.  I recommend it for people without certain disabilities who are in generally good health.

"Life of Riley" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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