Deepen Your Understanding

Happy Sunday, lovely Sunday! If you've been in any of my classes or for a training session in my studio, you'll know that I am super into how your heart reacts to the load that you're putting on it. Understanding your heart rate can help you assess your cardiovascular health, measure exercise intensity, train your body to become fuel-efficient, and improve fitness and performance.

We need both high intensity and low intensity exercise to teach the body to become proficient with all levels of exertion.

High intensity exercise pushes your limits, stresses your body, and improves your cardiovascular function. High intensity work is hard, that's the point. Within a few weeks of doing high intensity exercise along with monitoring heart rate through pulse checks, you should have a deeper understanding of how hard you can push that beautiful and strong heart of yours. When you feel like you're becoming efficient during whatever exercise you're doing, then you're ready to progress.

Low intensity exercise is also a very important zone to work in. It's a great time to understand how to properly breath, how to move your body with good mechanics and form, and how to warm up and eventually cool down those athletic muscles.

Recovery heart rate can also be used to measure health. A decrease of 15-25 beats per minute in the first recovery minute is typical for a healthy person. The faster your heart responds, the better your fitness level and readiness to progress.

Factors that influence heart rate included heat and humidity (increase), hydration (dehydration increases heart rate), medication (beta blockers can decrease heart rate while thyroid meds and antidepressants can increase heart rate), altitude (increase), and body position (increases as you go from laying down to standing).

Analyzing your heart rate can deepen your understanding of what your body is able to do, guide you toward continuous progress, motivate you as well as hold you accountable, and help you to make informed decisions regarding your health.

Reference - IDEA Health & Fitness Inc.

Here's our SoulShine Schedule for this week:

Monday - HIIT at The Rec - 8:15-9:15 am

Tuesday - PiYo at The Rec - 8:15-9:15 am

Thursday - PiYo at The Athletic Club - 12-1 pm

Friday - HIIT at The Rec - 8:15-9:15 am

Make an exercise plan for the week, hydrate your body, eat greens, remember to stand up straight, sleep well, and take good care!!

xo,

Jode