Get F.I.T.

Kelly Gonzalez
Health and Fitness
Busy Bodies
Deadline Date: August 8, 2008
Published Date: August 13, 2008

Get F.I.T.

One of the most important parts of exercise is making it a habit. It’s easy to make a habit of something you enjoy. If you like to walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes as your exercise of choice you are doing great things for your body including reducing your risk of disease, improving heart and lung function, and strengthening muscles, bones, and joints. If your goal is weight loss, and you’ve noticed that the scale isn’t budging your body may be trying to tell you something. The body relies on progressive overload. If you walk at the same pace for the same amount of time for every exercise session you’re body is saying, “I don’t have to work any harder to perform this task.” Going for a leisurely walk can reduce stress, give you more energy, and clear your mind, but if you want to burn fat, tone, and improve your level of fitness I suggest using the F.I.T. principle to break through the plateau.

Start by focusing on frequency. If you walk for 30 minutes at a brisk pace two times per week gradually increase the frequency by one training session every week or two until you are able to complete 5-6 sessions in one week. In this phase your body is becoming accustomed to the exercise demand. Don’t over exert yourself so much in one session that you are not able to recover in time for the next cardio session.

Once you are in the habit of exercising on a regular basis you can increase the intensity of workouts. The bonus of increasing the intensity is that you can decrease the amount of time of your workout, but still reap the same benefits. An easy way to measure intensity is to use the scale of rate of perceived exertion (RPE). On this scale 1 is the easiest and 10 is the hardest. Try jogging for 1 minute at level 7 and return to walking for three minutes at level 5 for a total of twenty to thirty minutes. Over time your body will adapt and you will be able to perform this exercise with more ease and with greater intensity. To reach your fitness goals it is beneficial to train at your target heart rate and monitor your intensity. One of the best pieces of exercise equipment you can invest in is a heart rate monitor, which allows you to train according to percentages of your maximum heart rate.

Training at different intensities promotes different fitness gains. Low intensity exercise usually consists of working at 50-65% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Low intensity exercise is meant for recovery, warming up or cooling down. For most, it does not over-stress the body, but facilitates circulation, and oxygen consumption. The fat burning zone is between 65-75% MHR. When working at this intensity most of the calories burned during exercise is from stored fat. In addition to burning fat your endurance will improve as well. Anything above 85% MHR is considered to be anaerobic (without oxygen). During anaerobic training the majority of energy is supplied by carbohydrates. Anaerobic exercise helps speed metabolism, improve VO2Max, and aids in your ability to hold off and clear away lactic acid in the muscles- allowing you to work out harder for longer.

To determine your target heart rate and training zones you must first calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR). To do this, subtract your age from 220. To determine your target heart rate for a certain intensity level multiply that percentage by your maximum heart rate. For example, if you are 30 years old and want to train at 70% of your maximum heart rate the equation would be: (220-30) x .70= 133 beats per minute (bpm). This equation is based on age, but of course people of the same age have different levels of fitness. Another formula takes into account your resting heart rate to determine your target heart rate. The equation for this is: (220-age)-RHR) x percentage of intensity) + RHR. Using the same example above and 60 as the resting heart rate the equation would be: (220-30) – 60) x .70) + 60= 151 bpm.

The last component of the F.I.T. principle is time. Try to gradually increase the time of intervals of higher intensity or the total duration of your workout. If you generally walk for 30 minutes try to maintain the same pace as you work towards completing 45 minutes of exercise.

Remember to incorporate one component at a time when you’re first beginning. Focus on frequency for a week or two and then intensity or time in the following weeks. Don’t try to do all at once in a single workout or you could end up with an injury or burnt out. Use the F.I.T. principle to reach the next level. It’s not always what you do, but how you do it so walk on.