Heart Rate and Exercise The leading cause of death in America is cardiovascular disease. This particular disease was responsible for 960,000 deaths in this country last year, accounting for 41.5% of all deaths. Studies have shown that exercise reduces the risk of heart disease. Indeed, people who are less fit have between a thirty and fifty percent greater risk for the development of high blood pressure. (Just Move, PG 1)

Unfortunately fifty-four percent of all Americans are overweight and only ten percent follow a regular exercise regimen. (Ask Yahoo, Pg 1) Currently only twenty-two percent of all Americans get enough exercise to protect their hearts. Fifty-three percent get some exercise, but nowhere near enough to cut down their probabilities of disease and twenty-five percent are not active at all. (Just Move, Pg 1) Numerous studies have shown throughout the years that exercise and physical fitness lowers the heart disease risk even in those who have other health problems such as high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol. In addition to exercise, the health conscious individual will also make an attempt to avoid things such as cigarette smoke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. (Just Move, Pg 2)

The statistics are clear. To protect oneself from harmful cardiovascular diseases and ailments, it is imperative to be involved in regular exercise that allows the heart rate to climb to a...

The monitoring of one's heart rate allows an individual to know if the exercise that he or she is involved in is doing what it is supposed to do. Sweat during a workout is not an indicator of the value of the workout, understanding the heart rate is. Following is a breakdown of the different types of heart rates and why they are important to fitness and cardiovascular health.
First, the maximum heart rate is the highest number of times an individual's heart can contract in one minute. (Heart Rate, pg 1) To calculate the maximum heart rate of an individual, subtract the age of the individual from 220. The answer to this simple mathematical problem is the maximum heart rate. This particular number is important because it helps to define what one's training heart rate should be. (Ask Yahoo, Pg 1)

Theoretically, one should participate in vigorous aerobic activities three to four times a week for between thirty and sixty minutes. (Just Move, Pg 1) During this training regimen, the focus is to achieve a target heart rate during exercise. The target heart rate will be determined by two things. First what an individual hopes to accomplish through exercise such as losing weight or training for a race; and second what the person's maximum heart rate is. The target heart rate is generally between fifty and seventy-five percent of the maximum heart rate. As such, this is the…