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Lecture Notes

The American College of Sports Medicine, or ACSM, recommends exercising 3-5 days per week, aerobically, that's aerobic activity 3-5 days per week, to see improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness. They recommend that this aerobic activity be between 55 and 65%, all the way up to 90% of your maximum heart rate, that's the first method of kind of gauging your intensity, and the equation for your max heart rate is provided here. The second method would be to exercise between 40 and 50% or all the way up to 85% of your heart rate reserve, and as you probably read in your book, your heart rate reserve is simply the difference between your maximum heart rate and your resting heart rate. So that's why those values are a little bit lower. In both cases, exercising below that 55-65% of your max heart rate or 40-50% of your heart rate reserve, you might not see the same cardiorespiratory fitness benefits that you would if you exercise above that percentage. If you exercise above the recommended 90% of your maximum heart rate or 85% of your heart rate reserve, you're likely targeting some anaerobic systems and not necessarily your aerobic systems that really help develop your cardiorespiratory fitness.