HOME EXERCISE

It is important not to overdo your Gym sessions. Alternate days rather than every day is best. That’s because muscles need time to recover from each workout. Experts believe that 48 hours is the optimum recovery time.

The same rule does not apply to the cardio-vascular system however. Cardio activity should ideally be performed five to six times each week to improve Aerobic fitness. It is all about involving the Heart, Lungs and circulatory system and twenty to thirty minutes of cardio each day is ideal. An Aerobically fit person has three times less heart attacks, strokes and thrombosis than a de-conditioned person so improving Aerobic fitness is a vital part of any programme.

The Gymophobics circuit automatically works your cardio-vascular system at the same time as your muscles. That’s down to the clever way that Gymophobics combines cardio with Isotonic, Callisthenic and Isometric exercise. So you won’t need to do any more cardio on the days that you visit the Gym, unless you want to of course. That means you have only to decide what cardio you are going to do on the days between your Gym visits.

Just three sessions of cardio each week either at Home or in the great outdoors will complement your Gym programme and super charge your batteries. In a matter of weeks you can double your energy levels and add years to your life expectancy by increasing your Aerobic fitness.

There are three quite strict rules to getting the benefits from a home cardio programme.

Rule 1. Sessions must be at least twenty minutes in length

Rule 2. You must work hard enough to raise your Heart Rate to at least 55% to 65% of its maximum.

Rule 3. Your Heart Rate must remain in the ‘cardio zone’ for the whole session.

Let’s take the second rule first. Ask your Instructor to calculate your Target Heart rate and then to show you how to check it. She will also teach you how to ‘read’ your pulse. Alternatively, you can purchase a Heart Rate monitor quite cheaply from any good Sports Store and wear it during exercise. This will tell you what your Heart Rate is without having to check your pulse. Knowing your Target Heart Rate makes it easier for you to stay in the ‘cardio zone’ for the whole of the twenty minute session.

(If you want to know how your Instructor calculates your Training Heart Rate it is easier than you might think. Subtract your age from the number 220 to calculate your predicted maxHR then calculate 55% of the answer. That’s your Training Heart Rate. As your aerobic fitness improves, your Instructor may recommend increasing your % to 60% and eventually 65%.of maxHR. (MaxHR is the maximum Heart Rate you could achieve if you pushed yourself to your limit!)

Now to the other Rules. Studies show that you need to maintain your Heart Rate in the cardio zone for at least twenty minutes, so stopping and starting is of no use. The exercise must be continuous to stop the heart rate dropping below the cardio zone.

What exercise to do? As you can see from the Rules above, almost any activity can be described as cardio but unless you have a penchant for jogging, swimming, cycling or skipping, then walking is probably the simplest thing that you can do. A brisk walk with your arms swinging vigorously (some people call it Power Walking) will soon get you into the cardio zone. You should be puffing slightly but not so much that you cannot talk as you go. Three ‘walk’ sessions each week in addition to your Gym visits should be quite enough to get you Aerobically fit in no time at all.

Finally, a word of caution. Try not to exceed your Target Heart Rate when exercising. There is no benefit to achieve by pushing yourself to exhaustion and you could be doing more harm than good!