★Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week

I have almost finished reading Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week and have been impressed with what I have read so far. I’m not any kind of fitness guru, but this seems like a really worthwhile read. I have been taking notes so I will post them when I have finished, but consider getting a copy of this book.

I’m gonna go ahead and post a little right now about pulse rate as a guide to your exercise. Here’s kinda what I gather from what I’ve read, but remember, I’m not a doctor, fitness guru, or nutritionist, so having said that…

Basically, your pulse tells you all kinds of wonderful stuff about changes in your body. In short, it’s kind of like the summary page of a detailed report. AND it’s reliable.

Generally, the lower the resting heart rate, the healthier you are. Resting heart rates higher than 80 beats a minute are suggestive of poor health and fitness, increased risk of coronary, heart disease and death in middle age. The mortality rate for men and women with pulse rates over 92 is four times greater than for those with pulse rates less than 67.

An accelerated pulse rate in itself isn’t dangerous. Nor does it indicate that there’s something necessarily wrong with you. All it means is that the body is working under a heavy load. A pulse rate above 120 borders on intensive exertion. If it takes very little physical work to produce this kind of heart rate, it means you’re “inefficient.” Your system is probably deconditioned due to lack of exercise.

Here’s a little chart showing approximate pulse rates that are reached at various intensities of continuous exercise.

Scale of Perceived Exertion Pulse Rate
1 – very, very light………………………Under 90
2 – very light…………………………… 90
3 – light……………………………….. 100
4 – fairly light…………………………. 110
5 – neither light nor heavy, (moderate)…….. 120
6 – somewhat heavy……………………….. 130
7 – heavy……………………………….. 140
8 – very heavy…………………………… 150
9 – very, very heavy……………………… 160

Your pulse rate is affected by many things, even your emotions, however, fitness exercises do not have a high emotional component, so the exercise pulse is a reliable guide to the intensity of your effort. Your exercise pulse rate is quite independent of your resting rate. Whether your resting rate is 60 or 80 (remember I’m not any sort of medical person) moderate exercise will raise your pulse to about 120. (Again, this is for MOST people.)

The best way discovered so far to lower the resting heart rate is to make it beat faster during short periods of exercise.

For MOST people there is a “sweet spot” for pulse rate with regard to exercise. It’s from around 115 or so up to around 130. If you are way out of shape, 115 or so is kind of your target. After a few weeks your target will probably be around 120. What you wanna do is eventually get to where you can get your pulse up to 120 and hold it there for a few minutes every day. Milder exercise is still better than NO exercise though.

Those pulse rates have to do with stuff like “how fast it can refill it’s volume” or something like that. I’m not gonna go into that stuff.

I’ll give your some more stuff later guys…

p.s.
anyone who already knows about this stuff, please jump in and let us know if I’m sharing any dangerous advice here…

˚Living My Blessings Upon Blessings  

Posted on 11/02/2012. Last edited on 12/02/2012.

Hey MCM, I am really glad you are summarizing this book, First off you do a great job rewording, motivating…& always with a very humble approach.

I checked out your Amazon link, and realized I had purchased this book at library used book sale a long time ago… and never read it because of the old condition of the book…a bit nasty…actually. Nasty or not…I was going to read it along with you….since this my focus right now, but instead I’m waiting for your delightful summary.

Thank you, Laurie! I like good books that are also short, easy reads and this one fills the bill.

Here is some more info for you guys…

If you can’t walk two miles without getting dizzy or feeling like you are gonna puke you should see a doctor before beginning an exercise regimen. The point is that if you are on the verge of a heart-attack, you don’t want to put another straw on the camel’s back. Consider seeing a doctor. If you are in terrible shape it might be best to try to lose some weight by eating smarter and just doing mild exercise like walking before you start taxing your heart.

Below is some stuff straight from the book…

“…You don’t have to be a marathon runner to lower your resting heart rate about ten beats a minute. Any training you do that puts a slight overload on your heart will do the job. If you’re untrained, the amount of exertion you would need to expend would be relatively slight. You might even accomplish it by walking. If your heart rate is low to begin with, this doesn’t mean that you’ve got the endurance to go out and race two miles. You have to prepare your heart just as carefully as does the man whose heart rate is high at the outset…”

Here are some guidelines: When you first begin your exercise program subtract your age from 160. The answer is an approximate pulse rate you are shooting for for your exercise. For example: if you are fifty years old and just starting out on a fitness program you’ll want to exercise at 110 beats per minute. 160 – 50 = 110. Okay, now IF you’re fifty and you’ve been working out for a few months, or are in pretty fair shape to begin with, you can exercise at a rate of 180 minus your age, or 130. If you are in excellent shape and fifty years old and you want to exercise vigorously, you can work at 200 minus your age, or 150. Got it?

Beginner: 160 minus age for target pulse
Medium: 180 minus age
Advanced: 200 minus age

Also: The harder you work, the better it will be – to a point. One hundred and ten is a great deal better than 100. BUT, 150 is only a tiny bit better than 140. Once you get beyond 200 minus your age you aren’t benefiting yourself. As your condition improves it is important that you work at at around 120. A well-conditioned person will not improve anything if he works out at below 120.

You can get good results within a month. If your resting heart rate is 95 at the beginning of training it should be 90 after just a month. If your heart rate hasn’t lowered, you should increase the quantity of cardio-respiratory endurance exercise. A primary goal of your training will be to lower your resting heart rate five to ten beats a minute, regardless of what it was at the outset. This lowered heart rate is the barometer of the relaxed power that you see in highly trained athletes and sleek wild animals. It is the characteristic of a well-trained person – one who has so much power available that he can perform with ease, who feels more alive, less fatigued, with an almost unlimited capacity for activity.

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The above is stuff from the book mixed with my own words.

˚Living My Blessings Upon Blessings  

Posted on 14/03/2017. Last edited on 05/11/2018.

Loved this thread from 2012! Thanks Smart Routines!

Looking forward to all of us (who choose to) add to it in present