Target Heart Rate
Target Heart Rate (THR) is a common way of judging how hard you should exercise during endurance activities. It tells you how fast the average person should try to make his or her heart beat during endurance sessions. It's not always the best way for older adults to decide how hard to exercise, though, because many have long-standing medical conditions or take medications that change their heart rate. We recommend using the Borg scale shown in Chapter 4 instead. However, some older exercisers who are in basically good health and who like taking a "scientific" approach to their endurance activities may find the THR method useful. Others should check with their doctors first.

For those of you who can use THR, the chart below shows an estimate of how fast you should try to make your heart beat, once you have gradually worked your way up to it. "Gradually" is an important word here. Going immediately from an inactive lifestyle to exercising at the rate shown in the chart is not advised.

One way to reach your THR gradually is to take your pulse during an endurance-type activity that is already a part of your life (walking, for example.) Do it at the pace you normally do it, and record your heart rate, from session to session (or over several sessions), increase how hard you work, so that your pulse rate gradually gets faster, over time.

Eventually, you can try to get your heart rate up to 70 to 85 percent of its maximum ability (the rate shown in the chart). Making it beat faster than this is not advised.

Note: The goal is not for your heart rate to be faster all the time - just when you do your endurance activities. In fact, you should find that, as your heart becomes more efficient from endurance exercise, your resting pulse rate is slower than it was before you took up this healthy habit.

How to Take Your Pulse
To take your pulse, press the tips of your index and middle fingers against the inside of the opposite wrist, just below the mound oat the base of your thumb, and count how many pulsations you feel in a 10-second period. Multiplying this number by 6 will give you your heart rate. (Note: Don't count your pulse for an entire minute. During the minute that you have stopped exercising to take your pulse, your heart will have slowed down, and you won't get an accurate reading.

DO NOT Use the THR Method If...

• Age	Desired Range for Heart Rate During Endurance Exercise (beats per minute)
  40	126-153
  50	119-145
  60	112-136
  70	105-128
  80	98-119
  90	91-111
  100	84-102

  You take medications that change your heart rate
• You have a pacemaker for your heart
• You have an irregular heart rhythm called "atrial fibrillation"
• You have any other condition that affects your pulse rate. All of these situations can give you inaccurate readings.

Many older adults take medications in a class called "beta blockers" for high blood pressure or some heart conditions. Your doctor can tell you if your heart or blood-pressure medicine is a beta blocker, or if you have other conditions or medications that will affect your pulse rate during exercise. Some eye drops used to treat glaucoma also contain beta blockers.

Your heart rate is a reflection of how hard your body is working. Beta blockers tend to keep your heart rate slower, so no matter how hard you push yourself, you might never reach the heart rate you are trying for. You might end up exerting yourself too much, as you try in vain to reach a heart rate that your beta blockers won't allow. Being on beta blockers doesn't mean you can't exercise vigorously; it just means you can't rely on your heart rate or on your pulse rate, to judge how hard you are working.

Measuring Progress
When Marty Billowitz throws off his blankets in the morning, he thinks first about his wife Harriet, but seconds later, he is up and moving, pulling on comfortable clothes and lacing up his walking shoes. Where does this 75-year-old grandfather dash off to at 7:00 every morning? Mr. Billowitz goes to the shopping mall not to get a jump on early-bird bargains, but to join a group of mall-walkers organized by the local hospital. These seniors meet each morning to exercise. Some move at a steady clip through the arteries of the mall, others take a slightly slower pace, but all of the walkers count their laps and keep a daily record of their progress pushing themselves each day to go a little faster, a little farther.

Mr. Billowitz joined the mall-walkers at his wife's insistence. "Harriet was clear that once I'd retired, no matter what, we were going to walk each morning!" That was nearly 7 years ago. Today Mr. Billowitz says, "The walkers have been a lifeline. They keep me moving on days when all I want to do is sit." You see, Mrs. Billowitz died unexpectedly last year. "It was quite a blow. I always thought I'd be the first to go," he says.

Still, during those years he spent walking miles around mall halls, Mr. Billowitz had done more than just improve his cardiovascular strengthhe also had built lasting friendships. It was those friends who brought him back into the walking routine after his wife's death. At first, Mr. Billowitz walked because it was something to do each morning. "But over time, I realized I liked how it felt to be moving. I liked seeing my improvement. Measuring how fast I could walk each morning gave me goals, something to work toward. It also made me feel good to see that I could take care of myself."

Mr. Billowitz believes that the mall-walking habit was a small gift his wife left for him, "I walk and feel stronger every day. That really helps. Some mornings I think of Harriet and silently thank her for insisting that we walk together."

Exercise Plan

How Much Exercise Should I Get Each Week?
When you first start out, you might have trouble keeping up with even the minimum amount of exercise we suggest in the chart at the bottom. Start out with a schedule that your body can tolerate and that you think you really can manage, and build up from there.

Note that the schedules are arranged so that you are never doing strength exercises of the same muscle groups on any two days in a row. If you want to do strength exercises every day, alternate muscle groups. For example, do strength exercises of your upper-body muscles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and of your lower-body muscles on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Or you can do strength exercises of all of your muscle groups up to every other day.

Begin exercising gradually. Once you have worked your way up to a regular schedule...

...get at least this much exercise each week:

...or
...you can exercise up to this often each week (more than this could cause injuries):

Click here to view Appendix C Activity and Progress Charts (PDF).

Resources

Below are examples of some nonprofit organizations that offer information about exercise and exercise programs for older adults.

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
6300 North River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018-4262
Phone: 1-800-824-2663
Internet: www.aaos.org
Ask for free publications about how to exercise safely.

American College of Sports Medicine
P.O. Box 1440
Indianapolis, IN 46206-1440
Phone: (317) 637-9200
Internet: www.acsm.org

American Diabetes Association
1701 North Beauregard Street
Alexandria, VA 22311
Phone: 1-800-342-2383
Internet: www.diabetes.org
Offers free pamphlets about exercise for people of all ages who have diabetes.

American Heart Association
7272 Greenville Ave.
Dallas, TX 75231-4596
Phone: 1-800-242-8721
Internet: www.americanheart.org

Offers free pamphlets about exercise for people of all ages.

American Physical Therapy Association
1111 North Fairfax St.
Alexandria, VA 22314-1488
Phone: 1-800-999-2782
Internet: www.apta.org
Request "For the Young at Heart" (free exercise brochure).

Arthritis Foundation
P.O. Box 7669
Atlanta, GA 30357-0669
Phone: 1-800-283-7800
Internet: www.arthritis.org
Free pamphlet provides guidelines on how to protect joints during exercise; includes range-of-motion exercises for joint mobility, and others.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30333
Phone: 1-800-311-3435
Internet: www.cdc.gov
Part of US Department of Health and Human Services. Offers physical activity tips for older people.

Jewish Community Centers
(also appears as Young Men's Hebrew Association or Young Women's Hebrew Association.)
Check phone book for local listing, or call national headquarters at the phone number below.
Phone: (212) 532-4949
Internet: www.jcca.org
Most locations offer a variety of exercise and physical activity programs for older adults. All denominations welcome.

National Association for Health and Fitness
c/o Be Active New York State
65 Niagara Square, Room 607
Buffalo, NY 14202
Phone: (716) 583-0521
Internet: www.physicalfitness.org
Sponsors physical-fitness events for older adults. Ask for address and phone number of your State's association.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
NHLBI Information Center
P.O. Box 30105
Bethesda, MD 20824-0105
Phone: (310) 592-8573
Internet: www.nhlbi.nih.gov
Part of the National Institutes of Health. Offers free publications on exercise, diet, and cholesterol.

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
National Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease Information Clearinghouse
1 AMS Circle
Bethesda, MD 20892-3675
Phone: 1-877-226-4267
Internet: www.niams.nih.gov
Part of the National Institutes of Health. Provides free information about exercise and arthritis; large-print copies available upon request.

National Institute on Aging
Bldg. 31, Rm. 5C273
31 Center Drive, MSC 2292
Bethesda, MD 20892-2292
Information Center:
Phone: 1-800-222-2225
TTY:1-800-222-4225
Internet: www.nia.nih.gov
Part of the National Institutes of Health. Call or write to receive free publications about health and fitness for older adults.

National Osteoporosis Foundation
1232 22nd Street NW
Washington, DC 20037-1202
Phone: 1-800-231-4222
Internet: www.nof.org
Call to request information on treating and preventing osteoporosis, preventing falls, and exercise.

National Senior Games Association
P.O. Box 82059
Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2059
Phone: (225) 766-6800
Internet: www.nsga.com
Conducts summer and winter National Senior Games - The Senior Olympics.

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
Department W200
Independence Avenue SW
Room 738 H
Washington, DC 20201-0004
Phone: (202) 690-9000
Internet: www.fitness.gov
Provides "Pep Up Your Life," a free exercise booklet for older adults, in partnership with AARP.

YMCA and YWCA
Check phone book for local listings.
Services vary from location to location: many offer exercise programs for older adults, including endurance exercises, strength exercises, water exercises, and walking.

<< Back