“No pain, no gain”. If you don’t feel ready to puke afterwards, you have more to give. Many equate a really good workout with feeling as good as dead afterwards.
You may also be one of those who do not believe that a power walk or a yoga session has any direct effect – but then you should think again.
Studies show that by just walking for 21 minutes a day, you can reduce the risk of heart disease by 30 percent. In turn, yoga can relieve chronic back pain and have great benefits for your mental health.
A yoga session should not be underestimated. It can reduce chronic back pain and have great benefits for your mental health. Foto: fizkes / Shutterstock
In other words, that HIIT session or that mildly painful run might not be right for you, or even necessary—at least not every workout.
Here, Andrew Jagim, researcher and specialist in sports medicine, and RaGina McKissick, personal trainer and group instructor, share their knowledge about low-intensity training and why it’s so good.
Several advantages of low-intensity training
– When it comes to your heart rate, there is no reason to aim for maximum heart rate during a training session, says Andrew Jagim, director of the department of sports medicine research at the Mayo Clinic Health System to HuffPost.
To calculate your maximum heart rate, you subtract your age from 220. So if you are 45 years old, subtract 45 from 220. Then you get a maximum heart rate of 175 beats per minute. Most people’s heart rate (including athletes) is between 60-80 percent of maximum during a cardio session.
– And that’s perfectly fine, it doesn’t have to be higher.
Andrew Jagim adds that people who are at or just below their maximum heart rate when exercising should definitely not do too long sessions. If you train with such intensity, the session should not be longer than 15-20 minutes – and include interval training
This might mean maxing out for 30 seconds followed by one to two minutes of easy recovery, where you let your heart rate drop to 50-60 percent of your maximum heart rate before starting again.
Lower intensity exercise such as walking, pilates and some dance classes are activities you can do at your own pace to ensure you get all the benefits of exercise.
– The lower intensity means you can focus on other things that are important when you train, such as mobility, flexibility, depth and strength, says personal trainer and group instructor RaGina McKissick.
Low-intensity exercise also gives you the opportunity to think about,, and control your breathing.
– Many who run high-intensity training sessions do not know how to breathe correctly. They either get tired very quickly, dizzy or nauseous.
The training expert: “Listen to your body”
However, she understands that it’s easy to become obsessed with the numbers on the heart rate monitor, but unless you’re doing a very specific type of exercise, you don’t need it.
A good rule of thumb is to stay at 60-80 percent of your maximum heart rate when exercising. Photo: Gutesa/Shutterstock
Reaching your maximum heart rate is only necessary for those who are trying to work at their maximum performance. When it comes to aerobic fitness, basic endurance and fat burning, she shares Andrew Jagim’s view: Stay at 60-80 percent of your maximum heart rate.
– And most importantly, listen to your body and do the type of exercise that makes you feel good. Just make sure it’s varied – both strength training, cardio and low-intensity training should be included in your training routine. And if a certain form of exercise doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. The key is to find what you like and stick with it.
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