I remember one of the first “rules” of working out, at least if it was a cardio-targeted workout meaning you want to get your heart rate up and condition the lungs and begin to burn calories off, is that you have to keep your heart rate up for at least 20 to 30 minutes if you even wanted to begin to get the benefits of calorie consumption in a cardio workout.

So, apparently it is true that in order to get the benefits of calorie burning, you have to make sure your heart rate is at it’s “target” for at least the 20 to 30 minutes, and obviously, the longer the better.

There is a point where your body starts to heat up, and the metabolism speeds up during the exertion, but for some reason it only occurs after you are working for so many minutes.

The longer you go, the more calories you burn, and the more you speed up your metabolism.
To get to your target heart rate, you may want to enlist the help of a professional.

If you go to a gym and workout, ask any one of the fitness specialists there about it and they should be able to help you figure out what this target is for you personally. This way, your workouts can be tailored, time wise and endurance wise to what is going to best for you individual body and your personal fitness goals.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.