Cardiovascular Fitness at Home

Fitness experts having been telling us for years that we need to get at least 20-30 minutes of cardiovascularexercise every day. The AmericanCollege of Sports Medicine and the United StatesCenters for Disease Control recommend that adults should accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week. The challenge here for most families is not the exercise itself, but when to exercise. The art of juggling your job(s), your spouse's job(s), kids' school, scouts, PTA, family events, medical and dental appointments, and other unexpected time stealers, leave little time for 20 minutes of daily cardiovascularexercise. Or so it would seem. But let's look at cardiovascularexercise more closely. "Cardiovascularexercise is any type of exercise that increases the work of the heart and lungs," says Tommy Boone, PhD. And there are many ways adults with children can incorporate this into their day.

One such way is to allow your toddler to play outside. It won't take more than two minutes before he is heading into some type of danger - like driving his Lil' Tykes Coupe into the street. If you want a cardiovascular increase, watch what happens as you simultaneously scream, "Stop!" and run to head him off at your top sprinting speed. Caution: those with a weakened heart or history of heart disease should not attempt this type of fitness prgram without consulting a physician.

Another way to increase heart rate is to get your kids ready for school in the morning. As you run up and down the stairs trying to find book bags, shoes, coats, and homework before the bus arrives, and then chase the bus down the street because you were too late, you will easily increase your cardiovascularactivity, improving overall fitness.

However, doctors and health practitioners tell us that for optimal fitness, we need to increase our heart rate from its resting rate to an elevated "target" rate, and sustain that for at least 20 minutes. Denise Austin, fitness expert and author of 7 fitness books, refers to this as your "zone."

One way to get sustained cardiovascularexercise during the course of normal daily activity is to attempt household chores, such as vacuuming, with the children in the house. The vacuuming is itself an exercise, but coupled with the periodic running to another room or up the stairs to break up the "She's touching me!" fights, or to catch the toddler from falling off the top bunk allows you to stay in that elevated cardiovascular zone for longer periods.

To calculate your ideal zone Austin says, "Take the number 220, then minus your age, then calculate 70% of that number for your target beats per minute. If your heart rate halfway through your workout is over that 70% mark, take it down a level, and if under, pick up the pace."

Check your heart rate as you head up the stairs to break up the fight, if you are over that 70% mark, let them fight a bit longer, if it's below, sprint to the fray. Make sure to jog in place as you deal out punishment so as not to drop out of the zone.

If all else fails, find a pub 20 minutes walking distance from your house. A good brisk walk several days per week is excellent exercise, and two keys to any fitness program are consistency and proper fluid intake. Cheers!