How to get a high-performance heart
Hey! Jogging is easy
A normal heart increases very slowly in size to become a high-performance
organ.What makes this organ capable of above-average levels of performance
is a harmonious balance between the thickening of the muscle walls and the
expansion of the ventricles. This has the great advantage that the amount of
oxygen transported by the bloodstream can be increased up to double the
original volume. We could draw an analogy with the cubic capacity of an
automobile engine. If the biological incentives are strong enough to make your
heart grow larger, you may find that you are cruising along with powerful
2000 cc valves instead of 1300 cc. If you go on to increase your performance
capacity you can even reach 3000 cc. Whatever the case, whether it's your heart
or an internal combustion engine, the larger the cubic displacement, the easier
it is to reach a high performance level, without the wear and tear of revving up
the motor to maximum limits. So keep that pulse rate down!
It is advisable to consult a doctor as soon as possible for a thorough physical
examination, especially if you are over thirty. Above all, ask to be given an
electro-cardiogram to learn how healthy your heart really is, if only so that
you can go on training with a clear conscience.
Now it's time to take a closer look at what we mean by training, especially
long-distance or endurance training. First a dictionary definition: training is
the regular repetition of body movements with the aim of increasing the
body's performance capacity or maintaining it over a relatively long period
of time. The particular capacity you train will be improved: those who
practice weight lifting in a fitness studio will increase their muscle power.
It will amaze you to discover what you train when you run. With endurance
training, you improve your resistance to exhaustion. This last sentence bears
repetition - aloud, word for word.
Even a ten-minute daily training program, involving 50 to 70 percent of the
maximum physical output of an untrained person, will tangibly increase that
person's resistance to exhaustion - within a month. In the late nineteenth
century scientists were already racking their brains to find the correct
approach to training. Their answer still holds true today: small loads are
useless, medium- size loads are useful, heavy loads are dangerous.
To cause a "normal" heart to increase in size it is sufficient to train it a
mere ten minutes per day. Our goal, however, is not to give you a strong
heart. What we want you to do is to place a load on your heart that will
cause it to function with "maximum benefit to health," as defined by
today's sports physicians. To achieve this, you should run for forty-five
to sixty minutes three or four times a week. This is our ultimate target.
Never overlook one point: at the beginning, it is not intensity - i.e. speed
- that improves your performance capacity, but solely and exclusively
the duration of the run. If you reduce your speed by ten percent you
can double the time you spend running. Because the pulse rises quickly,
especially in beginners, you should make sure that you do not wind up
being short of breath. Allow me, once again, to repeat the advice you
must take to heart: put on the brakes. If you do, you will keep the load
on your heart and circulatory system at fifty to seventy percent, which
is ideal for our purposes.
But watch out, if you put yourself under the wrong sort of strain you
will achieve absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing. If you only run
once a week instead of three times, your heart will not increase its
performance capacity, and you will not become physically fit. Nor
will it help if you try to catch up on your jogging backlog in one day
and run three times as long instead of the allotted thirty minutes. Later,
when your heart is in good condition, you will have no trouble taking
a long weekend run after a laying off for a week. But at this point it
wouldn't help you in the slightest. You would be wasting your time.
What does it mean to train at fifty to seventy percent capacity? Long
ago sports physicians discovered that each person has an ideal pulse
that effectively stimulates his or her heart. The starting point is your
maximum pulse, which is computed by subtracting your age in years
from 220. Thus, a thirty-year-old has a maximum pulse of 190. You
can write down your own maximum pulse
here:
My maximum pulse is 220 minus _____ = ______
Using this figure and your basic pulse (noted below), you can compute
your ideal pulse on the basis of the following simple formula. The
left-hand column shows our thirty-year-old with an assumed basic
pulse of 60 heartbeats per minute. In the right-hand column you can
write down your own figures.
Maximum pulse 190 ....
minus basic pulse 60 ....
yields: 130 ....
of which 2/3 is 87 ....
plus basic pulse 60 ....
yields ideal pulse 147 ....
For our thirty-year-old, 147 is the pulse he or she should reach and
maintain as long as possible when running. It is thus this person's ideal
pulse.
My ideal pulse while running is ___________
So if you aim to take 45- to 60-minute runs to stay healthy, your ideal
pulse will gradually drop as your basic pulse begins to slow down. Not
only can you feel this boost in performance, you can also measure it in
the decrease of your basic pulse. If you want to record your progress in
black on white, write down your figures here:
My basic pulse:
after first week: ....
after first month: ....
after second month: ....
after third month: ....
after fourth month: ....
after fifth month: ....
after sixth month: ....
After a mere six months you can write down the happy results: running
lowered my basic pulse from .... to .... heartbeats per minute, saving me
.... heartbeats per hour!
[It's getting easier and easier. Now you can already run for ten minutes.
In the next Part Winni Mühlbauer talks about the functions of oxygen in the body.]
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