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THE AEROBIC EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION

Click on the book cover to purchase a copy of the Aerobic Fitness Diary.

WHERE TIME MEETS EFFORT - rated against heart rate

It's a pretty poor aerobic exercise program that comes without a prescription that includes, frequency, duration and heart rate. In fact it's a nonsense. Very few people ever got fit ambling around the block for 10 minutes three times a day.

It's like taking a pill that comes without a dosage and without instructions on how often to take it.

This sort of a prescribing routine is one of the root causes of the inability of the medical industry to restore people with general metabolic dysfunction, (the symptoms of which are headaches, tiredness, poor sleep, sleep apnoea, diabetes, hypertension, depression, cardiac insufficiency, cancer, obesity and all manner of body system dysfunctions) back to good health.

(It's might be a bit more complicated than that, but you'll get my drift.)

The Aerabyte aerobic exercise prescription concept has been built around the idea that you need to combine time and effort if you're going to improve your fitness and your health.

Aerabyte is a new word for a new measure of aerobic training, the Aerabyte, as in 'a byte of aerobic exercise'. If you're serious about becoming aerobically fitter, merely recording time, steps or distance is pointless unless effort is also taken into account.

An aerabyte is a byte of aerobic fitness activity.

To calculate the number of aerabytes you've used up in a workout, multiply the actual time (T) in minutes by the level of effort (E), rated on a scale of 1 to 5.

Whilst you can make a subjective assessment of effort, it's highly recommended that you use the heart rate guide below. Get yourself  get a heart rate monitor and measure the intensity of your work-outs with greater precision. If you're diligent in your training, over the weeks and months you'll notice an improvement in your fitness and on your level of aerobic fitness. ie, the fitter you are the longer you will be able to maintain your heart rate at a higher level.

A minimum of 400 aerabytes a week (APW) is good, 600 is better and 800 is best. Once you start getting 600 or more aerabytes a week you'll keep yourself in pretty good shape. If you want to achieve huge gains in your aerobic fitness, aim at 1000 APW.

As for the time it will take to get your 1000 aerabytes per week, this will depend on the amount of effort you expend in each workout.

What's happened in our sedentary society is that people do not realise just how little activity they do. Unless you have a manual job, the quickest way to get your aerabytes is to exercise with vigour for 200 or more minutes a week.

If you're type 2 diabetic, if you're over weight, depressed or have high blood pressure (in fact if you have any of the myriad symptoms of general metabolic dysfunction) you'd want at least 1000 APW a week to manage your condition. (Now I can't prove this, yet, but I'm waiting for some bright young smart alec from one of the sheltered workshops for the academically gifted to volunteer to do a study. There could be a PhD at the end of it for the successful candidate and a diabetes free life for the subjects.)

*The figures have been derived from the formula; maximum heart rate = 220 – age. For a 40 year old person the maximum heart rate is said to be about 180 BPM.

The experts say that to stimulate an improvement in aerobic fitness you need to exercise with your heart rate over 60% of its maximum. 60% of MHR for a 40 year old is about 110, level 2 on the aerabyte scale. But I'd bet on 70% as the minimum starting price for improving aerobic fitness and getting your metabolism back on an even keel.

125 BPM is about 70%. 140BPM is around 80% of MHR and if you’re in reasonable shape you’ll be able to sustain that level of effort for 40 minutes of more.

The aerabyte figures work well for regular folks between the age of 40 and 60. If you're younger or fitter you can up the heart rate scores accordingly. If you're over 50 you may like to adjust them down a bit. It all depends on how fit you are.

THE AEROBIC FITNESS RULE OF THUMB

If you've been sedentary for years, before you embark on your aerobic fitness program it would be wise to get yourself checked out to make sure you're not going to keel over after the first couple of minutes of your first activity session.

Build up to it. - try the 21 minute fitness program.

HOW LONG DO YOU NEED TO EXERCISE TO GET 800 AERABYTES A WEEK?

It all depends on how long and how hard you train. 5, 40 minute sessions a week with your heart rate over 140 will set you up for 1000 aerabytes. Do that for a few months and you'll soon be as fit as a trout, lean as a greyhound and toey as a Roman sandal.

What this means is that the higher the energy density of your workouts the less time you have to spend each week getting your aerabytes. Of course there will be hard and easy days, so it will probably take you more than 200 minutes.

200 minutes is close to 3 and a half hours. There are 168 hours in every week. Can you find 4 or 5 to keep yourself aerobically fit?

If you're in an occupation where you're moving around all day - you're a gardener, lawn mower, brick layer, parcel deliverer ... - then you'll get your aerobic activity during the 40 hours that you work. Some of the fittest and healthiest people I've seen in the last few years were staff in a botanic garden who spent all week wandering around tending the plants, digging up weeds, carting rubbish...

However, for most people this is not possible because they're cooped up in a cage and chained to a desk all day.

Most of us don't have jobs where we can keep moving around all the time so we have to find some 'artificial' activity that can be done in short, sharp and vigorous bursts. Only that way can we hope to make up for the movement our species was designed to do naturally and stave off the myriad body system dysfunctions that are the result of motion starvation.

If you've got a sedentary occupation then you need to make extra provision - running, cycling, swimming or using the aerobic equipment in the gym - to get the amount of aerobic exercise your body needs. If you don't, sooner or later you can expect key body systems to become dysfunctional. Then its ambulances at the bottom of the cliff for the rest of your life, or until you wake up to yourself.

USE THE AEROBIC FITNESS DIARY TO RECORD YOUR SCORES

Keep track of the number of aerabytes you do per session, per day, per week and per month. Over the weeks and months, you'll have objective evidence of whether or not your training program is working. (You can then go to your health insurer and demand that you be charged a lower premium!)

Aim for a minimum of 400 aerabytes a week. 600 is better and 800 is best. You'll keep yourself in exceptionally good shape on 1000 aerabytes per week.