Heart or Muscle Training
Report #6256
You can't train for heart muscle fitness and skeletal muscle strength with the same exercises.
To strengthen your heart muscle, you have to exercise vigorously enough to speed up your heart rate and keep it elevated for a while. To strengthen your skeletal muscles, you have to exercise against increasing resistance in bouts of no longer than 50 seconds. To strengthen your heart muscle, you have to exercise vigorously enough to make your heart pump more blood. The formula for heart-lung fitness is to exercise vigorously enough to raise your heart rate at least 20 beats a minute above your resting rate/ and try to work up to 30 minutes, 3 times a week. If you can't exercise continuously for thirty minutes, exercise, stop when you feel tired, and repeat the cycle.
To strengthen your skeletal muscles, you have to exercise against increasing resistance, such as lifting heavy weights or pushing against special strength-training machines. The greater the resistance without causing injury, the greater the gain in strength. However, when you exercise against resistance, your muscles fatigue very rapidly. If you exercise against resistance for more than 50 continuous seconds, you increase your risk of tearing your muscles.
To strengthen your heart, run, walk, swim, cycle, ski, dance or do any other continuous exercise. To strengthen your skeletal muscles, use weights or special strength-training machines. A good program would include jogging on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and using strength machines on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
Checked 7/20/09