Cara Kempf is a certified personal trainer with the Fitness Zone in Carmel and a group fitness instructor with NIFS in downtown Indianapolis. She can be contacted at fitnessblog@theindychannel.com.

If you've ever wondered how hard you should be training when working on the treadmill, exercise bike, etc., you are not alone. This is one of the most frequently asked questions in fitness and is somewhat hard to nail down. However, there are some basics that you can use to help develop an optimal cardiovascular plan for you:

• Warm-up: Graduated low-level aerobic activity, with exercise specific stretches. For example, if you are getting on the treadmill, you will want to walk or jog at a slow pace for at least five minutes. Lightly stretch the muscles being used for the specific exercise (i.e. calf, quadriceps, and Achilles for running).
• Frequency, nmber of sessions per week: To improve cardiovascular fitness, you should be exercising 3 to 5 times per week. When just beginning a cardio program, every other day exercise would provide the most benefit. You should allow about 36-48 hours recovery time between sessions to prevent overuse, since your body may not be used to the new workout.
• Duration: Number of minutes of exercise during one conditioning period. Beginners should start with 10-20 minutes of aerobic conditioning. Average classifications require 15 to 45 minutes, and those in the high classification can go for 30 to 60 or more minutes.

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• Intensity–Speed or exercise work load: The American College of Sports Medicine recommends an intensity range of 55 to 90% of maximum heart rate. Beginners should start at 50 to 60%, and work up from there. The average exercise intensity for apparently healthy adults is usually between 60 and 75 percent maximum heart rate. If you want to figure your maximal heart rate, you can use this method as an approximation:
  Maximal measured or predicted heart rate x 60 to 90 percent (desired percent of maximal HR). For example, a 40-year-old woman wants to achieve an intensity of 70 percent of maximal heart rate, so: 220-40 (age)= 180 (predicted max HR), 180 x .70 (70 percent exercise intensity) = 126 exercise HR (This is what she wants to maintain during exercise).
  You can also use the Borg Scale to determine how hard you are working. Simply ask yourself how hard, on a scale of 1 to 10, you are working. One is equal to about 10 percent heart rate, with 10 equal to about 100 percent heart rate.
• Cooldown period preceding exercise: You will want to cool down aerobically for about 5 to 10 minutes after the moderate to intense workout session. Then follow with several minutes of more intense stretching of the muscle groups active during the workout.

Physiologically, cardiovascular training helps to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This is among many, many other benefits. You can attain an optimal level of cardiovascular fitness with a little effort, so jump on the treadmill and get started today!