You're Probably Working Out Harder Than You Need To Be

The pressure to have a “good workout” can be intense thanks to fitness trackers and influencers on social media. As a result, many people define a good workout as exercise with lots of sweat and a super-high heart rate ― not a more moderate fitness regimen like walking or yoga. But that’s wrong.

Studies show that walking just 21 minutes a day can lower your risk of heart disease by 30%, while exercise like yoga can reduce chronic back pain and have huge benefits for your mental health.

In other words, that HIIT workout or mildly painful run may not actually be right for you — or even necessary, at least not for every workout. Experts shared what to know about low-intensity exercise and why it’s just as effective as high-intensity activity.

Hitting your maximum heart rate during every single workout is not necessary.

When it comes to your heart rate, which most fitness trackers measure, “there is no need to hit your max heart rate in a workout,” said Andrew Jagim, the director of sports medicine research at Mayo Clinic Health System in Onalaska, Wisconsin.

To calculate yourmaximum healthy heart rate, you can subtract your age from 220, Jagim said. So if you’re 45 years old, you would subtract 45 from 220 to get a maximum heart rate of 175 beats per minute.

Most peoples’ heart rates (including athletes) stay between 60% and 80% of their max during cardio exercise — and that’s perfectly OK, Jagim said. He added that people who are working out at their maximum heart rate or just below it (between 80% and 100%) should not task themselves with a long, grueling workout. Instead, training at this intensity should last for 15 to 20 minutes and should involve interval training.

Jagim said this could look like 30 seconds of max