Both your heart rate and breath rate increase during exercise in proportion to your exercise intensity. To get the most health benefits from exercise, you should aim for moderate- or vigorous-intensity exercise, which causes your breath rate to quicken and your pulse to rise to at least 50 percent of your maximum heart rate. You should never attempt to exercise above your fitness level, however. If you become out of breath during exercise or your heart rate exceeds the target heart rate for someone your age, you're working out too hard.
Heart Rate During Exercise
During exercise, your heart rate increases to deliver oxygenated blood to your working muscles. Your heart rate quickens in proportion to your exercise intensity -- this means that your heart rate may speed up slightly while walking on the treadmill and your heart will likely beat rapidly if you start to sprint. When your heart rate increases in response to exercise, it also beats more forcefully, resulting in an increase in the volume of blood pumped with every beat. If you regularly get exercise that increases your heart rate, over time, your heart muscle will increase in size and strength, you will have a lower resting heart rate, and your heart rate will return to normal faster after exercise.
Effects of Exercise on Respiratory Rate
Your breath rate, or respiratory rate, also quickens in response to exercise in order to deliver oxygen to muscles. Besides breathing faster, your tidal volume -- or amount of air breathed in or out in one breath -- rises during exercise as well. With regular training, which raises your respiratory rate, your lungs and the rest of your respiratory system become more efficient at delivering oxygen to the body through increased lung capacity and stronger diaphragm muscles. As with your heart rate, your breath rate is a good way to gauge your exercise intensity while you're working out, as a more rapid breath rate correlates to a more difficult exercise intensity.
Breath Rate and Exercise Intensity
To get the most health benefits from exercise, your exercise intensity should be at a moderate or vigorous level. However, if you're new to exercise, it is safest to start out exercising at a light intensity and working your way up to moderate- and vigorous-intensity exercise. One way of measuring exercise intensity is your respiratory rate. If you notice no change in your breathing during exercise, you are working out at a light intensity. With moderately-intense exercise, your breath rate will quicken, but you should be able to carry on a conversation without feeling out of breath. If your breath rate during exercise is deep and rapid, and you can't speak more than a few words without pausing for breath, you are probably exercising vigorously.
Target Heart Rate
You can also measure your pulse during exercise to determine whether you're working out at an appropriate exercise intensity. Your target heart rate is the moderate- to vigorous-intensity level at which you'll gain the most health benefits from exercise. To calculate your target heart rate range, subtract your age from 220 to find the average maximum heart rate for someone your age. Multiply this number by 50 percent and then 85 percent: These two numbers represent the lower and upper range of your target heart rate. For example, if you are 65, your maximum heart rate is 155 beats per minute, and your target heart rate is between 78 and 132 BPM. To measure your BPM during exercise, you can use a heart rate monitor, or you can measure your pulse by counting the number of times your heart beats in 10 seconds, and then multiplying this number by six.
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