Very simply, your heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute. You can measure your heart rate by feeling your pulse - the rhythmic expansion and contraction (or throbbing) of an artery as blood is forced through it by the regular contractions of the heart. It is a measure of how hard your heart is working.

Your pulse can be felt at the wrist, neck, groin or top of the foot - areas where the artery is close to the skin. Most commonly, people measure their pulse in their wrist. This is called the radial pulse.

Once you start moving around, your body needs more oxygen, which it gets from the blood that's pumped from your heart. The faster and more intensely you work out, the higher your heart rate climbs.

A regular exercise program can eventually lower your resting heart rate because your heart begins to work more efficiently at pumping oxygen-infused blood to your muscles. Your muscles, in turn, become more efficient at using the oxygenated blood that's pumped to them. Trained athletes generally have a lower resting heart rate than the average person who rarely or never exercises.

When undertaking an exercise program it is important to have a goal and a target range that you are trying to accomplish in each workout. To be of benefit, you want the workout to be neither too hard nor too easy.

There is a simple formula to predict your maximum heart rate that is used in the fitness industry:

Take 220 and subtract your age. This will give you a predicted maximum

heart rate. For example, if you are 12 years old,

subtract 42 from 220 (220 - 12 = 218) Most exercise programs suggest that

your heart rate during exercise should be between 70 - 80% of your maximum heart rate.

You can use a pulsometer to measure your heart rate while you are doing exercise. You can know your heart rate looking to it at any moment.

What is YOUR heart rate right now? How you can increase your heart

rate inmediatly? What is cosequence of a regular

exercise programme? What is your maximum heart rate? How can you measure your heart

rate while you are doing exercise?