It is important to know if you're exercising hard enough and at a safe level! You'll need to figure out your target heart rate. Your target heart rate can depend on the type of exercise you're doing.

Moderate exercise includes activities like brisk walking, swimming, dancing, or water aerobics.

Vigorous exercise includes activities like jogging, aerobics, basketball, fast swimming, or fast dancing.

This is how you do it:

Stop exercising briefly to take your heart rate (pulse). We recommend taking your pulse at the wrist. You can feel your pulse on your wrist in line with the thumb. Place the tips of the index and middle fingers over the artery and press lightly. Do not use the thumb. Take a full 60-second count of the heartbeats, or take for 30 seconds and multiply by 2. Start the count on a beat, which is counted as "zero."

Later, when you're back on your computer, using the calculator below, figure out your target heart rate. The calculator will give your maximum and minimum heart rate. This is called your target zone. See if the number you remembered as your pulse falls within this zone. Try to exercise in this zone.

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