We all know that exercise is necessary for everyone if they want to maintain a healthy body, and mind! Humans were made to be active. Not sedentary which has become a major problem with todays society. Years ago, and we mean years ago, most people worked at menial jobs, which took a toll on their bodies, along with working a minimum 10 hours each day and for some 12 hours were the norm. This was all done with eating a minimum calorie diet, which was watched over by the person in charge of the household, at least the running of the home, and yes, we mean the mother. Who worked longer hours than most of the family, getting up early to make sure everyone had a hearty breakfast, using as much as could be spared or dolled out from the family larder. The good thing about this was everything was made fresh that day. Not too many things were made ahead of time. That means, warm, freshly made bread out of the oven or on top of the stove. Fresh eggs and milk and large helpings of grain cereal like oatmeal. It may have not been a large variety of foods, but it was something that got everyone through the day and saw them through till their next meal.

Today, everyone is running around, trying to fit more things into their day. Answering or sending emails and texts, making calls or answering them all with the pretense of being more productive. But this change in lifestyle comes with a price. Most of us, are doing all of this sitting down. From their desks, workstations, on the way to or from a job or just heading out the door to a quick lunch, usually eating something that's high in carbs and loaded with salt and or sugar. If they're thinking about their waistline they may go and grab a protein shake. Then after work, they might defeat the purpose of that shake by having a few high-calorie drinks. 

One of the other downfalls of this new age society is that most of us have become sedentary and are not moving or expending large amounts of physical energy in performing their daily work-chores. Those of us that want to be healthier head out to the gym, either before work begins, during a lunch break or getting a little sweaty after work, before they head for home.

What most of us do not realize that if we are looking to burn more calories. Moving more doing cardio exercise burns more calories and pumping some iron creates lean muscle mass which when at rest allows your body to continue to burn calories, which is always a good thing. You just want to make sure that when you do hit the gym, you want to make sure you're getting the most out of your workout.

That's why your heart rate is so important; to get in an effective workout, especially with cardio, your heart rate needs to be elevated from its resting state to reap the heart-healthy and calorie-burning benefits. This is why heart-rate monitors are so popular. Using a good, accurate heart rate monitor like the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  

Track steps, distance, Sleep and more. With help from Elevate™ wrist-based heart rate technology², Vivoactive 3 lets you monitor key aspects of your fitness and stress to show how your body responds under various circumstances. For example, it’s able to estimate your VO2 max and fitness age — 2 indicators of physical fitness that can often improve over time with regular exercise. It also tracks your heart rate variability (HRV), which is used to calculate and track your stress level. Vivoactive 3 can make you aware when physical or emotional sources cause your stress level to rise so you can find a way to relieve the pressure.

As we said before, you want to get the most out of your exercise time and the best way to do this is to exercise at your maximum heart rate! Turns out there's a simple formula you can use to find out your max heart rate and how to get into the fat-burning zone. Determining your max heart rate is as simple as taking 220 minus your age. So, if you're 30, your max heart rate is 190 beats per minute.

To get into the fat-burning zone, you need to be at 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate during exercise. Since each person's heart health and activity level is different, one person could reach his or her 60 percent after just a minute of exercise, while others could take longer (or shorter) to get there.

You also need to keep in mind when starting out that you really need to first get checked out by your physician before you start exercising to the extreme. Also, when talking with your doctor, make sure you raise the question about any medication you may be taking that could raise your heart rate. Or could be a deterrent to getting an accurate read on just what your real heart rate is if you are taking medication that could make reaching that heart rate goal of your un-achievable.

Some trainers say that if you're doing steady-state cardio, such as running, walking, or cycling, you should aim for 70 to 80 percent of your max and stay there for a while. It will take around 18 minutes for your body to start using fat as fuel. If you want to do a shorter, more intense workout like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), you want to get your heart rate up to 80 to 90 percent for short bursts, then recover until your heart rate is back down to 60 percent. When you exercise at your target zone, you should feel like your heart rate is faster and your breathing has increased. A one out of 10 is resting, while 10 out of 10 feels like you need to be picked up off the floor. Using this scale, you should be at a six, seven, or eight out of 10 when you are in the target zone.

Again, taking the guesswork out of determining your max heart rate and at what intensity you have been performing at is best done with a fitness tracker like the Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS Smart Activity Tracker  That monitors your exertions all day long and can provide you with trackable data via Garmin Connect where you can compare your progress and if you so desire, can compete against group members of a like mind to see who is out performing who.

So, what do you say, are you ready to Crank Up your Heartrate for 2019?