You want to start an effective cardiovascular fitness program but you are put off by the high cost of personal trainers, club memberships, and fancy exercise equipment. You could always get a pair of properly fitted running shoes and hit the pavement, but that is impractical for many.

Even if cost were not a concern there are always the questions about how much and how hard you have to workout to get a positive training effect. Complicate your training effect questions with your desire to sensibly lose 20 or 30 pounds in a reasonable amount of time, and your fitness and weight loss program becomes either expensive or hit and miss. There is nothing more discouraging to continuing a

fitness program than doing the work and not getting the result.

Here is a specific plan for an effective cardio fitness and weight loss program that will cost you from nothing to a couple hundred dollars, and that provides you with the specific information you need you know about “how much” and “how hard.”

The plan includes a manual treadmill that sells new for between $100 and $200. I assume you have a watch or a clock with a second hand, so if you want to go for a no cost program you can dump the manual treadmill and substitute running in place, or jumping rope if you want. The equipment is not critical. You exercise your body after all,

not the equipment. By the same token if you already have a motorized treadmill that works too.

Your ability to monitor your heart rate is the key to success in cardiovascular training. Your heart before and during exercise will tell you exactly how hard you have to train to get a beneficial training effect. Generally, any activity that works the large muscle groups (legs) continuously for 20 minutes or longer can produce some effect.

But why generalize or guess when you can know for sure what heart rate, within a few beats per minute, you need to maintain during exercise. This specific heart rate is called appropriately your Training Heart Rate (THR), and it varies by age and physical condition.

Here is the quick formula to determine your THR in beats-per-minute. Subtract your age from 220. Call the answer your MHR (maximum heart rate). If you are in excellent physical shape your Training Heart Rate is 90% of your MHR; in good physical shape 80% of MHR; and if in poor shape 70% of your MHR. If you feel any discomfort exercising at 60% of your MHR then stop and go get a complete medically supervised physical exam. Exercising at less than 60% of your MHR would have almost zero cardiovascular training effect anyway so why take the risk.

You can go with an electronic heart rate monitor, or you can take your own pulse to get your heart rate.

Do not take your pulse until five minutes after beginning your aerobic exercise. You can put your hand over your heart, or the tips of your fingers on the radial artery, which is on the wrist just above your thumb. Count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by six to determine your heart rate in beats-per-minute. You can pick up the pace or slow down to get to your THR. Exercising at more than 90% of THR can be dangerous.

Here is another simple and accurate formula to determine how much exercise you have to do to lose weight. This assumes no change in your normal diet or weekly caloric consumption. 1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories. To

burn 2 pounds of fat per week (a realistic and sensible goal) you must burn an above-normal 7,000 calories of energy per week.

Picking up and putting down your feet on the treadmill at about 75 counts per minute burns .078 Calories/Minute/Pound of Body Weight, or more easily remembered, 7.8 calories per minute, or 468 calories per hour, per 100 pounds of body weight.

A 200 pound person would require about 7 1/2 hours per week of exercise that put their feet on the treadmill 75 times per minute. Use this formula to convert for your situation:

(Your Body Weight/100) * 468 * (Steps Per Minute/75) = Calories Per Hour. Divide 7,000 by the Calories Per Hour figure and that

is how many hours of exercise per week you must do to lose 2 pounds of body fat.

You can play with the number of hours of exercise per week by changing the steps per minute or by changing your caloric consumption per week. Make sure that you get your heart rate to THR for 20 minutes during three sessions, and you know for a scientific fact that by continuing your program you will accomplish your cardio fitness and weight loss goals.

(C) Peter Somerville. Start an effective [http://www.lean-and-mean.net/]aerobic exercise and fitness program with a [http://www.lean-and-mean.net/aerobic-exercise/treadmill-fitness.htm]manual treadmill and some valuable information.