Ways to measure my improvement^o^

It is a bit aimless if you do not have the measurement to measure your improvement.
As I wish to exercise twice a week with the goal of becoming healthier and increase my stamina.

I used the pulse rate measurement as my instrument to measure my process of growing.

Mr. James was introduced us with this method of measurement in Health Psychology class last week.

According to National Emergency Medicine Association (2003), pulse rate are also known as heart rate as it is the number of times of heart beats per minute.

We can measure our pulse rate by placing our fingers on the neck or wrist.

       (adapted from superskinnyme, 2013)

In the class, Mr. James asked us to measure our resting pulse rate first, which are measure our pulse rate before exercise within 15 minutes, then we use the number to multiply by four to get the resting pulse rate. After that, we did the aerobic exercise for 3 minutes by climbing up and down of the chair. We measure the pulse rates again once we finished the aerobic exercise. Thus, I placed my fingers on my wrist again to measure the pulse rate. My pulse rate after exercise on that day is 176! But I forgot what is my resting pulse rate on that day already.>_<
So, I decided to do the baseline observation again=)

However, what is the optimal pulse rate for me??

According to American Heart Association (2013), the average resting pulse rate for normal people is 60 to 80 per minute, but it will rises with age. Most of the athletes have pulse rate in between 40 to 60 per minutes (National Emergency Medicine Association, 2003). I assumed myself as the normal people, so my target of resting pulse rate is within 60 to 80 per minutes. For the optimal heart or pulse rate, it is actually different across different ages of people. The age-predicted maximum heart rate formula can actually help us to determine our maximal heart rate. The age adjusted maximal heart rate is different for male and female too! Thus, there are two formula for male and female respectively (Articles of the Heart, 2009).
Female: 226- age = age adjusted maximal heart rate

Male    : 220- age = age adjusted maximal heart rate

For example, I am 21 years old and I am a female, so I need to subtract 21 from 226 to get my maximal physiological limit as to how fast my heart should beat per minutes.

226- 21= 205

Thus, 205 is my maximal heart rate.

Besides that, I found a webpage which can automatically help me to count my target heart rate from http://www.webmd.com/heart/target-heart-rate-20512 .
From this website, it shows that my target heart rate range of exercise is 147 to 162 beats per minute (WebMD, 2013).
On the other hand, pulse rate after different activities will differ too!
For example, pulse rate after the walk will lesser than pulse rate after jogging, and the pulse rate after running will greater then pulse rate after jogging (superskinnyme, 2013).
Thus, in order to gain the most precise result, I plan to use the same exercise to measure my pulse rate exercise, which are the up and down exercise taught by Mr. James uses the staircase. I will rest for about ten minutes after the jogging then only do the up and down exercise to make sure I get the precise data.LOL.
Hope I can achieve the target at the end of semester=)