Heart Minutes

Fitness data has never been more accessible.

Steps, calories burned, heart rate, distance, exercise duration—the list of what you can track nowadays goes on and on.

All of this data is helpful, but also comes with a challenge: how do you cut through the noise and focus on what really matters for your short and long-term health?

Introducing Heart Minutes: the one fitness metric to rule them all. ❤️

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What are Heart Minutes?

Heart Minutes are not anything new, but rather, a simpler term given for the time spent on moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity exercise.

Moderate and vigorous-intensity activities are anything that gets your body moving and heart pumping.

Moderate-intensity activities get your heart beating faster and breathing harder than normal, but you’ll still be able to talk.

Vigorous-intensity activities require more effort, usually causing you to sweat and make it hard to talk without taking a deep breath. Below are some real-life examples of both:

Examples of moderate-intensity activities:

• Brisk walking (at least 2.5 miles per hour)
• Water aerobics
• Dancing (ballroom or social)
• Gardening
• Tennis (doubles)
• Biking slower than 10 miles per hour
  

Examples of vigorous-intensity activities:

• Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack
• Running
• Swimming laps
• Aerobic dancing
• Heavy yard work like continuous digging or hoeing
• Tennis (singles)
• Cycling 10 miles per hour or faster
• Jumping rope
  

Galvan combines both moderate and vigorous activities into one simple metric you can track and understand—and we call it Heart Minutes.‍

How to Calculate Heart Minutes

Since what you consider to be a “moderate” or “vigorous” activity can be quite subjective, it is important to know what would qualify as a Heart Minute.

There are two steps to do this:

1. Take 220 minus your age to get your max heart rate in bpm (beats per minute).
2. Multiply your max heart rate by 40% to get the minimum bpm that would count as a heart minute.

For example, if Sarah is 30 years old, her max heart rate would be 190 (220 - 30). Take 190 and multiply it by 40% and you get 76. Any minute Sarah spends with her heart rate above 76 bpm would count as a Heart Minute.

Note that it can potentially be dangerous to get your heart rate too high, which is why the recommendation is to stay between 40% and 84% of your max heart rate.

You could do all this math yourself, calculating your heart rate with your finger and writing it down on a paper, but that would probably be unpractical.

Galvan makes it easy and free to track your Heart Minutes! All you have to do is connect a fitness device that tracks heart rate and sync it with the Galvan App and viola—your heart minutes will show up in a matter of seconds!‍

Proven Benefits of Heart Minutes‍

Organizations and researchers across the globe, including the World Health Organization, agree that when adults and children spend at least 150 minutes per week doing moderate-intensity activities, or 75 minutes doing vigorous-intensity activities (or a mix of both), your health dramatically improves in many ways.

In the Galvan App, we keep it simple and give you the goal to get 150 Heart Minutes per week and 30 Heart Minutes per day. By consistently achieving these goals, there are many proven benefits for children, adolescents, and adults:‍

For Adults and Older Adults 

• Lower risk of all-cause mortality
• Lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality
• Lower risk of cardiovascular disease (including heart disease and stroke)
• Lower risk of hypertension
• Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• Lower risk of adverse blood lipid profile
• Lower risk of cancers of the bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, lung, and stomach
• Improved cognition
• Reduced risk of dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease)
• Improved quality of life
• Reduced anxiety
• Reduced risk of depression
• Improved sleep
• Slowed or reduced weight gain
• Weight loss, particularly when combined with reduced calorie intake
• Prevention of weight regain following initial weight loss
• Improved bone health
• Improved physical function
• Lower risk of falls (older adults)
• Lower risk of fall-related injuries (older adults)

For Children and Adolescents

• Improved bone health (ages 3 through 17 years)
• Improved weight status (ages 3 through 17 years)
• Improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness (ages 6 through 17 years)
• Improved cardiometabolic health (ages 6 through 17 years)
• Improved cognition (ages 6 to 13 years)
• Reduced risk of depression (ages 6 to 13 years)

Heart minutes really do make a difference for you in the short and long term! This is why many people really believe exercise to be the “best medicine.”

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Get Rewarded for Heart Minutes

 Although people know they should exercise, many don’t do it. In fact, only 28% of adults globally have been reported to be getting enough exercise.

There are several factors that could be contributing to this problem, but low motivation and discipline should definitely be considered.

This is one of the main reasons we created the Galvan App, to motivate you to reach your goals and improve your health.

When you reach 30 daily heart minutes, you earn IZE digital rewards from the Galvan Blockchain. And when your heart minutes total 150 in one week, you get a big bonus! These digital rewards can then be exchanged for cryptocurrency or spent in our health marketplace (coming soon), so you are literally getting rewarded for working out!

This may be the catalyst you need to start exercising or stay consistent.

Download the Galvan App for FREE today and start rewarding yourself!

Every Movement Counts

Remember that every effort counts. If you’re struggling to break bad habits or even get your first heart minute, Galvan is here for you. We don’t expect anyone to have overnight results and neither should you.

So if you’re having a hard time getting started, we recommend going for a simple walk. This could be outside, on a treadmill, or wherever sounds good to you. The important thing is that you are taking the first step on your new health journey. Good luck! 🙌