exercise gurus, how much is too much?

that makes sense, I am still very much alive.  When I was going to Curves, I always had to be over their "goal" to feel like I was getting a good workout.  So I will still take it in small times and just call it intervals, ha.  Meanwhile, I'm going to continue my weights and maybe schedule another session with the personal trainer. 

Thanks everyone.

 "So I will still take it in small times and just call it intervals, ha."

Well, that's what intervals are. 

One of the reasons they work so well, btw, is that they let you workout harder when you are in the intense phase of them than you can workout if you try to sustain that pace for the entire session.

I will put my two cents in again.  I do intervals, and I do aerobic.  Being overweight adds risk to your heart, which we are all recently removed from (or we would not need the cardiac clearance for surgery).  I do believe in stressing the heart somewhat, but not going overboard until you're in shape.  There are lots of things you can do.

Oolympic athletes don't always go that high, so it may not be a good thing for us to go that high as we get into shape.  My son was a collegiate athlete on a division I crew team.  His heart rate never got that high, even when he raced so hard he would throw up (yes, he wore heart rate monitors all the time as a 20 year old athlete).  Now he can still run for hours at high altitude. So work yourself up to a fitness level with some interval training, but remember that we're not superman.  You'll get there.

i've always done intervals with my ponies when getting them into shape.  They make horse heart monitors but I never bought one. 

I will be reasonable, promise.  Before my knee surgery, I had a series of weights and exercises I did at home, Curves, Zumba and the ponies.  I'm going to get back to the exercises.  If I divide my time between those, the pool and the gym and my ponies, I should be able to get back in shape and not overdo any one thing.