Know Your Numbers: Maximum And Target Heart Rate By Age
This table shows target heart rate zones for different ages. Your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age.3
In the age category closest to yours, read across to find your target heart rates. Target heart rate during moderate intensity activities is about 50-70% of maximum heart rate, while during vigorous physical activity its about 70-85% of maximum.
The figures are averages, so use them as a general guide.
Heart Rate Training Zones Sample Zone 4 Training Sessions
This is the zone where intensity is very high and it may be tempting to go all out. The trick, however, is to avoid complete exhaustion and, instead stay within the 80% 90% target heart rate zone.
The goal of Zone 4 training is not to run every interval at maximum speed.
Think of it as splitting a longer distance into smaller chunks and adding short recoveries in between . That way youll be able to run every interval at speed just slightly over one you would maintain for the full distance and gradually train the body to hold it for longer. That called Vo2 max training session.
As this kind of training builds a lot of fatigue, my advice is to start adding Zone 4 efforts only after spending enough time on aerobic base . This will help to build endurance and improve recovery speed to tolerate the effort.
- 2 sets of 4×2 minutes with 1 minute rest
- 10×1 minute with 1 minute rest
How To Calculate The Maximum Heart Rate
Over the years, various panels, researchers and trainers have tried to develop a formula for the maximum heart rate. As previously mentioned, the high level of individual variability is always a factor. The values which our calculator produces are predominately approximate average values, but they are actually reasonably accurate, because of the inclusion of age, resting heart rate and body weight.
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How Do I Calculate Fat
This average heart rate calculator helps you to estimates your target heart rate for weight loss by using different methods it shows calculations corresponding to the given inputs.
Your heart rate is the value that can helps you to measure the intensity of your exercise. As we discussed earlier, for most individuals, the heart beats between 60 and 100 times per minute while at rest. Experts revealed that the harder you exercise, the more your heart rate increase.
Remember that when it comes to training in the fat-burning heart rate zone, instead of using basic sugars and carbohydrates your body taps into fat stores by this it leads to fat loss.
Different other heart rate zones are:
- resting heart rate
Optimistic studies found that your fat burning heart rate is at about 70% of your MHR .
For instance, a 37-year-old mans heart rate is 220 37 or 183 bpm .
So, to enter the fat-burning zone, hed want his heart rate to be 70% of 183 that is about 128 beats per minute.
You have found out how to calculate fat burning zone, but do you really need to lose weight? Check our BMI or ideal weight calculators to find it out.
Thankfully, you got an idea about how to calculate fat burning zone, but for optimal health goals, you should beware of your BMI or Ideal Body Weight.
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Heart Rate Training Zone Calculation Accuracy
There are concerns that heart rate training zones that are estimated are too generalized and may not be overall accurate. However, actual zone ranges tend to deviate only slightly for each individual. This is not enough to significantly impact the overall benefit from focused training.
Yes, the most precise way to determine heart rate zones would be to take a supervised VO2 max lab test. Such test measures the speed of lactate accumulation and respective oxygen intake throughout the exercise. Based on the data aerobic and anaerobic thresholds are established which are key reference points in determining heart rate training zones.
Over the years and multiple lab tests, however, I noticed that these ranges tend to deviate only by around 1-2% .
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Target Heart Rate And Estimated Maximum Heart Rate
One way of checking physical activity intensity is to determine whether your pulse or heart rate is within the target zone during physical activity.1
For moderate-intensity physical activity, your target heart rate should be between 64% and 76%1,2 of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate your maximum heart rate based on your age. To estimate your maximum age-related heart rate, subtract your age from 220. For example, for a 50-year-old person, the estimated maximum age-related heart rate would be calculated as 220 50 years = 170 beats per minute . The 64% and 76% levels would be:
- 64% level: 170 x 0.64 = 109 bpm, and
- 76% level: 170 x 0.76 = 129 bpm
This shows that moderate-intensity physical activity for a 50-year-old person will require that the heart rate remains between 109 and 129 bpm during physical activity.
For vigorous-intensity physical activity, your target heart rate should be between 77% and 93%1,2 of your maximum heart rate. To figure out this range, follow the same formula used above, except change 64 and 76% to 77 and 93%. For example, for a 35-year-old person, the estimated maximum age-related heart rate would be calculated as 220 35 years = 185 beats per minute . The 77% and 93% levels would be:
- 77% level: 185 x 0.77 = 142 bpm, and
- 93% level: 185 x 0.93 = 172 bpm
Heart Rate Training Zones Sample Zone 3 Training Sessions
The key with Zone 3 training is to use interval method, instead of just maintaining it throughout the session. This approach will limit the build up of lactic acid in the body, clear the excess and will allow to tolerate more intervals.
- 3×10-30 minutes throughout a long easy session in Zones 1 or 2
- 6x6min with 6 minute recovery in Zone 1 in between
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Heart Rate Training Zones Sample Zone 5 Training Sessions
Maximum effort training is done mostly by time, not by heart rate. In reality, heart rate may not even jump to over 90% throughout most of the training session.
However, heart rate is a great way to check if the body has recovered from the intervals. As soon as the heart rate cant drop to Zone 1-2 after 2-3 minutes its time to end the workout.
- 5 sets of 3×20 seconds with 20 second rest
- 10×40 seconds with 2 minute rest
- 60 minute Zone 1 session with 5-10sec bursts at Zone 5 every 3-5min
Know Your Heart Rate Zones In Real Time With Whoop
WHOOP measures your heart rate 24/7 and quantifies the strain your body takes on each day. Every morning, our recovery metric tells you how prepared your body is to take on strain. And when you track your activities with the WHOOP Strain Coach, you can see in real time which heart rate zone youre in, so youll know exactly when to dial it back, or kick it up a notch.
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How To Take Your Pulse
Count your pulse: _____ beats in 10 seconds x 6 = _____ beats/minute
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Heart Rate Zone : 7080% Of Hrmax
Working out in heart rate zone 3 is especially effective for improving the efficiency of blood circulation in the heart and skeletal muscles. This is the zone in which that pesky lactic acid starts building up in your bloodstream.
Training in this HR zone will make moderate efforts easier and improve your efficiency.
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How To Calculate Target Heart Rate Zone
60-70% of maximum heart rate
weight loss, building endurance
70-80% of maximum heart rate
weight management, improving cardio fitness
80%+ of maximum heart rate
interval workouts
Heart rate training is based on training at intensity zones that are determined from the percentage of your maximum heart rate. When you train at the right intensity, you’ll get the effect you’re looking for. You can calculate your estimated training heart rate zones based on your age alone or based on both your age and fitness level. For the latter option you need to measure your resting heart rate three mornings in a row. It is a more personalized number and it is a method recommended for people who are experienced exercisers. Knowing how hard to push your heart and for how long takes the guess work out of your hard work, so you will never over or under train again. And, knowing these things is what Polar does. We don’t just pass on the information, we interpret that information to guide you to your fitness goals.
Zone 3 Training Aerobic Endurance / Marathon Pace
Effort: moderateTarget heart rate: 70% 80%Duration: long intervals, 10 to 60 minutes
They call this zone a no mans land.
Its challenging enough that you feel youre out of your comfort zone, but not challenging enough that you cant sustain it. Its comfortably uncomfortable.
At this point its barely possible to complete a sentence, before catching a breath, compared to conversational Zone 1 & 2 effort.
Many amateur athletes make the mistake of spending almost all of their training time in this zone. It feels like youre training hard and, indeed, athletes build quite a lot of fatigue with it.
The truth is, it does not provide enough intensity to radically improve speed or power, but is not so easy that the body is able to fully recover. So, athletes feel tired all the time, but not necessarily getting faster.
But it doesnt have to be like that.
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Does The Average Person Need To Track Their Heart Rate
If you have heart disease, its important to learn target heart rates and monitor them as you exercise. For everyone else, the talk test works just fine, says Travers. Can you talk and carry on a conversation when youre exercising? Then youre in a heart-healthy, moderately easy zone. Dont stress about the numbers.
What matters most is that you make an effort to move more. Any exercise, for any length of time, will improve fitness. If tracking your heart rate makes you happy, then go for it. But if heart rate calculations become a stumbling block, forget about it. Your journey to becoming stronger and healthier is too important to let anything get in the way.
Benefits Of Heart Rate Training
As a general rule, most athletes will want to train in varying zones of max heart rate at different times, both within specific workouts and from one to the next. A typical one-hour session might include 10 minutes in the 50-60% target zone warming up and cooling down, 30 minutes at a sustainable pace at 60-70%, 12 minutes pushing a little more at 70-80%, 6 minutes going hard at 80-90% and 2 minutes all-out at 90-100%.
Monitoring your workout heart rate can help you avoid training too hard by knowing exactly when youre overexerting yourself. It will also allow you to bounce back faster by ensuring you stay in the proper zone on recovery days.
Additionally, heart rate training enables you to moderate external factors like heat and humidity, or better adjust on days when you may not be fully recovered. In these cases, your standard workout may be increasing your heart rate more than usual.
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Zone 4 Training Anaerobic Capacity
Effort: hardTarget heart rate: 80% 90%Duration: longer intervals, up to 10 minutes
Zone 4 is where it gets tricky. Of all 5 heart rate training zones this one is the most dangerous.
Its at this point that most over-training happens. Inspired by professional athletes, people push themselves to the limit without giving the body enough time to recover and supercompensate. This puts a lot of stress on the body, killing mitochondria theyve worked so hard to build.
From physiological perspective, anaerobic threshold is the point after which lactic acid starts to build up so fast that the body cannot produce enough energy to maintain the intensity for long.
Anaerobic threshold marks the middle of Zone 4 and is highly individual for every athlete.
At this point muscles get petty heavy and its possible to say just a couple of words at once.
How To Use Target Heart Rate Zones In A Training Plan
A typical training plan utilizes multiple training zones. You wont train in each zone for an equal amount of time, though. The time you spend in each zone will vary, usually with more time spent in lower heart rate zones. Heres one example of how a training plan might allocate your time spent in each heart rate zone:
Zone 1: 30%-40% of your time
Zone 2: 40%-50% of your time
Zone 3: 10%-15% of your time
Zone 4: 5%-10% of your time
Zone 5: 5% of your time
A typical training plan will designate precisely how much time you spend in each training zone. As mentioned before, not all training plans use the same exact zones. If you were preparing for a 5K or 10K trail running race and wanted to follow this training plan, for example, youd need to set up your device with heart rate zones that are in that training plan.
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How Do You Feel During A Workout
Exercising at an appropriate intensity should feel somewhat challenging, but it should also feel like you could continue on for a prolonged time period. If you are working at too easy of an intensity, you will still receive some health benefits but you will not experience the calorie-burning effect and the aerobic benefit that you would if you were working at an appropriate intensity. If you are working too hard, you wont last very long because you will become extremely fatigued and run the risk of injuring yourself in the process.
A quick, easy way to evaluate intensity is to check your ability to breathe and talk. You should be able to breathe fairly comfortably and rhythmically throughout all phases of a workout to ensure a safe and comfortable level of exercise, especially if youre just beginning an exercise program. You should also be able to talk continuously, completing short sentences with no problem. If you cannot carry on a conversation, you may be working too hard. While you should challenge yourself, use this gauge of monitoring your ability to talk continuously for 10 20 seconds as an effective guideline.
Heart Rate Zones Classification
At first, when I saw the heart rate zones, I didnt worry too much about it because I dont even know what they meant in the first place. However, it is important to understand what they mean:
- Zone 1 This is a very light intensity effort, such as having a nice walking pace where you can carry on a conversation and you are breathing without any difficulty. Benefits of this zone are beginners level aerobic training and reduce stress.
- Zone 2 When you are in this Zone, you can still have a conversation and breathe easily so you can see it when you are warming up or cooling down. Benefits of this zone are basic cardiovascular training and good recovery pace.
- Zone 3 This is a long run type of effort and you may feel how it gets difficult to breathe. Benefits of this zone are improved aerobic capacity and optimal cardiovascular training.
- Zone 4 This zone represents a harder intensity effort and you may notice how you can reply to single word responses but breathing becomes harder. Benefits of this zone are improved aerobic capacity and threshold, improved speed.
- Zone 5 You could see this during a spinning class and certainly would be difficult to maintain or hold a conversation. Benefits of this zone are improved anaerobic capacity and threshold, improved speed.
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Four: Getting Into The Zone
Once you know your THR zone, you will know how hard to exercise to gain the most aerobic benefit from your workout. You can exercise within your THR to either maintain or raise your aerobic fitness level.
As a general tip, if youre just starting out, its a good idea to stay in the lower end of your target zone for the first few weeks and slowly build up.
Remember, your target heart rate is a guide and every individual is different, Dr. Hatch said. Pay attention to how you feel, how hard you are breathing, how fast your heart is beating and how much you feel the exertion in your muscles.
What Exactly Is Heart Rate Training
Heart rate training usessurpriseyour heart rate, measured in beats per minute or as a percentage of your maximum heart rate , as a guide for intensity. Using that individual heart rate, you create specific training zones that help determine your intensity for a given workout, explains Capell. So instead of training by pace, you use personalized zones and a heart rate monitor to ensure your cardiorespiratory system is working at a specific effort for a set amount of time.
The idea behind heart rate-based training is to train your aerobic system without over-stressing your skeletal and muscular systems. By working out in each heart rate zone, youre making sure youre not just pushing yourself to the max, youre also holding yourself back from pushing too hard, which can help you avoid overtraining. And since your maximum heart rate is unique to you, using it to create training zones means youre getting a much more personalized workout.
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