Calculate Your Aerobic Training Heart
This fat-burning range will lie between 50 and 75 percent of your heart-rate reserve.
Using the example above, 50 percent of 100 beats per minute is 50. And 75 percent of 100 is 75. Next, add your resting heart rate to both numbers: 50 + 80 = 130 and 75 + 80 = 155. Therefore, during aerobic training, the heart rate that will most efficiently burn fat is 130 to 155 beats per minute.
Target Heart Rate For Exercise
Your target heart rate is 50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. It is the level at which your heart is beating with moderate to high intensity. To determine your maximum heart rate, take 220 and subtract your age.
Sustaining a workout at this pace improves cardiorespiratory endurance. So knowing your target heart rate helps you pace your workouts. Exercising at the right level of intensity will help you avoid burning out or wasting time with a workout thats not vigorous enough to help you meet your goals.
Our Maximum Heart Rate Calculator Uses A Safer Formula
There are trainers out there that are still using the old method to determine a persons maximum heart rate.
The changes came after the realization the old formula was greatly underestimating old folks maximum heart rate.
So, the effect on young bucks is minimal. However, its risky for our gramps and grans.
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What The Experts Do
Monitor Heart Rate for Motivation
For Johns Hopkins cardiologist Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H., most workoutstake place on an elliptical trainer in his home. His machine has electrodeson which he can place his hands to automatically see his heart rate. Itgives me a sense of how hard Im working, he says.
Blaha also uses his targeted heart rate to guide the course that heprogrammed into the machine, so that he works up to where he wants to be interms of exertion. Knowing your target heart rate and trying to achieve itcan be very motivating, he says.
Stay on Top of Your Heart Health
If you have a new or existing heart problem, it’s vital to see a doctor. Our heart health checklist can help you determine when to seek care.
Measuring Your Resting Heart Rate
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How To Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate For Running
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This article originally appeared on Polar.
Defining maximum heart rate is easy: its the highest number of beats per minute your heart can pump under maximum stress.
Determining your maximum heart rate, however, is a little bit harder but dont despair.
There are several methods to calculate or estimate your maximum heart rate for running. Here are some of the most popular, arranged from the simplest to the most accurate.
First, though, a little background.
Why is maximum heart rate important?
Heart rate-based training enables you to run at the right intensity in order to reach your training goals. In other words, training smart is better than always training hard.
Training intensity is divided into five heart rate zones from very light to maximum intensity. The heart rate zones are calculated as percentages of your maximum heart rate.
For example, within heart rate zone four, youll be training at 8190% of your HR max and increasing your maximum performance capacity.
To determine your personal heart rate zones, you first need to know or estimate your maximum heart rate.
Why Should You Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate
Heart rate-based training enables you to run at the right intensity in order to reach your training goals. In other words, training smart is better than always training hard.
Training intensity is divided into five heart rate zones from very light to maximum intensity. The heart rate zones are calculated as percentages of your maximum heart rate.
To determine your personal heart rate zones, you first need to know or estimate your maximum heart rate.
For example, within heart rate zone 4, youll be training at 8190% of your HR max and increasing your maximum performance capacity.
Alternatively, at heart rate zone 3 , youll be training at the slightly reduced level of 71-80% of your HR but you will still be improving the efficiency of blood circulation.
To determine your personal heart rate zones, you first need to know or estimate your maximum heart rate.
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What Is A Healthy Heart Rate
Be sure not to push yourself too close to your maximum heart rate for extended periods. If you experience shortness of breath, pain in your chest or joints, or can’t work out for as long as you expect, you might need to reduce your training intensity. Safety should be your priority in training, and that includes maintaining a healthy heart rate. It doesn’t matter how hard you train if you injure yourself before an event!
Understanding Your Maximum Heart Rate
If you’re looking to take your exercise to the next level, figuring out your target heart rate zone is a great way to burn the most calories and get the most out of your workout time. A big part of that HR calculation involves your maximum heart rate , which refers to the fastest rate at which your heart will beat in one minute.
Read on to learn how to determine your MHR, what your MHR means and doesn’t mean, which factors impact MHR, and how to use it to push yourself just the right amount.
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What Training Program To Find Maximum Heart Rate
- The only real way to determine your max HR is the painful way – do something that gets you there.Outside a lab test, hill repeats are probably good.After a decent warm up, run hard up a hill that takes at least a minute. Does this a few times and observe what HR you get. Should be close to your max.What you actually get can depend on how tired/fresh you are and how warm it is and indeed how hard you actually try.You also can get pretty close to max HR at the end of say an all out 5K race.
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The only real way to determine your max HR is the painful way – do something that gets you there.Outside a lab test, hill repeats are probably good….You also can get pretty close to max HR at the end of say an all out 5K race.
Lol, I knew you were gonna say that about the painful way 🙂 )I live in the Netherlands, unfortunately it’s about the flattest part of the planet so no hills around in a 250km radius…But an intensive 5km run giving all I have I can do.Any rules on how to read the max? Just take the highest value my watch shows?
How Our Maximum Heart Rate Changes
An interesting fact about our maximum heart rate is that it changes as we age. You likely deduced that from the simple formula, MHR = 220 . More specifically, it lowers as you get older. One potential reason for that is the fact that aging suppresses the sinoatrial node, which acts as a natural pacemaker of the heart.
Also, because our genetics and size impact our heart rate, its essential to take the initial calculation with a bit of caution. What does this mean?
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Are There Benefits Of Knowing Your Maximum Heart Rate
Knowing how to determine max heart rate is beneficial because it allows you to design more productive workouts that are right within the training intensity you need.
For example, if youre sixty and you know that your MHR is 160, then you can use the general guidelines for your training. Cardio workouts are typically in the 50 to 80 percent of your max heart rate, so that would work out to be about 80 to 130 beats per minute.
On the other hand, if you dont know your MHR, you will spend quite a bit of time going through trial and error before you find a level of effort that suits your needs and goals.
Click to return to other cardio info.
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Have you ever felt your heart beating quickly during a workout and stopped to check your pulse on your wrist or neck? Your pulse determines your heart rate, or how many times your heart beats in one minute. Pulse rates differ from person to person based on various factors, such as weight and activity level. To get the best results, you should exercise below your maximum heart rate in what is referred to as your target heart rate this will guarantee that you are achieving the ideal intensity level for your goals. Knowing and monitoring your maximum heart rate while you’re active can be a powerful gauge of your intensity level and help you to avoid over- or underexercising.
Heart Rate by Age
The traditional method, also known as HRmax, is a simple way of gauging your maximum heart rate. Start by subtracting your age from 220. Then, use the result to calculate your range.
For example, if you’re 50 years old, the calculation would be: 220 – 50 = 170 . To calculate your heart rate on the high end of the suitable range , multiply 170 by 0.75 to get about 128 beats per minute .
Heart Rate by Age and Gender
Heart Rate by Age and Resting Heart Rate
For example, a 50-year-old with a resting heart rate of 65 would calculate as follows:
- 220 – 50 = 170 for HRmax
- 170 – 65 = 105 for RHR
- + 65 = about 144 bpm
Considerations
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Science: A Better Formula For Fitness
Why 220 minus your age gets your max heart rate wrong
How do you work out your maximum heart rate? The simple formula 220 minus your age, right? Wrong. Sports scientists have discovered a better formula, but its still no substitute for a proper lab test.
That simple formula allows fitness seekers and athletes alike to find out their maximum heart rate by simply subtracting their age from 220. They can then use this number to estimate HR zones to regulate training efforts, recovery intensity and race pacing . It is so simple and has been quoted by so many personal trainers and magazines that it has become a fact without anybody actually citing the original research.
Some get max tested by a sports science department or by one of the range of companies who offer it. Others work out their own max HR derived from beating themselves up in race or hill climb. However, most use 220 minus age to guesstimate their maximum heart rate. For a very few it actually works out right it did for me briefly but has been wrong many more years than it has been right.
Where did it come from?
It was not a formula, it was a bad guess. So, Robergs and Roberto reproduced the data points that the whole myth of 220 had been resting upon and then did clever statistical analysis. Low and behold they found that it did not support the 220-age equation but instead it was: 215.4 .
Theres more
But three things are clear:
How To Predict Your Maximum Heart Rate
Medically reviewed byJennifer Boidy, RN
Last Updated: March 29, 2019References
This article was medically reviewed by Jennifer Boidy, RN. Jennifer Boidy is a Registered Nurse in Maryland. She received her Associate of Science in Nursing from Carroll Community College in 2012. This article has been viewed 1,592 times.
If you’re exercising with a specific goal in mind maybe you want to lose weight or build strength creating heart-rate target zones can help you maximize your workout time. To create a target zone, though, you must first know your maximum heart rate, which is the upper limit of what your cardiovascular system can handle during physical activity. While a laboratory test will provide a more exact number, you can predict your maximum heart rate using one of two formulas.XResearch source
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Important To Get The Maximum Heart Rate Right
Maximum heart rate is an important tool to uncover cardiovascular disease. During stress testing, age-expected maximum heart rate is used as a guideline for when the test should be concluded. If the test is finished before the load is high enough, you risk not to detect subclinical heart disease. Therefore, it is of great clinical relevance to have a way to accurately estimate HRmax.
The traditional formula for determining HRmax is “220 minus age”, but can underestimate HRmax by up to 40 beats per minute in seniors. In fact, the method is inaccurate already at an age of 3040 years, and gets more inaccurate the older you are.
In The HUNT Fitness Study, we measured accurate maximum heart rate in 3,320 healthy adults aged between 19 and 89. Based on these tests we made a completely new formula which estimates maximum heart rate far more accurately than “220 minus age”. The HRmax Calculator is based on this formula: “211 – 0.64*age”.
Calculate Maximum Heart Rate With A Field Test
Its not a coincidence that this comes as number 3. Field tests should only be attempted by athletes with a solid aerobic foundation who know what they are doing. Inexperienced athletes are better off estimating their Max HR and structuring the training process first, before pushing the body to the limit.
Some beginner athletes may not even be able to exercise 20 minutes non-stop, let alone go full gas for that amount of time. This can cause a variety of injuries .
In fact, beginners may not even get the full benefit from the test. The test will require a lot of mental strength , because such level of suffering is hard to maintain.
Beginners will quit or slow down long before they reach their true maximum capacity.
For everyone else tests below are listed in an order of increasing complexity from easiest to more complex.
For optimal results, each of these tests requires total freshness. Avoid scheduling any intense sessions at least 2 days before the test and get enough sleep beforehand.
Also, do a thorough warm up for these sessions, as youre going to go really hard. Most optimal would be to include both:
- 10 minutes of full-body exercises, taking all joints through a full range of motion and
- a 10-15 minute jog with 4×20-second gradual speed pick-ups. Aim to reach & maintain maximum speed for the last 5 seconds.
Obviously, adjust the warmup according to your sport
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How To Calculate Max Heart Rate
A simple way to calculate your MHR is using this formula:
MHR = 220
For example, a 40-year-old mans MHR would be:
MHR = 220 40 = 180 beats per minute
Its important to remember that the calculation is a good general guide. Knowing your max heart rate , as well as your fitness goals, allows you to identify the ideal heart rate training zone. This is important, and understanding these training zones will take you to a new fitness knowledge level.
What Is Target Heart Rate
Your target heart rate is a range of numbers that reflect how fast your heart should be beating when you exercise. A higher heart rate is a good thing that leads to greater fitness, says Johns Hopkins cardiologist Michael Blaha, M.D., M.P.H. During exercise, you can monitor heart rate and try to reach this target zone. Doctors also use target heart rate to interpret the results of a cardiac stress test.
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Calculate Maximum Heart Rate During A Laboratory Test
A much more formal way to calculate maximum heart rate would be to take a supervised laboratory test. Also known as VO2 max test, such analysis is a test of athletes physiological capabilities and, therefore, pushes athletes to the absolute maximum.
The protocol is quite simple athlete runs on a treadmill with an ever-increasing speed/power until complete exhaustion. Throughout the test a lot of data is gathered about athletes current fitness .
Ultimately, the test determines not only the Max HR, but also aerobic, anaerobic and lactate thresholds. All this data helps to analyse how training is impacting the body and if something should be changed/adjusted.
VO2 max tests are always supervised by exercise physiologist or cardiologist and/or other personnel, which makes it a much safer environment than a field test.