How to Determine Your Training Heart Rate Range
Determining your training heart range is dependent on your goals for a particular workout. By knowing your maximum heart rate, you can easily define what your target heart rate needs to be for a variety of workout intensities.
Instructions
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Define your max then apply
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Determine your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example; the maximum heart rate if you are 45 years old would be 176 (220 -- 45 = 176).
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Use a workout that is 60 percent to 70 percent of your max as recovery from harder training days or as an endurance workout if you are just beginning exercise, or are significantly out of shape.
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Training at 70 percent to 75 percent of your max is considered endurance training. A sustainable level of intensity will burn significant fat. It is not too hard to continue for long periods nor too easy.
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Pushing the intensity up to 80 percent to 90 percent is considered the threshold level because your body lactic acid is being produced faster than oxygen can break it down. Fitness can be dramatically increased at this level, however it is not sustainable for long periods. Trained athletes can sustain this pace for about one hour. Threshold intensity is often used by endurance athletes for interval training by getting into this zone for brief periods and returning to their endurance heart rate zone.
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Increasing your intensity to 95 percent to 100 percent is the max oxygen level. This heart rate range can only be sustained by trained athletes for short periods (up to 15 minutes) and like the threshold level, is used to increase overall fitness by going into this range for short intervals and returning to a sustainable pace.
3 Ways to Use Your Numbers
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Use the talk test to get a rough idea of what zone you are in. If you can speak but not carry on a conversation, you are likely in the 70 percent to 75 percent endurance zone. If you can carry on a conversation without losing your breath, you are at 60 percent to 70 percent or lower, and if you can't speak at all you are at 80 percent or higher.
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Take your pulse periodically to determine where you are by counting the beats for 15 seconds and multiplying by 4.
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Purchase a heart rate monitor and let it crunch the numbers for you and get your number at a glance. See Resources for reviews, functions and cost.
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