Target heart rate

Target heart rate

Target heart rate can be worked out via different equations such as, working at 50% of your maximum will make you burn more fat.  But this is way too broad.

Below you will find out a better way of working it out.

Let’s take a marathon runner – a 30 year old marathon runner’s max heart rate using the 220-age formula would be 190 so 50% of this would be 95. I’m sure you would agree that a marathon runner running at full pace for 42km would be over 95 beats per minute! And what is their physique like? Of course, no body fat!

A much better way to calculate the rates is to use The Karvonen Heart Rate Formula. This formula is one of the most effective methods used to calculate for aerobic (cardio) exercise. It factors in your resting heart rate (RHR), which is a good indicator of your state of fitness.

Target Heart Rate

Target Heart Rate = ((max HR − resting HR) × %Intensity) + resting HR

eg: A 25 yr old who has a resting heart rate of 65 and we want to know his training heart rate for the intensity level 60% – 70%.

This is how you work it out. We need to know first the Minimum and Maximum heart rate of the man.

His Minimum Training Rate:
220 – 25 (Age) = 195
195 – 65 (Rest. HR) = 130
130 x .60 (Min. Intensity) + 65 (Rest. HR) = 143 Beats/Minute

His Maximum Training Rate:
220 – 25 (Age) = 195
195 – 65 (Rest. HR) = 130
130 x .70 (Max. Intensity) + 65 (Rest. HR) = 156 Beats/Minute

His training heart rate zone will therefore be 143-156 beats per minute.

It’s not so hard to work out once you know how. Hope this helps with your training.

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