Tips On To How To Calculate Your Target Heart Rate **Easily**

By Philip Yiga | June 7, 2016

If you really want to get the most out of any kind of cardio exercise, then you should consider calculating your target heart rate when exercising in order to achieve consistent and optimum results. In fact, you can easily maximize the benefits of cardiovascular activity by exercising in the zone of your target-heart-rate (THR). Additionally, your target-heart-rate makes up 60-80% of your maximum heart rate and you can actually estimate your THR basing on your age or calculate it effectively using the Zoladz or karvonen method. In fact, with any method used just know that target-heart-rate is measured in beats-per-minute (bpm). So, below are some of the ways on how to calculate your target-heart-rate and they will be of great use if you follow them carefully.

 

METHOD-1: HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR TARGET-HEART-RATE USING KARVONEN MEHTOD:

1. Begin by calculating your maximum-heart-rate (HRmax): calculating your maximum heart-rate requires subtracting your age from 220 and the answer will be your maximum heart-rate (HRmax). For example the maximum-heart-rate of a 30-year old person will be 220-30 = 190HRmax. On the other hand, you can also calculate the maximum-heart-rate by multiplying your age by 0.7 and then subtract the results from 208. For example, you are 30-years old then your HRmax would be 30*0.7=21 then 208-21= 187HRmax.

 

2. Check or test your resting-heart-rate (RHR): checking your resting-heart-rate should be done as soon as you wake-up but still bed when your body is at rest fully and not yet involved in any other activities. On the other hand, in order to know your radial-pulse place the tips of your index and middle fingers onto the radial-artery positioned in the middle of the inner side of the wrist. After, you can start counting the heart beats for 60-seconds or 30-seconds and then multiply the answer by 2 but make sure the final count corresponds to your beats-per-minute. Additionally, try to calculate the average of your heart-rate over 3-mornings in order to get the average resting-heart-rate, this actually involves adding the 3-readings together and then divide them by 3 to get the final average RHR. Lastly, you should know that the first beat counts as 0 in order to get accurate results.

 

3. Consider avoiding factors that affect your resting-heart-rate (RHR): There are actually other factors that affect your resting-heart-rate even if you check your pulse as first thing in the morning. In fact, you may not have control over some factors but just try to avoid them within your mind in order to get more accurate RHR results. Some of these factors may include; stress, hot-weather, smoking, hormone-imbalances, medications and a lot more.

 

4. Calculate your heart-rate-reserve: this involves subtracting your RHR from HRmax and the result will actually be your heart-rate-reserve (HRmaxRESERVE). For example, if your HRmax=160 and the RHR=60, then 160-60 = 100 HRmaxRESERVE. In fact, your HRmaxRESERVE means the difference between your maximum-heart-rate and your resting-heart-rate.

 

5. Calculate the lower and upper limit of the target-heart-rate (THR): calculating the upper-limit requires multiplying the HRmaxRESERVE by 0.8 and then add the RHR to the resulting number. For example, if HRmaxRESERVE=100 and RHR=60 then calculate (100*0.8) + 60 = 140 as the upper-limit. On the other hand, the lower-limit requires multiplying the HRmaxRESERVE by 0.6 and then add-on your RHR. For example, (100*0.6)+60 = 120 as the lower-limit.

 

6. Add the lower and upper limits of the THR and divide their sum by 2: afterwards, add-up the upper and lower limits of the THR and then divide their sum by 2 in order to get your average target-heart-rate (THR). For example; (140+120)/2 = 130 as the average THR.

 

MEHTOD-2: ESTIMATING YOUR TARGET-HEART-RATE (THR)-ZOLADZ METHOD:

1. Begin by Subtracting 30-bpm (beats-per-second) from your maximum-heart-rate (HRmax): this will involve calculating the HRmax by subtracting your age from 220 like if your 40, then your HRmax is 220-40=180. After, make some calculations of 180-30 = 150. In fact, the Zoladz method is based on 5 adjuster-zones which correspond to 5-levels of exercise whereby zone-1 is (10-bpm) and the lowest, zone-5 is (50-bpm) and the highest while adjuster zone-3 is (30-bpm) and it’s the average.

 

2. Get your target-heart-rate by calculating a range of ± 5: for example if the answer to the HRmax-30bpm is 150, then your THR is between 145 and 155. In fact, this is considered to be a more approximate method of calculating your target-heart-rate because it does not even take into account you’re RHR (resting-heart-rate) and the result or answer is in a range of numbers rather than just a single answer. Additionally, this method is a more effective and faster way of getting an estimate on your THR in case you don’t have the time to calculate your average RHR over a period of 3-days.

 

3. Determine the estimated target-heart-rate (THR) basing on your age: although the target-heart-rate differs from each person basing on how fast the heart-beat is, how often they exercise and how old they are, there is actually a statistical average THR for each age-group. For example, if you want to prove whether your THR is within the normal-range, then consider checking within these ranges;

• 20-years: 100-170 bpm
• 30-years: 95-162 bpm
• 35-years: 93-157 bpm
• 40-years: 90-153 bpm
• 45-years: 88-149 bpm
• 50-years: 85-145 bpm
• 55-years: 83-140 bpm
• 60-years: 80-136 bpm
• 65-years: 78-132 bpm
• 70-years: 75-128 bpm

 

MEHTOD-3: DETERMINING THE EXERCISE-INTENSITY BY USING THE TARGET-HEART-RATE (THR):

1. Checkout your heart-rate when exercising: you can actually determine your THR by checking out your heart-rate during a workout-session by simply stopping to exercise and immediately take your pulse before resting, then resume your exercise after 10-seconds. After, carefully multiply the number of your beats per 10-seconds of your pulse by 6 and you will actually get your heart-rate per minute. Likewise, a more accurate way of doing this is by using a heart-rate monitor in order to get heart-rate readings while exercising. However, this is just your workout heart-rate not your THR.

 

2. Consider basing the intensity of any physical-activity on your THR: you can actually determine whether the intensity of a particular physical-activity is low, high or moderate by simply measuring the workout heart-rate in (bpm) against your target-heart-rate (THR). In fact, if your heart-rate falls in the middle of your target-heart-rate or corresponds to your average target-heart-rate then it implies that you are exercising at moderate intensity of (50-70% of your maximum heart-rate). If your heart-rate is within the upper-limit, then you’re exercising at a high-intensity of 50-70% of your maximum heart-rate. However, if you had just begun working-out then consider aiming for a low to moderate intensity THR and then increase the THR as your body gets more used to exercises. Additionally, your heart-rate should be at a lower-range than your THR when warming-up or cooling-down.

 

3. Consult a doctor if you’re not in shape or have a serious medical-condition: you should consider consulting a doctor if you really want to know how intense your physical-activity should be in case you have a serious medical problem, overweight or when you have not exercised for a while.