Maximum & Target Heart Rate

Background

Maximum heart rate is the highest rate your heart can reach during all-out effort. It cannot be worked out from fitness — it is largely determined by age — and measuring it properly requires a maximal exercise test. In its absence, age-based formulas are used. This calculator uses the familiar 220 minus age, and training zones are then set as percentages of that figure.

Interpreting the result

Use the result to set rough intensity zones, not as a limit you must not exceed. Moderate-intensity exercise sits at roughly 50-70% of maximum heart rate and vigorous exercise at about 70-85%. The important caveat is that 220 minus age is imprecise for individuals: the scatter around it is wide, commonly cited as a standard deviation of 10-12 beats per minute, so two 40-year-olds with true maxima of 170 and 195 would both be told 180. A revised equation, 208 minus 0.7 times age, fits population data better and gives higher values in older adults. If your perceived effort and your heart rate disagree, trust perceived effort.

Advice

Moderate-intensity exercise is roughly 50–70% of your maximum heart rate, and vigorous exercise about 70–85%. This 220−age formula is an approximation and varies between individuals; stop and seek advice for chest pain, severe breathlessness or dizziness.

Worked example

A 40-year-old: 220 - 40 = 180 bpm estimated maximum. Moderate intensity is roughly 90-126 bpm (50-70%) and vigorous roughly 126-153 bpm (70-85%). The Tanaka equation for the same person gives 208 - (0.7 x 40) = 180 bpm — close at this age, but the two diverge in older adults, where 220 minus age tends to underestimate.

Pearls / pitfalls

• Beta blockers and some other medicines lower heart rate directly, making any age-based zone meaningless. Use perceived exertion or the talk test instead.
• The talk test is a good practical substitute: at moderate intensity you can talk but not sing; at vigorous intensity you cannot say more than a few words without pausing.
• Resting heart rate, not maximum, is the figure that tends to improve with training — a falling resting rate is a reasonable sign of improving fitness.
• Stop exercising and seek medical advice for chest pain, severe or unexpected breathlessness, dizziness or palpitations, regardless of what your heart rate reads.

Evidence & validation

The 220 minus age formula entered widespread use through work by Fox, Naughton and Haskell in 1971 and was never intended as a precise individual predictor. Tanaka, Monahan and Seals (2001) revisited age-predicted maximal heart rate in a meta-analysis and laboratory study and proposed 208 - (0.7 x age), which they found to be independent of sex and of habitual physical activity and to predict measured values more closely, particularly in older people.

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001;37(1):153-156.
2. Fox SM, Naughton JP, Haskell WL. Physical activity and the prevention of coronary heart disease. Ann Clin Res. 1971;3(6):404-432.

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