TOOL C-03 — HEART-RATE ZONES
Find your zones without guessing.
Most zone charts use 220 minus your age and ignore your resting heart rate. This one uses Karvonen, so the number on a quiet morning is part of every range.
- Inputs
- Age · resting heart rate
- Output
- Max HR · five bpm ranges
- Pairs with
- VO2 sub-max testing
- Method
- Karvonen · 208 − 0.7 × age
Your inputs
Default is 60 bpm. Use a quiet morning reading if you have one.
Max heart rate uses 208 − 0.7 × age. Zones use Karvonen, so your resting heart rate is part of every number.
Estimated max heart rate
With a resting rate of 60 bpm, your working range runs from 124 to 187 bpm.
- Resting
- 60 bpm
- Heart-rate reserve
- 127 bpm
- Z1 · 50–60%Recovery124–136
- Z2 · 60–70%Aerobic base136–149
- Z3 · 70–80%Steady149–162
- Z4 · 80–90%Threshold162–174
- Z5 · 90–100%Max174–187
Estimates only — heart-rate zones are a training reference, not a medical test. Ask a coach before changing your conditioning.
THE METHOD
What a zone can and cannot tell you.
Zones are a shorthand for effort. They are useful for keeping easy days easy and hard days honest. They are not a measurement of fitness, and they are not a medical test.
Karvonen uses your heart-rate reserve: the gap between resting and max. That makes the zones personal. A resting rate of 50 and a resting rate of 75 produce different ranges at the same age.
If you want to know how your aerobic engine is actually responding, a VO2 sub-max test gives your coach a reference point that a zone chart cannot. Use the zones to train; use the test to check the engine.
FORMULA
- Max HR = 208 − 0.7 × age
- Reserve = max HR − resting HR
- Zone bpm = resting + reserve × percentage
- Zones: 50–60 · 60–70 · 70–80 · 80–90 · 90–100%
TURN THE ESTIMATE INTO A NUMBER
Give the zones a real reference point.
A VO2 sub-max test measures how well your body uses oxygen while you work. Your coach uses it to set conditioning that matches your engine.