Making sure your workout falls within a targeted heart rate zone can help to ensure that it is both safe and effective. figuring out how much you need to exercise helps you get to your goals more quickly. The app also allows you to monitor your exercise routine to make sure you are not pushing yourself too hard and putting your health at risk.
To get the most out of cardiovascular exercise, you need to do it frequently, intensely, and for a long period of time. To accurately judge the intensity of your workout, you need to know your heart rate. The following text provides information on the different effects of heart rate zones on the body and how they can be used in cardio workouts.
Determine Maximum Heart Rate
If you want to make the most of your workouts, you should learn your maximum heart rate. This way you can use heart zone training to ensure you are working out at the right intensity. Your maximum heart rate is determined by your age. Age is generally used as a guide to estimate a person’s maximum heart rate.
A simple way to find out your MHR is to take 220 away from your age. For example, if you are 40 years old, your MHR is 180 (220 – 40 = 180).
An alternative to the Mifflin-St Jeor equation is the Tanaka equation. To use the Tanaka equation, multiply your age by 0.7 and then subtract the result from 208. The MHR for a 40-year-old would be 180.
If you want a more specific number, you can get tested by a personal trainer or get an expensive heart rate monitor. You can use an age-based heart rate chart to find your target heart rates as a percentage of your maximum heart rate.
Determine Target Heart Rate Zones
You will see different fitness benefits depending on which heart rate zone you exercise in. The following five exercise zones are based on percentage ranges of maximum heart rate. The amount of effort you put in and the level of intensity will affect which percentage of carbs, protein, and fat your body burns.
5 heart rate training zones explained
So what are heart rate training zones?
The intensity of your workout will determine the physiological response and adaptations in your body. Structure your sessions around a certain effort in order to customize your training and adapt it for specific needs.
In essence,
There are different heart rate training zones that correspond to different intensity levels.
Zones are always based on an athlete’s maximum heart rate. Therefore, it is necessary to know an athlete’s maximum heart rate in order to set up these zones.
There are five levels of intensity for heart rate training zones. To calculate heart rates all you need to do is input your maximum and resting heart rate in the fields below (or in this calculator ):
| Zone | Effort | Target Heart Rate* | Training Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZONE 1 | 50% – 60% | – | Warmup / Recovery |
| ZONE 2 | 60% – 70% | – | Base Fitness |
| ZONE 3 | 70% – 80% | – | Aerobic Endurance |
| ZONE 4 | 80% – 90% | – | Anaerobic Capacity |
| ZONE 5 | 90% – 100% | – | Speed Training |
The target heart rate is the ideal heart rate at which your cardiovascular system should be working during exercise. The target heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220, and then multiplying that number by 0.8. This formula will help to more accurately calculate your heart rate zones, compared to using a simple percentage of your maximum heart rate.
The next step after calculating your heart rate training zones is to create a structured training plan. Every phase of your plan should be focused on specific areas of endurance, power, or speed. This should be measured by the amount of time you spend in these relevant zones.
And that’s all the magic.
Zone 1 training – warmup & recovery
Effort: very easy
Target heart rate: 50% – 60%
Duration: all day, if needed
Zone 1 is the exercise intensity up to the level of the aerobic threshold. At this intensity, all of the lactic acid produced in the muscles is being used up.
Zone 1 is the pace you can easily maintain for a whole day, with rest and lunch stops. Now is a good time to talk with other people, as you can hold a conversation and focus on proper technique.
Spending a lot of time in Zone 1 makes the heart bigger and able to pump more blood. After this point, the only thing that increases is the heart rate.
Zone 2 training: aerobic base / easy pace
Effort: easy
Target heart rate: 60% – 70%
Duration: 1+ hours
The intensity of Zone 2 lies just after the aerobic threshold. Exercising in this zone still feels easy. The workout should be easy enough that you can breathe through your nose the whole time.
However, this is what makes it great- by spending a prolonged amount of time just below the aerobic threshold, the body slowly becomes more tolerant and is able to go at a higher speed while using less energy.
The more you workout, the better your body becomes at burning fat and building endurance, making you faster.
Even elite athletes cannot complete an Ironman triathlon in less than 8 hours, and most of that time is spent in high Zone 2. The athletes in the study were able to run a marathon at an intensity of 2:40.
Zone 3 training – aerobic endurance / marathon pace
Effort: moderate
Target heart rate: 70% – 80%
Duration: long intervals, 10 to 60 minutes
They call this zone a ‘no man’s land’.
This text is discussing how it can be difficult to find a balance between being challenged and feeling comfortable. It can be tough to find an activity that is both difficult enough to push you out of your comfort zone, but not so difficult that you can’t maintain it. It’s comfortably uncomfortable.
It is difficult to finish a sentence without taking a breath when compared to the effort it takes to converse in Zone 1 & 2.
Some amateur athletes spend most of their time training in this zone, which is a mistake. You feel like you’re training hard and building a lot of fatigue.
Although it does not provide enough intensity to significantly improve speed or power, it is not so easy that the body is able to fully recover. Athletes feel tired all the time, but this does not mean they are necessarily getting faster.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
Zone 4 training – anaerobic capacity
Effort: hard
Target heart rate: 80% – 90%
Duration: longer intervals, up to 10 minutes
Zone 4 is where it gets tricky. The most dangerous of the five heart rate training zones is the one where you are pushing your limits the most.
It’s at this point that most over-training happens. People who are inspired by professional athletes often push themselves too hard without giving their bodies enough time to recover. This can lead to further injury. This places a large amount of stress on the body, which damages the mitochondria that the body has worked hard to create.
From physiological perspective, anaerobic threshold is the point after which lactic acid starts to build up so fast that the body cannot produce enough energy to maintain the intensity for long.
Anaerobic threshold is the point at which your body can no longer produce energy aerobically, and therefore has to start producing it anaerobically. This point is highly individual for every athlete, and marks the middle of Zone 4.
At this point, it’s difficult to continue speaking for more than a few seconds without taking a break.
Zone 5 training – maximum effort / speed training
Effort: very hard
Target heart rate: 90% – 100%
Duration: short intervals, up to 40 seconds
The effort in zone 5 is the maximum that the muscles can produce. At this intensity, your body produces more lactic acid than it can use. An athlete’s muscles can get so tight that it causes them to slow down.
Even the best athletes can only keep up their top speed for a few seconds. Even the best 100m sprinters can only maintain their top speed for 50m before slowing down.
The athlete is panting so hard that he can’t even say a whole word.
Monitor Your Heart Rate During Exercise
You should take your heart rate five minutes after you start exercising, and again before you start your cool-down. There are a few ways to measure your heart rate. You can do this by taking your pulse, using a heart rate monitor, or using a fitness tracker or smart watch.
Take Your Pulse
There are two main pulse points where you can feel your heartbeat: your neck (carotid artery) and your wrist (radial artery). You’ll need a device that can measure seconds to do this activity, so either change the settings on your phone’s clock to stopwatch mode, or use a watch, clock, or timer that has a second hand.
- Use two fingers , and do not use your thumb as it has its own pulse. It is often easiest to find your pulse in the carotid arteries, which are on either side of your windpipe. Start feeling for it just beneath your jaw, next to your windpipe.
- Once you locate the pulse , press lightly. Count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply by six, or count for 15 seconds and multiply by four.
- You may need to stop to do this at first , but once you are able to locate it, try to keep walking slowly or marching in place while taking your pulse to keep it from slowing.
Use a Heart Rate Monitor
Heart rate monitors that are worn around the chest are more accurate than those that are worn on the wrist. The device collects data about your heart rate and sends it to a wrist unit or mobile app, so you can track your heart rate during your workout.
As prices increase, more features are included such as tracking your heart rate zones, stopwatch features, calories burned, and more. You can also get a reading by placing one or two fingers on a sensor.
Many heart rate monitors offer the ability to pre-program multiple heart rate zones, which can be useful for people who want to monitor their heart rate during exercise. If you change up the intensity of your workouts, it can be helpful to have a heart rate monitor because you won’t have to keep changing the settings. Some will tell you how long it takes to return to your resting heart rate.
Use a Fitness Tracker or Smart Watch
On the underside of some fitness bands and smartwatches, there are LED pulse sensors next to the skin. Examples of these devices include some models of Fitbit and the Apple Watch. The devices must be worn snugly against the skin to get an accurate reading.
Many battery saving devices don’t work by reading continuously. See the instructions for your monitor or watch to see how to get a pulse reading either on-demand or continuously.
Most fitness trackers have three different heart rate zones that you can use to gauge the intensity of your workout. These zones are typically referred to as light, moderate, and vigorous. Some fitness trackers have a feature that allows you to set a target heart rate. When you are in your chosen heart rate zone, you will receive a visual or auditory alert.
Vary Your Workouts
Which zone should you work out in? You should switch up the length and intensity of your workouts, as well as take a day off in between days of intense exercise.
A workout routine that consists of shorter, more intense workouts two to three times a week, with a recovery or rest day in between. One day of a longer workout in the moderate or vigorous zone is often used to help runners train for a race by gradually increasing their mileage.
Racewalker Dave McGovern has a suggested weekly workout schedule that varies the workouts for intensity and heart rate to improve speed, endurance, and distance capacity:
- Monday : Rest day with light activity
- Tuesday : Interval workout in the vigorous zone with 10 minutes warmup at an easy pace; intervals of 30 seconds sprinting followed by two minutes of recovery, repeated eight to 12 times; then cool-down 10 minutes at an easy pace
- Wednesday : Recovery day with a workout in the moderate zone for 30 to 45 minutes
- Thursday : Interval workout in the vigorous zone with longer intervals of eight minutes at a vigorous intensity and two minutes of recovery, repeated three to four times
- Friday : Recovery day with a workout in the moderate zone for 30 to 45 minutes
- Saturday : Steady-state ( tempo ) workout in the low end of the vigorous zone for 20 to 30 minutes after a warmup of 10 minutes
- Sunday : Distance workout in the low end of the vigorous heart rate zone
What’s next?
Now that you have established your heart rate training zones, you can work with your coach to create a training plan aimed at improving your fitness and making you faster.
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