What is a heart rate zone?
A heart rate zone is a term describing your heart rate which is the number of heart beats per minute. Heart rate zones are used for monitoring the intensity of exercises while working out; however, they can also be useful for monitoring your pulse while performing other everyday activities.
How many heart rate zones are there?
As part of the main classification, there are five heart rate zones ranging from 50% to 100% of the maximum heart rate [1]. This means that if you want to reach a specific goal (for example, lose weight), you need to exercise at a specific pace. Why is that? Each heart rate zone involves different energy conversions that will be beneficial to fat tissue reduction, improved endurance, etc. If you know the heart rate zones, you will be able to adapt the training to your needs and track your progress.
- Heart rate zone 1 – very light (50-60% of HRMAX)
Training at this intensity will help you improve your overall health and recover after other more difficult workouts. It will get you ready to do other exercises or help you calm your body after physical effort. Training at this intensity is recommended for everyone, particularly for people who are in poor shape or who have only just started to be more active (or return to working out after a long break).
Proposed exercises: walking, gentle yoga, easy stretching exercises.
- Heart rate zone 2 – light (60-70% of HRMAX)
This is the zone that improves your general endurance; it is good for fat burning and body recuperating. Exercising in heart rate zone 2 feels light and comfortable; it does not make you get out of breath; it only makes you a bit sweaty – you can compare it to jogging. It is excellent for people who want to lose some weight and improve the performance of their cardiovascular system.
Proposed exercises: nordic walking, trekking, yoga at medium intensity.
- Heart rate zone 3 – moderate (70-80% of HRMAX)
It helps you work on your aerobic endurance (the ability to keep active) and efficiency. It is an option for people who are in good shape, who want to improve their performance and feel slight muscle fatigue.
Proposed exercises: aerobic, swimming, running, rollerblading, climbing wall, Zumba.
- Heart rate zone 4 – intense (80-90% of HRMAX)
It will help you improve your performance and start endurance. If you train at this intensity, you will get really tired, you’ll be breathing hard and your muscles will be subjected to intense effort – your body will not remove lactic acid from your muscles and will thus be better at withstanding it. This is the perfect option for advanced athletes.
Proposed exercises: intense workout at the gym or swimming, squash, fast run, spinning.
- Heart rate zone 5 – very intense (above 90% of HRMAX)
It improves speed endurance; however, training at this intensity is really exhausting and will make you lose your breath, so you cannot train at such an intensity for more than a few minutes. This is an option for people who have extensive experience with sports and who know how to work at very short intervals. Professional athletes will make the most of it.
Proposed exercises: sprint, very intensive spinning, mountain biking.
How to calculate the maximum heart rate?
We define the heart rate zones on the basis of the maximum heart rate (or, MHR and HRMax for short). MHR varies from one person to the next and it means the highest number of beats per minute your heart can pump under maximum stress [2].
There are various formulas used for calculating the maximum heart rate. The most popular formula was developed in 1971 by Sam Fox and William Haskell:
- maximum heart rate (MHR) = 220 - your age.
220 may be considered the maximum heart rate from which you need to deduct your age. For example, a 40-year-old woman will make the following calculation: 220 - 40 = 180 (MHR).
Sally Edwards proposed another formula which is more precise (an error tolerance of up to 5%):
- women: MHR = 210 - (50% of your age) - (0.022 x your weight in kilograms).
- men: MHR = 210 - (50% of your age) - (0.022 x your weight in kilograms) + 4.
People who are overweight (body fat index above 30%) will use the Miller formula:
- MHR = 200 - 50% of your age.
Can heart rate zones change?
They most certainly can – because if you train on a regular basis, you can improve your performance and get more used to physical effort. Therefore, the value will change, depending on your age, your weight and your lifestyle.
How to measure your heart rate during a workout? You can use various devices – heart rate monitors built into the equipment at the gym as well as sport watches. You can also measure your heart rate manually by putting your finger on your wrist. Gently tap the artery until you feel it pulse. You can use a watch or a timer to count the number of beats per 15 seconds and then multiply it by four to calculate the number of beats per minute.
Keeping track of your heart rate has many advantages – it helps you monitor not only your workouts but your health as well. If you notice a change in your heart rate, you should consult your doctor or your personal trainer. It may be a sign that you have trained too much or that you live under too much pressure but it can also be a symptom of an illness. And if that’s the case, you need to react immediately.
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References:
[1] Amanda J. Marx, MS, John P. Porcari, PhD, Scott Doberstein, MS, Susan Bramwell, MS, and Carl Foster, PhD, with Daniel J. Green, The Accuracy of Heart Rate–based Zone Training Using Predicted versus Measured Maximal Heart Rate, https://acewebcontent.azureedge.net/June2019/ACE_Heart%20Rate%E2%80%93basedZoneTraining.pdf, access online: 27.06.2023.
[2] How to target heart rate training zones effectively, https://chhs.source.colostate.edu/how-to-target-heart-rate-training-zones-effectively/, access online: 27.06.2023.