Heart rate for activity
Do you know your Target Heart Rate Range (THRR) and the optimal level to workout/be active at for your current fitness level?
Remember – small changes add up!
Baby steps help your body adjust to changes made and make them sustainable.
Today’s focus: Checking your heart rate. It’s important to know what your heart rate is, so that when you do activity you know what level/number to safely push towards for your current level of fitness. Many people have a wearable device that gives you the data, but you should know why your numbers aren’t; the same as someone else. AND so that you know not to push to a certain number cause that’s where your friend works out at who may be a different age or level of fitness. It is age and fitness level dependent. A fit 60-year-old marathon runner’s target heart rate range (THRR) will be very different from a 60 year old sedentary desk worker or couch potato.
You may want to use the “talk/sing test” for your activity. You should be able to talk, not sing during activity. If you cannot talk you are working too hard, if you can sing – work a bit harder. It’s a simple way to check what level you are working at with activity if you cannot check your heart rate using a wearable device or doing a 10 second pulse check.
There’s the simple formula to figure out what your target heart rate range (THRR) is. You may have a wearable that you rely on to tell you when you are in the THRR, it’s still good to know information. We’ll get to that in a second…
If you have been exercising, you may want to use the Karvonen method of figuring out your THRR. This method considers the fact that you have strengthened your heart muscle and adjusts it for your lowered or current resting heart rate (RHR). The Karvonen method considers your current fitness level and RHR and gives you a more accurate range if you’ve been working on your fitness so that you can still push yourself to a safe heart rate range level. You may think you’re doing okay because your wearable says so, but it doesn’t know YOU and your habits, it may be basing your THRR solely on your age. Ranges can be adjusted and should be adjusted.
The link above offers an easy calculator, the work is done for you. I do provide the formula below if you’d like to figure it out yourself.
Here’s the simple formula to figure out what your target heart rate range (THRR) is. You may have a wearable that you rely on to tell you when you are in the THRR, it’s still good to know information. If you’re not sure what your Target Heart Rate Range (THRR) is…use this simple equation to find it. Most trackers will provide you with this and call it a fat burning zone for a low intensity workout and a cardio zone for a high intensity workout, ore the bottom and top end of your THRR.
Target Heart Rate Range (THRR) formula
220 - your age = maximum heart rate (MHR)
MHR (x) 0.65 (this is 65% of your maximum heart rate or a fat burning zone) = low intensity workout
MHR (x) 0.80 (this is 80% of your maximum heart rate or a fat burning zone) = high intensity workout or cardio zone
Doing the above calculations will give you your range Target Heart Rate Range (THRR) of 65% to 80% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). If your workouts have been at the lower end, push to the middle of the THRR.
Focus on where you’re at in the THRR zone or do the talk/sing test. (see above for that explanation)
Another method to figure your heart rate for someone that has been exercising is using the Karvonen Method.
Karvonen Formula
Target Heart Rate Intensity Zone (THRR) = ((max HR − resting HR) × %Intensity) + resting HR
Use the 0.65 for 65% and 0.8 for 80% to determine the THRR in the above formula
NOTE: Resting Heart Rate (RHR) should be checked, first thing after waking (about 2-5 minutes after to adjust from sleeping to waking), before activity or caffeine. This should be checked and used in the Karvonen formula. Use a radial (at the wrist) or carotid (at the neck) pulse measurement. See the link for more instruction on getting RHR.
If you’re not sure what your Target Heart Rate Range (THRR) is…use this simple equations above to find it. Most trackers will provide you with this and call it a fat burning zone for a low intensity workout and a cardio zone for a high intensity workout, ore the bottom and top end of your THRR.
Make the rest of your life the best of your life.
Janelle