Using a heart rate monitor – whether it be a feature on your wearable fitness tracker, or on the treadmill at your local gym – can be beneficial in helping you reach certain training goals. Depending on which heart rate zone you are in, you can burn fat and improve your cardiovascular health or increase strength and power. Here is an overview of how to calculate your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) and what each zone has to offer.
All five of the heart rate zones are defined as the percentage of MHR – so to use heart rate tracking as a tool during your training, you must find this number. There are many different methods of finding this, however, a commonly used method is taking your age and subtracting that from 220. Once you have that number, we can then identify our heart rate ranges within each zone. See below for an example.
Ex. 32-year-old has an MHR of 188 beats per minute (bpm): 220 – 32 = 188
By knowing this number, we can find each zone’s heart rate range:
Zone 1: 50-60% MHR, 94-113bpm (188 x .50 = 94, 188 x .60 = 112.8)
Zone 2: 60-70% MHR, 113-132bpm
Zone 3: 70-80% MHR, 132-150bpm
Zone 4: 80-90% MHR, 150-169bpm
Zone 5: 90-100% MHR, 169-188bpm
UNDERSTANDING THE ZONES
Zone 1: This first heart rate zone is where most of our daily living activities fall. You are in this zone as you walk the dog, push the cart through the grocery store, or play with your kids outside. This is a suitable place to be to get your daily movement in, however, it will not provide substantial improvements in your health.
Zone 2: This zone is most known as the fat-burning zone. This is where you start to pick the pace up on your walk or – if on a treadmill – bump up the incline. This zone is truly aerobic, and you will see significant cardiovascular adaptations. Within this heart rate range, your body is primarily pulling energy from fat stores.
Zone 3: Here in this zone, most people reach the lactate threshold and begin to feel muscle fatigue. For runners or endurance athletes, this is race pace. At this point, your body is still using its aerobic system and is burning about half and half – fat and carbohydrates.
Zone 4: As we work up to this heart rate range, we pick up the intensity and are unable to speak during exercise. In zone 4 we are truly anaerobic and are using carbohydrates as our energy source. Here we also see Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). This allows us to continue to burn calories post-exercise.
Zone 5: This zone is where elite athletes train for short amounts of time to train their fast twitch muscle fibers that improve speed and power. If you reach this zone during high-intensity interval training, allow yourself to fully recover to 70% MHR before continuing.
GET IN THE ZONE
Tracking your heart rate will allow you to know how hard your heart is working and which energy source your body is pulling from – fat or glycogen stores. Overall, using your heart rate as a training tool can lead to calculated results and help maintain a wholesome approach to functional fitness. Give it a try and get in the zone!
