Keeping track of one's target heart rate during a workout is common practice for many individuals. Whether you keep track for building your aerobic capacity or increasing your endurance, a common formula has always been used. When exercising in the zone of your target heart rate, you maximize the benefits of your cardiovascular activity. Target heart rate is 65% to 85% of your maximum heart rate. The main calculation has been:
220 - your age = THR
However, researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago announced a new formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate. This can be good news for women who have always followed the standard calculation and may have struggled to reach it. According to the researchers, the new THR calculation for women is: 206 minus 88 percent of a woman’s age.
What do you think? Are you relieved at the news of this new calculation?
Source: Recalibrated Formula Eases Women’s Workouts
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
While I think the new formula is benefitial to some, truthfully too many people rely on the machine that they are using to calculate these numbers correctly and they may not necessarily be acurrate. Rely on your body to tell you how hard you are working!
I agree that it’s important to rely on your body, but I also think that it’s good to have a technical way to calculate it too.
I road bike and wear a HR monitor. I feel that the new calculation is much closer to accurate.