Depending on your fitness goal, training within certain heart rate zones helps to achieve great results in good quality time. Calculating your training zones takes into consideration Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) and Resting Heart Rate (RHR). Within each training zone, subtle physiological effects take place to enhance your fitness.
Training Heart Rate Zone
| Training Zone | Intensity | Training Heart Rate (bpm) |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner or low fitness level | 50% - 60% | |
| Average fitness level | 60% - 70% | |
| High fitness level | 75% - 85% |
Determining your resting heart rate (RHR) is very easy.
Find somewhere nice and quiet, lie down and relax. Position a watch or clock where you can clearly see it whilst lying down, after 20 minutes determine your resting pulse rate (number of beats/min) or if you have a heart rate monitor then put it on before you lie down. After the 20 minutes check the recordings and identify the lowest value achieved. Use this value as your RHR.
Once you have your RHR you can use the calculator to predict the recommended Training Heart Rate (THR).