You have probably heard your Spinning® instructor talk about Energy Zones™ and target heart rate ranges. Heart rate is important to monitor because it’s related to exercise intensity. When you exercise, you want your heart rate (measured in beats per minute) to be at a level that’s safe and effective. If it’s too low, you may not get the cardiorespiratory training you want. If it’s too high, you may not burn fat as effectively as you could, or you might exercise at an unsafe intensity. Use these simple formulas to determine your target heart rate ranges for each Energy Zone.
Step One:
Estimate your
maximal heart rate.
Maximal Heart Rate (MHR) is the maximum number of times the heart can beat in one minute. This heart rate is so fast that it would be unsafe to come close to it during exercise, but you use that number to determine your target heart rates. A common method for estimating MHR is the age-predicted method.
Subtract your age from 220.
220 – age = age-predicted MHR
Example for a 30 year old male:
220 – 30 = 190
His age-predicted maximal heart
rate is 190 BPM
Step Two:
Find your target
heart rate ranges.
Your target heart rate ranges are based on percentages of your MHR. So simply multiply your MHR by the corresponding percentages for each Energy Zone.