Heart Rate Zones for Exercise

I like using heart rate zones to guide exercise recommendations. Brace yourself for some math: First you need to calculate your max heart rate, which is 220 minus your age. So lucky for me as a 40 year old, the math is easy and my max heart rate is 180 bpm. Heart rate zones are a percentage of this number. So at 50-60% of my max heart rate, around 90 bpm, I am moving at a light warm up pace and quite comfortable. Around 60-70% of my max heart rate, I have entered a more moderate exercise zone, where I might be breathing harder but I could still have a conversation. At 70-80%, I am now at a moderate to high intensity and less able to talk while exercising. Higher than 80% is a very high intensity exercise that is hard to maintain for more than a few minutes at a time.

Your body gets different benefits based on which heart rate zone you are in. While getting your heart rate into the 60-70% zone, your body looks to break down fat to fuel your activity, hence why this is often called the fat burning zone. When your heart rate is sustained at a higher level, your body switches over to burning sugar/carbs, and this is considered a cardio zone.

One reason I like using heart rate zones for exercise is because it allows people to scale their activity to meet their goals. Exercise should not always be a painful experience! Generally when you are pushing your heart rate to those max zones, you will feel uncomfortable. But the majority of your exercise, at least 80%, should be done in the lower intensity zones with a mix of fat burning and cardio. Based on your current level of fitness, varying activities will get your heart rate to the needed zones. So for example, an older patient that is new to exercising might be able to get to 70% of their max heart rate with going for a walk, whereas a younger and more active patient might need to jog to get to the same zone.

Using heart rate zones to define exercise also helps to broaden what constitutes exercise. If working out in the yard raking leaves gets you to 60% of your max heart rate - counts! When I ask patients if they exercise, some answer yes and reference their work. While it’s great to have a job that isn’t sedentary, check your heart rate to see if you are actually ‘exercising.’ If you maintain your heart rate in those zones during work, then yes - counts!

The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes per week of moderate intense activity - so the 60-80% max heart rate level. This can be broken up throughout the week. If that seems daunting, a recent study showed that being a ‘weekend warrior’ and doing all 15o minutes on the weekend had similar health benefits to doing exercise throughout the week, such as 30 minutes 5 days per week.

My bottom line is to encourage everyone to keep moving and get your heart rate up. It doesn’t matter if it’s walking, dancing, jogging, biking, jumping rope, lifting weights, yoga, pilates or a combination of everything! And it also doesn’t matter if you find it takes light activity to get your heart rate to a higher zone - you are getting the same benefit being in that zone while walking as the marathon runner who needs to jog to get there. Plus, you will find that the more active you become, the more intense you will need to make your activity to reach the same heart rate zone. This is building your endurance.

So find some activity you enjoy, or at the very least tolerate, and get moving today!