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Finding
Your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate
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By Mark Fulford
Recently
I read an article titled: `Building Blocks' by Mark Allen
('Triathlete' magazine, March 2004) that dealt with the importance
of building a good base by training below your maximum aerobic
heart rate. The article covered how to find this heart rate
and the reasons why training at this intensity is crucial.
With some athletes I'm
coaching just starting into their base training, I decided
to use some of what Allen had to say to explain the importance
to them of training easier rather than harder to get the best
long term results.
Of special interest
to me was the formula Allen uses to calculate an athletes
maximum aerobic training heart rate because it doesn't require
you to know your maximum heart rate. The formula, or calculation
is:
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1.
Take 180 and subtract your age. |
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2.
Take that number and correct it by the amount next to
the statement that best describes your level of fitness:
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a.
Subtract five beats if you are recovering from a major
illness or injury that has kept you from training for
six months or more. |
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b.
Leave the number where it is if you have been working
out about two to three days per week for at least a year.
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c.
Add five beats if you have been working out more than
three days per week for at least a year. |
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d.
Add 10 beats if you have been working out more than five
days per week for at least five years without recurring
colds, illnesses, injuries or long periods of burnout.
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e.
If you are older than 55 years old or younger than 25
years old, add an additional five beats to whatever number
you have right now. |
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(Note:
if you are trying to decide between two of the above statements,
it is much better to pick the one that gives you a lower
training heart rate than the one that will give you the
higher training heart rate.) |
How
Does This Compare with Other Methods?
Using this method to
obtain my own heart rates, I used: 180 - 34 = 146, then add
(d) from above, so, 156bpm. After working through this I decided
to sit down and cross reference it with a few other methods
used to determine training zones to see exactly where it fitted
into the grand scheme of things. The methods I used to cross
reference were:
- Percentages of predicted
maximum heart rate
- Percentages of actual
maximum heart rate
- Percentages of heart
rate range using the Karvonen formula
- the method of determining
heart rate training zones utilized at EnduranceCoach courtesy
of Coach Brendon (which can be found in the article How
to Set Accurate Training Zones)
To cross-reference the
different methods I chose three key maximum heart rate percentages.
NOTE: these are representative percentages only. Lab testing
would in most cases give more accurate percentages.
- 60%: the percentage
at which significant aerobic training takes place and below
which I would describe as recovery training. We can call
this aerobic threshold
- 80%: the percentage
that is the maximum aerobic training heart rate
- 85%: the Anaerobic
Threshold (AT)
Results
of Cross Referencing with Other Methods
As with the Allen method
above, as an example for each calculation I have used my own
heart rate data.
Method
1: Predicted Maximum Heart Rate
| Using:
220 - age to predict maximum heart rate. At the ripe old
age of 34, my predicted max would be 186. |
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x 60%
= 112 bpm |
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x 80%
= 149 bpm |
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x 85%
= 158 bpm |
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Method
2: Actual Maximum Heart Rate
| Using:
My actual maximum heart rate which is 197 |
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x 60%
= 118 bpm |
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x 80%
= 158 bpm |
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x 85%
= 167 bpm |
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Method
3: Karvonen Formula
| Maximum
Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate = Heart Rate Range (HRR)
Eg: my HRR is 197 - 40 = 157 |
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HRR
x 60% = 94 bpm |
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HRR
x 80% = 126 bpm |
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HRR
x 85% = 133 bpm |
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Finally
add Resting Heart Rate to these figures: |
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60%
= 94 + 40 = 134bpm |
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80%
= 126 + 40 = 166bpm |
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85%
= 133 + 40 = 173bpm |
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Method
4: EnduranceCoach.com Training Zones
| Four
key heart rates are needed to begin with: (Mine are in
brackets) |
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1)
Maximum Heart rate (197) |
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2)
Resting Heart rate (40) |
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3)
Aerobic Threshold. Half way between maximum and minimum
heart rates (half way between 197 and 40 = 119) |
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4)
Anaerobic Threshold (AT). ( I will use 173 from the Karvonen
formula above. Once again, this should really be accurately
assessed for best results.) |
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Rather
than splitting HR's into percentages, Training Heart Rates
are split into 6 zones in the following way: |
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Very
Easy = below aerobic threshold (eg: below 119 bpm)
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Easy
= lower 1/3 of zone between aerobic threshold and anaerobic
threshold (119bpm-137bpm) |
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Moderate
= middle 1/3 of zone between aerobic threshold and anaerobic
threshold (137bpm-155bpm) |
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Hard
= Upper 1/3 of zone between aerobic threshold and anaerobic
threshold (155bpm-173bpm) |
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Very
Hard = From your anaerobic threshold, halfway up to
your maximum (173bpm-185 bpm) |
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Very
Very Hard = From halfway between your anaerobic threshold
and your maximum, up to your maximum (185bpm-197bpm) |
Observations
after Cross Referencing
- For me, the first
thing to note is that using the Predicted maximum heart
rate calculation of 220 - age is a waste of time. My actual
Maximum is 13 bpm higher than predicted. There are other
Predicted Heart Rate formulas that may be more accurate.
- The figures obtained
using the Karvonen formula are consistently higher than
the other calculations. The figure I would use personally
from this method is the one for 85% or AT. Having field-tested
different heart rates over a number of years of training,
173bpm feels about right for my AT. Early in my build up
it may be a few beats below this, when fit, a few beats
higher. As you will see below, when using this figure, the
EnduranceCoach method fits into the puzzle quite nicely.
- There are heart
rates that occur in more than one method of calculation.
The first is the 60% aerobic threshold heart rate: 118 in
Actual maximum heart rate calculations and 119 using the
EnduranceCoach calculation. The second, and the one which
is the purpose of this article, is the 80% (maximum aerobic
training) heart rate: 156 for the Mark Allen method, 155
for the Actual Maximum heart rate method, and looking at
the EnduranceCoach method, 155bpm where Moderate intensity
ends and Hard intensity begins.
Conclusions
About Determining Training Heart Rates
This is not a scientific
research paper with multiple subjects but by looking at a
few different methods of finding training zones I believe
it is possible to work out some fairly accurate training zones
without going to a lab and without going through the rigours
of a maximum heart rate test.
I
believe a really important training heart rate is the maximum
aerobic training heart rate. I would expect the endurance
athletes I coach to do 90% or more of their training at this
heart rate.
The Mark Allen method
of determining this heart rate appears to correlate well with
other methods that calculate 80% of maximum heart rate. This
method doesn't require you to know your maximum heart rate
and it adjusts for not only age but also experience and illness
or injury. In general this method gives a conservative heart
rate that is safe to do a large volume of aerobic training
at. The only glitch I have encountered with this method is
when the athlete is young and has a number of years of consistent
training behind them. Their aerobic training heart rates can
end up well over 170bpm. In these cases I would tend to want
some testing or an accurate maximum heart rate to plug into
the EnduranceCoach method.
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