Reference chart
Heart Rate Zones by Age Chart
By &Pixels, the studio that builds MyCalculator.to. These are population estimates for planning training, not medical guidance.
Zones for every age from 20 to 70, and an honest account of how wide the error bars on them really are.
What are heart rate training zones?
Heart rate zones are bands of effort expressed as a percentage of your maximum heart rate, used to keep easy sessions easy and hard sessions hard. Zone 2 sits at 60 to 70 percent and builds endurance; zone 4 at 80 to 90 percent is threshold work. Five zones is the common split.
The zones are only as good as the maximum they are derived from, and that is usually estimated by subtracting your age from 220. That estimate carries a standard error of roughly 10 to 12 beats per minute. A forty-year-old with a formula maximum of 180 could genuinely be anywhere from 168 to 192, which is enough to move every boundary below by a whole zone.
Zones by age
| Age | Est. max | Zone 2 | Zone 3 | Zone 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 200 | 120 to 140 | 140 to 160 | 160 to 180 |
| 25 | 195 | 117 to 137 | 137 to 156 | 156 to 176 |
| 30 | 190 | 114 to 133 | 133 to 152 | 152 to 171 |
| 35 | 185 | 111 to 130 | 130 to 148 | 148 to 167 |
| 40 | 180 | 108 to 126 | 126 to 144 | 144 to 162 |
| 45 | 175 | 105 to 123 | 123 to 140 | 140 to 158 |
| 50 | 170 | 102 to 119 | 119 to 136 | 136 to 153 |
| 55 | 165 | 99 to 116 | 116 to 132 | 132 to 149 |
| 60 | 160 | 96 to 112 | 112 to 128 | 128 to 144 |
| 65 | 155 | 93 to 109 | 109 to 124 | 124 to 140 |
| 70 | 150 | 90 to 105 | 105 to 120 | 120 to 135 |
The calculators behind this
What each zone is for
| Zone | Of max | How it feels | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | 50 to 60% | Very light. Full conversation. | Warm up, cool down, recovery |
| Zone 2 | 60 to 70% | Light. Can talk in sentences. | Endurance base, the bulk of most plans |
| Zone 3 | 70 to 80% | Moderate. Short sentences only. | Aerobic fitness, tempo work |
| Zone 4 | 80 to 90% | Hard. A few words at a time. | Threshold, race pace |
| Zone 5 | 90 to 100% | Maximum. No talking. | Short intervals, minutes at a time |
The “how it feels” column is worth more than it looks. If your watch says zone 2 and you cannot finish a sentence, the watch is working from a wrong maximum, and your breathing is the better instrument.
Working out your own zones
- Estimate your maximum. Subtract your age from 220. It is rough, and the next step says how rough.
- Treat it as a range, not a number. The estimate carries a standard error of roughly 10 to 12 beats either way, enough to move you a full zone.
- Take percentages for your zones. Zone 2 is 60 to 70 percent of maximum, zone 3 is 70 to 80, and so on up.
- Check it against the talk test. If you can hold a sentence but not a conversation, you are near zone 2 whatever the watch says.
- Trust your own data over the formula. A measured maximum from a hard effort or a lab test beats any age-based estimate.
For your own numbers rather than the nearest row, the heart rate zone calculator takes your age and optionally your resting rate, and the target heart rate calculator gives a single band for a session.
These figures are estimates for planning training. They are not a medical assessment, and anything that concerns you about your heart is a conversation with a doctor rather than a chart.
Formula & Methodology
Did you know? The 220 minus age formula was never derived from a study. It was an informal fit noted from scattered data in the 1970s, and it has outlived several better-researched replacements largely because it is easy to do in your head.
Sources
- American Heart Association, target heart rates for exercise
- American College of Sports Medicine, Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription
- Tanaka, Monahan and Seals 2001, Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited