The first thing you need to do is sleep! Yep that’s right, I’m telling you to go to sleep. :) Seriously though, to get an accurate resting heart rate (RHR) you need to count your beats per minute immediately after you wake up in the morning while you are still horizontal in bed. Even slight movement like sitting up can raise your heart rate. This should be done at least three times and then you take the average of all times. I would also suggest doing your counts on days where you have had restful and restorative sleep, preferably 7-9 hours. So when you wake up in the morning, slide your fingers up to the side of your neck and count your beats for one FULL minute. It is most helpful to have a watch with a second hand, a stopwatch or a digital watch with seconds available.
The average adult has a resting heart rate of 72; you should be within 60-100 beats per minute. If you are over 100 please schedule an apt with your doctor ASAP as you could have a heart condition or could be on medication that is causing you to have a quickened heart beat. If you are a serious athlete in training, your RHR could be well below 60, especially if you practice yoga and meditation on a daily basis. Unlike blood pressure, it doesn’t appear to me that heart rate is effected by size but by your cardiorespiratory fitness only. So you could possibly be 4’5” and weigh 85 pounds and not have a low RHR because your cardiorespiratory fitness level is extremely low.
Ok here comes the math! If you want to have a general idea of your zones and don’t want to wait to calculate your RHR you can go here and get a VERY generic zone to start with. If you’ve gotten your RHR and you just feel like being lazy you can go here. Further, if you have extra cash laying around you can shell out about $150-$300 and go to your local fitness club or bike store and have a heart rate test done and they can calculate it all for you. That by far is the most accurate way to determine your numbers, but not completely necessary. Plus if you have extra cash laying around you might want to call me first because I could definitely use some! ;)
On to the numbers!
First, you have to calculate your maximum heart rate (MAX) based on the Karvonen Formula. This is simply done by subtracting your age from 220. NOTE: I have seen a couple places where the numbers are different for men (220) and women (227), but I always use 220 and have had a couple of different trainers over the years and that is what they use too.
220-27=193 so my MAX is 193
Next, you will calculate your low end of your THR zone:
MAX – RHR= heart rate reserve (HRR)
HRR x 50% = training range %
training range % + RHR = LOW end of THR zone
EXAMPLE:
193 – 63 = 115
130 x 50% = 65
65 + 63 = 128
So the low end of my THR zone is 128
Now you need to calculate your high end. Same numbers, new formula:
MAX – RHR= heart rate reserve (HRR)
HRR x 85% = training range %
training range % + RHR = MAX end of THR zone
So my high end is 174, resulting in a THR zone of 128-174.
Let’s consider someone else to give you an idea of how age plays into THR zones. Kerry is 36 and has a RHR of 98. So Kerry’s MAX is 184 with a THR zone of 141-171. To give you an idea of how your cardiorespiratory fitness plays into it let's compare Kerry to Alex who is the same age. Alex has a RHR of 58. So Alex's MAX would be the same, 184 but Alex's THR zone would be 121-165.
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