How to Determine Your Heart Rate for Working Out

You can exercise at an effective, safe level by continually monitoring your heart rate and making sure you hover near your cardiovascular "training zone." Exercising below this zone will have little effect on improving your cardiovascular fitness, while exercising higher than your ideal zone will only produce little improvement despite extra effort and intensity that could even prove dangerous.

Things You'll Need

  • Heart rate monitor (optional)
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Instructions

    • 1

      Use a simple formula to determine your approximate target heart rate. If you are just starting to work out, subtract your age from 220 and multiply it by 60 percent. (220 - Age) X .60 = Target Heart Rate. If you exercise regularly, use 70 percent in the formula instead, and if you are a serious athlete use 85 percent.

    • 2

      You can also find your training zone using the Karvonen method. This method not only finds your target rate, but can also be used to find your minimum and maximum heart rates for proper exercising. For the Karvonen approach, you will need to know how to find your pulse and calculate your resting heart rate.

    • 3

      If you do not own a heart rate monitor, there is a simple, free way to find your heart rate. The most common places to take your own pulse are on the wrist or on the neck. For the wrist, place two fingers inside your wrist and just above the tendons running up your arm. For the neck, place the two fingers on the side of the throat in the groove in front of the muscle running vertically.

    • 4

      For accuracy, make sure you do this after waking up, but before getting out of bed. Find your pulse. Count the number of heart beats you feel. Do this for 10 seconds and multiply the number of beats by six to calculate your heart rate, or beats per minute (BPM).

    • 5

      To then use the Karvonen method, you will need to calculate your maximum heart rate. The formula for this is subtracting your age from 220 (for men) and 226 (for women). Next, subtract your resting heart rate from your maximum heart rate. Multiply this number by 70 percent. Finally, take the result and add your resting heart rate to find your "low end" heart rate zone. To calculate the "high end" of your zone, repeat the formula but multiply your result by 85 percent instead of 70 percent.

      Formula:
      220 (or 226) - AGE = Maximum Heart Rate
      Maximum Heart Rate - Resting Heart Rate = Number
      (Number X .70) + Resting Heart Rate = 70% Cardiovascular Minimum
      (Number X .85) + Resting Heart Rate = 85% Cardiovascular Maximum