A person’s maximum heart rate is measured as to how many times your heart is capable of beating safely per minute. People should attempt to work from anywhere between 40-90% of their maximum heart rate whilst exercising in order to burn sufficient calories and give your heart and lungs the workout it deserves. When the heart and lungs are worked hard, they then recover and grow back stronger, providing sufficient rest and nutrients are supplied. Overtime, this will allow you to exercise for longer periods of time or alternatively, at a higher intensity.

What is Your Maximum Heart Rate?

A person’s maximum heart rate will differ widely to others as age and their general level of fitness will all play a big part when determining their maximum heart rate. The fitter you are, the lower your maximum heart rate is likely to be whereas on the other hand, the more unhealthy and inactive you are, the higher the number is likely to be. Your maximum heart rate can also be referred to as STD or HRmax.

If you are unsure as to whether or not you are working in a percentage of your heart rate that is beneficial to both yourself and your goals, your body can actually give you a good indication of this. It can do this by forcing you to breathe quicker or by giving you a feeling of tiredness and fatigue in your muscles.

The Target heart rate

The target heart rate is the range of a persons maximum heart rate that when worked at, will allow their lungs and heart to receive the most benefit. This range can be anywhere between 55% and 85% of a persons maximum heart rate depending on their age and fitness levels.

How to measure your Maximum Heart Rate

In order to measure your maximum heart rate you can use a number of methods. The best method is to take a cardiac stress test. This method has been shown to be the most accurate but will require expensive equipment to carry out so chances are that this method wont be available for all people.

A cardiac stress test is usually (and should be) carried out by professionally trained medics. It will normally involve running on a treadmill for a prolonged period of time whilst being connected and monitored by an electrocardiogram, also known as an ECG.

The speed and resistance of the treadmill is likely to change so that the medics can pick up on any changes in heart function. Once changes are detected, you are normally instructed to stop. Another popular and much easier way to find your maximum heart rate is to use the devised formula of taking your age away from the figure of 220.

This formula was devised from a number of sources and studies although experts have warned that this particular formula is not always an accurate measure of a persons maximum heart rate.

The recovery heart rate

The recovery heart rate is where your heart rate is measured after the completion of physical activity. This is usually done for around a minute after exercise and repeated for 1 minute periods. In this time the athlete will note down the number of heart beats that occur within that minute and write them down. Overtime the number of heart beats per minute should become less and less after physical activity proving to the athlete that they are getting fitter and stronger.