Maximum Exercise Heart Rate

The Maximum Exercise Heart Rate calculator determines the maximum heart rate one should reach while exercising.

How to use this Target Heart Rate

While exercising, check your pulse periodically to see if you are exercising within your target zone. As you get in better shape, try exercising within the upper range of your target zone. (If just beginning an exercise program, consult your doctor first.)

Notes:

How to Check Your Heart Rate

Right after you stop exercising, take your pulse: Place the tips of your first two fingers lightly over one of the blood vessels on your neck, just to the left or right of your Adam's apple. Or try the pulse spot inside your wrist just below the base of your thumb.

Count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply the number by 6.

How to Use This Information

The number you should specifically target depends on your fitness level. Always consult your physician in making decisions about your health and exercise plans, especially the use of this general information on heart rates. It is a notional guideline.  Your doctor has best knowledge of your fitness level.

If you haven't exercised in a while, you will probably be advised to aim for the low end of your maximum exercise heart rate, 50% to 65% of your maximum. If you exercise regularly, you will probably be advised to target a higher heart rate, typically in the middle of your range, 60% to 75% of your maximum exercise heart rate. Very active people can pump it up to 70% to 85%, on the high end of the range.

Your maximum exercise heart rate is the highest heart rate you can achieve without encountering severe problems while exercising.  Your maximum exercise heart rate depends primarily on your age. Determination of your personal maximum exercise heart rate is general done using a cardiac stress test. A cardiac stress test characterizes the individual's heart rate under different levels of stress.  Usually the subject exercises for ten to twenty minutes while being monitored with an ECG device. The intensity of exercise is monitored in this way and is periodically increased by increasing speed and or incline off the treadmill on which the subject is walking/running.

Additional Resources:

Check out the Heart Heath Calculator and the Metabolic Health Calculator for more Health and Fitness Equations.