Target heart rate calculator
Work out training heart rate zones with the Karvonen method, which uses your resting heart rate as well as your age.
How the calculation works
Heart rate reserve is the gap between your maximum and resting heart rate. The Karvonen method takes a percentage of that reserve and adds your resting heart rate back on:
Target = resting HR + intensity x (maximum HR minus resting HR)
Maximum heart rate is estimated from age. The Tanaka formula tends to fit adults, and older adults in particular, better than the classic 220 minus age, but both are estimates. Real maximum heart rates vary by 10 beats or more either way.
Using it with patients
Measure resting heart rate after a few minutes of quiet sitting, ideally on more than one day. Many medicines change heart rate response, beta blockers above all, and for people taking them a heart rate target can be misleading. Rating of perceived exertion is often more useful in that case.
Anyone with heart disease, chest pain on exertion or a recent cardiac event should have exercise intensity set by their medical team.
References
- Karvonen MJ, Kentala E, Mustala O. The effects of training on heart rate; a longitudinal study. Annales Medicinae Experimentalis et Biologiae Fenniae. 1957;35(3):307-315.
- Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2001;37(1):153-156.
This calculator gives general estimates for education. It is not a medical assessment.