Health Calculators
Target Heart Rate Calculator
Your maximum heart rate is the ceiling every training zone is built from, and this calculator estimates it from your age alone before turning it into the five zones coaches use. Enter your resting heart rate to switch to the Karvonen heart-rate-reserve method, which sets each band above your own resting pulse. Both methods are estimates, not measurements.
Calculator
Formula Used
HRmax = 220 − age (Haskell & Fox, 1971) is the estimate this page defaults to. The two published alternatives in the selector are 208 − 0.7 × age (Tanaka et al., 2001) and 211 − 0.64 × age (Nes et al., 2013). Percentage of HRmax: zone bpm = percentage × HRmax. Karvonen, the heart-rate reserve: zone bpm = resting heart rate + percentage × (HRmax − resting heart rate). The five bands are 50–60 %, 60–70 %, 70–80 %, 80–90 % and 90–100 %.
About This Calculator
| Zone | Intensity | What it trains |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up and recovery | 50–60 % | Blood flow and recovery; conversational effort |
| Aerobic base | 60–70 % | Endurance, fat oxidation, capillary and mitochondrial density |
| Tempo | 70–80 % | Aerobic capacity and muscular endurance |
| Threshold | 80–90 % | Lactate threshold and race pace |
| VO2 max and anaerobic | 90–100 % | Maximum aerobic power and speed |
What It Does
Calculate the maximum heart rate your age predicts and turn it into the five training zones coaches use, in beats per minute. Enter your age, optionally your resting heart rate, choose the percentage-of-HRmax or the Karvonen heart-rate-reserve method and one of three published HRmax formulas, and the page returns the estimate, the reserve, all five zones with their range and what each is for, a band chart and a reference table by age. The zones are estimates built on an estimate: a maximum heart rate is a population average with a spread of about 10 to 12 bpm.
Worked Example
A 30-year-old with a resting heart rate of 60 bpm, using the page's defaults. The estimate 220 − 30 gives an HRmax of 190 bpm, and the heart-rate reserve is 190 − 60 = 130 bpm. Under Karvonen each zone starts from the resting rate, so warm-up and recovery runs from 60 + 0.50 × 130 = 125 to 60 + 0.60 × 130 = 138 bpm, aerobic base 138–151, tempo 151–164, threshold 164–177 and VO2 max 177–190 bpm. The percentage method ignores the resting rate and gives 95–114, 114–133, 133–152, 152–171 and 171–190 bpm for the same age: the two agree only at the top of the last zone, which is why the method you pick changes the training numbers.
Real-World Usage
Runners, cyclists and swimmers use these zones to decide how hard an easy day should feel and to keep interval sessions at the intensity the session is meant to train. Gyms print the same bands beside the cardio machines. A resting heart rate is worth entering if you measure it: Karvonen then scales every zone to your own heart, which separates two people of the same age whose resting rates differ by 20 bpm. Physiotherapists and cardiac rehabilitation teams use the reserve method the same way, and the American College of Sports Medicine prescribes exercise intensity from the reserve rather than from the maximum.
Local Context
Maximum heart rate depends on age and on your own physiology, not on your country: no national body publishes a different set of zones, and the formulas on this page were fitted on mixed populations and are used everywhere. What does differ locally is how intensity is prescribed. European and Australian training plans usually express zones as percentages of a maximum or of a reserve, while American guidance, including the American College of Sports Medicine's, tends to give a target range as 50 to 85 % of the heart-rate reserve. Some coaches and many rehabilitation programmes work from perceived exertion on the 6–20 Borg scale instead, which is useful in heat or at altitude where the pulse runs higher for the same effort.
The Five Zones and What They Train
The five bands are the conventional ones: 50–60 % of the anchor is warm-up and recovery, 60–70 % is the aerobic base, 70–80 % is tempo, 80–90 % is threshold and 90–100 % is VO2 max and anaerobic work. The table above pairs each band with what it is for, and the result table on this page gives the same five bands in beats per minute. Read them as a schedule rather than a scoreboard: the lower two bands are where most training hours go, the middle two are what raise the ceiling, and the top band is a small dose of short, hard work.
Percentage of HRmax or Heart-Rate Reserve?
Two methods produce these five bands, and they answer slightly different questions. The percentage method multiplies your estimated maximum heart rate by the band percentage: it needs one input, your age, and it returns the same zones for everyone of that age. Karvonen's method works from the heart-rate reserve — HRmax minus your resting heart rate — and adds the resting rate back, so the zone percentages apply to the range your heart actually moves through in training. If you know your resting heart rate, the reserve method is the better description of your own effort; when the resting rate is missing or is not below the estimate, this page falls back to the percentage method and says so.
Why the Boundaries Are Estimates
Both layers here are estimates. The maximum heart rate comes from an age formula with a spread of roughly 10 to 12 bpm for two thirds of adults, and the zone boundaries are conventional round percentages that no two governing bodies apply identically — a band that starts at 70 % here starts at 69 % or 71 % elsewhere. Day to day your heart rate also moves with heat, altitude, hydration, caffeine, illness, medication and how rested you are, so treat a reading a few beats outside a band as noise rather than a verdict on the session. A laboratory or field test that measures your maximum and your threshold is the only way to replace the estimate with your own numbers.
Resting Heart Rate and the Reserve
Resting heart rate is your pulse at complete rest, best taken in bed before you get up; for most adults it falls between 60 and 100 bpm and trained endurance athletes are often in the 40s and 50s. It is the input that makes the Karvonen method personal: with an HRmax of 190, a resting rate of 60 gives a reserve of 130 bpm and a 60–70 % aerobic band of 138–151 bpm, while a resting rate of 45 gives a reserve of 145 bpm and the same band at 132–147 bpm. A rising resting pulse over several days is one of the usual signs that you have not recovered from the training you have already done.
Sources and Methodology
Haskell WL, Fox SM. 'Cardiovascular responses during static exercise and their relationship to maximum heart rate', 1971 — the origin of 220 − age. Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. 'Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited.' Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2001 — 208 − 0.7 × age. Nes BM, Janszky I, Wisløff U, Støylen A, Karlsen T. 'Age-predicted maximal heart rate in healthy subjects: the HUNT fitness study.' Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 2013 — 211 − 0.64 × age. Karvonen MJ, Kentala E, Mustala O. 'The effects of training on heart rate: a longitudinal study.' Annales Medicinae Experimentalis et Biologiae Fenniae, 1957 — the heart-rate-reserve method. American College of Sports Medicine. 'ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription' — the 50–85 % of reserve band and the percentage-of-HRmax bands cited here.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
This page estimates a maximum heart rate from a formula and derives training zones from that estimate. It is not a medical measurement, and it does not diagnose or treat any condition: for most people a measured maximum heart rate differs from the estimate. Do not start an exercise programme from these zones if you have a heart condition, uncontrolled blood pressure or symptoms on exertion — speak to a doctor first, and stop and seek medical advice for chest pain, unusual breathlessness or dizziness.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate is 220 minus my age?
It is a population average, not a prediction about you. Haskell and Fox published it in 1971, and for about two thirds of adults a measured maximum heart rate differs from it by roughly 10 to 12 bpm in either direction. The Tanaka (2001) and Nes (2013) formulas offered here were fitted later on larger samples and read slightly lower above the age of 40, but they carry a similar spread.
What is the difference between the percentage method and Karvonen?
The percentage method multiplies your estimated maximum heart rate by the zone percentage, so two people of the same age get identical zones however they train. The Karvonen method multiplies the heart-rate reserve instead — the difference between your maximum and your resting heart rate — and adds the resting rate back, so a lower resting pulse shifts every zone down and the same effort lands at fewer beats.
Which zone should I train in?
Most of a week's training belongs in the first two zones: they are easy enough to repeat daily and they build the aerobic base everything else sits on. Tempo and threshold sessions are what raise that ceiling, and they are usually limited to one or two a week with an easy day between them. Zone five is for short intervals. The bands describe the intensity a session is meant to have, not how long you can hold it.
What is a normal resting heart rate, and how do I measure it?
For most adults at rest it sits between 60 and 100 bpm, while trained endurance athletes are often in the 40s and 50s. Measure it before you get out of bed, taking your pulse for a full minute, and use the same conditions each time. Do not enter a number taken straight after exercise or a coffee, and see a doctor rather than a calculator if your resting pulse is persistently under 50 or over 100.
Do I need a heart-rate monitor to use the zones?
No. Each zone is a range of beats per minute, so you can take your pulse by hand for ten seconds and multiply by six to see which one you are in. A chest strap or an optical wrist sensor follows it continuously, which matters more for intervals and threshold work where the intensity changes inside a session. Wear the sensor as its maker describes: a loose strap reads low and a watch over the wrist bone reads high.