Different heart rates during exercise produce different results. Exercise professionals and health experts recommend certain heart rates for specific purposes, such as fat burning, improving cardiovascular strength or training for sport-specific activities. Learning how to calculate your Target Heart Rate (THR) for these varying levels of exercise will help you achieve the heart rate that's right for your goals.
Heart Rates
To calculate your THR for a particular exercise, you'll first need to determine your Maximum Heart Rate. There are several formulas for doing this, with the most common for adults being your age subtracted from 220. Exercising at different percentages of your MHR will cause you to use different energy systems, which use varying levels of fat, carbohydrates and oxygen to fuel your work.
Warmup THR
Exercising at 50 to 60 percent of MHR helps you begin warming up for exercise. If you are a 40-year-old, your MHR would be 220 - 40 = 180. Your warmup THR would be 90 - 108 beats per minute. This level of activity burns the fewest amounts of calories of any exercise level, with approximately 85 percent of calories burned coming from fat.
Fitness THR
Exercising at 60 to 70 percent of MHR burns more calories than the warmup level of exercise, with fat-burning still the primary source of fuel for the muscles. For those who are just beginning an exercise routine and haven't yet built up cardiovascular strength that will allow them to work for 20 to 30 minutes non-stop, the fitness THR may be the best option for exercise.
Aerobic THR
With aerobic exercise, you burn more calories, with roughly 50 percent of those calories coming from fat. Your THR is 70 to 80 percent of MHR at this level. Organizations like the Mayo Clinic recommend regular aerobic exercise to help lower cholesterol levels, while the American Heart Association recommends at least 20 minutes of aerobic activity, three times per week, or 30 minutes of exercise at a fitness THR, five times per week, for adult heart health.
Anaerobic THR
Anaerobic exercise burns more calories than aerobic exercise, if done for the same amount of time. However, anaerobic exercise is more intense, done at 80 to 90 percent of your MHR, and is done in short bursts, with frequent breaks. During those breaks, you'll still be burning calories, with 85 percent coming from glycogen (how your body stores carbs).
Red Line THR
Elite athletes who want to mirror the conditions of their sport may train at 90 to 100 percent of their MHR, just as they will move during their competitions. This level of heart rate should only be tried during training with the advice of a doctor or exercise professional.
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