Your body has no better indicator of exercise intensity than your heart rate. As you perform aerobic exercises,such as walking, running or cycling, your heart rate increases to keep up with your body's need for oxygen-filled blood. The increased blood flow rate brings fuel and oxygen to your working muscles so you are able to continue your workout. The rate at which your heart should beats depends on your age, the type of exercise you are performing and your fitness goals.
Target Heart Rate
The number of beats your heart should pump during exercise is calculated with a formula. The American Heart Association recommends subtracting your age from 220 to determine your maximum heart rate, or MHR. Your MHR is multiplied by a percentage that correlates with your exercise intensity. This percentage is usually between 50 and 80 percent.
Healthy Heart
When you exercise at 50 to 60 percent of your MHR, you are gaining a healthy heart. The IDEA Health and Fitness Association says at this level, you are improving your blood pressure and cholesterol and also reducing stress to aid your emotional health. To determine your healthy heart rate range, multiply your MHR by 0.50 and 0.60.
Temperate
If your exercise goal is to burn calories and lose weight, IDEA recommends exercising at 60 to 70 percent of your MHR. Your heart rate is slightly increased at this level, and your sweat rate also increases. You should be able to carry on a conversation while you are walking, biking, cycling or swimming. Multiply your MHR by 0.60 and 0.70 to determine your moderate heart rate range.
Aerobic
To improve your endurance and cardiovascular health and to burn a higher number of calories, increase your exercise intensity to 70 to 80 percent of your MHR. Increase the speed of your workout and maintain this pace for 20 to 30 minutes to enhance your endurance. Multiply your MHR by 0.70 and 0.80 to determine your aerobic heart rate range.
Threshold
The next heart rate range, 80 to 90 percent of your MHR, is your exercise threshold. Use this training range to overcome exercise plateaus or to increase your speed for endurance. If you can't maintain a continuous heart rate at this level, exercise in intervals. For example, spend 3 minutes at your threshold heart rate, then slow your pace to aerobic or moderate. Multiply your MHR by 0.80 and 0.90 to determine your exercise threshold.
Red-Line
When you exercise at or within 10 percent of your MHR, you are working at an extremely high intensity level. If your goals are speed, this is the exercise heart rate range for you. Athletes are able to sustain this pace for a short amount of time. If you are new to fitness, never maintain your redline level without your doctor's approval. Multiply your MHR by 0.90 to determine your redline workout heart rate.
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