Anytime you work out, you need to strike a balance: You want to work hard enough to do some good, but not so hard that you risk injury or tire too quickly. For many kinds of exercise, your heart rate is a good measure of how hard your body is working. A desirable heart rate for exercise varies depending on your age, gender, level of physical fitness and your exercise goals. Discuss your fitness regimen and appropriate target heart rate range with your doctor.
Function
Monitoring your heart rate is mainly useful for aerobic exercise. Aerobic, or cardiovascular, exercise means sustained activity over a period of several minutes or longer. Running, swimming and cycling are examples of aerobic exercise. Your heart rate increases as you expend greater effort, making heart rate a useful guide to exercise intensity. The Cleveland Clinic notes that a desirable heart rate for exercise is 50 to 85 percent of our maximum heart rate. You should get at least 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each week over the course of several sessions.
Target Heart Rate
A desirable heart rate for exercise is expressed as a target heart rate. In turn, target heart rate is stated as a percentage of your maximum heart rate. You can approximate your MHR in beats per minute by subtracting your age from 226 for women or 220 for men. Suppose you are female and 36 years old. Your maximum heart rate equals 226 minus 36, or 190. If you want a target heart rate of 60 percent of MHR, multiply 190 by .6 to get 114.
Getting in Shape
People who are starting an exercise program should take it easy at first; a target heart rate of 50 percent of your maximum is about right. After a few weeks, start increasing your exercise intensity until you are working out with a heart rate of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum. This is an appropriate range for good physical conditioning. It's also effective if you want to lose extra pounds or maintain your weight. As you progress toward greater physical fitness, continue to use 50 percent of MHR as a guide for warming up prior to your main workout sessions.
Advanced
After a few months you may want to further improve your stamina and overall fitness level. You can do this by moving up to a heart rate that is 70 to 80 percent of your maximum. This is the range at which people who compete in long-distance road races typically train. It will increase your endurance and help you achieve an excellent level of physical conditioning. Once you move beyond 80 percent of your MHR, you start to enter the anaerobic zone. At this point you are using oxygen faster than your lungs can replace it. Consequently, you can train at this intensity only in short bursts, followed by a recovery period. This is a level of exercise intensity appropriate for athletes and increases speed and stamina. However, you should be in good shape before attempting exercise that is this strenuous.
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