Predicted Maximum Heart Rate Calculation

Often people who are involved in an exercise program or about to begin one are interested in their resting heart rates, target heart rates, and how to make a predicted maximum heart rate calculation. This is an important aspect of exercise and also one that can be used to give some indication of your improving fitness.

To calculate your resting heart rate, it is best to measure this before you get out of bed in the morning so that you have done no physical exercise. You will need a clock or stop watch and be able to locate your pulse. There is a very wide variation between people in resting heart rate which will be affected by fitness levels and genetics. Often the resting heart rate will go up with age. 

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The most common place has been either on your wrist, on the thumb side (radial artery), or on your neck, just under your jaw (carotid artery). Make sure you do not use your thumb to measure this as it has a pulse of its own and may make counting difficult. For most accurate results you can measure for a full minute, but you won’t be much different by measuring for 30 seconds and doubling it. So this is your resting heart rate.

The predicted maximum heart rate calculation is used as a measure of how many times your heart can contract in one minute, this is then used as a starting point to estimate what your target heart rate should be.

The most precise way of getting the data for a predicted maximum heart rate calculation is by using a cardiac stress test. These need to be undertaken under supervision of doctors because they involve stressing the heart until some changes are noted.

 For practical purposes there are various formulae used to estimate the figures for a predicted maximum heart rate calculation based on age, and also bearing in mind that are major variations between individuals.Probably one of the most common used (and there is often a chart on the gym wall), is as follows:-           

                                          At age 30       At age 55

           Maximum Heart Rate = 220 minus your age                  

                                  190                 165

Another acceptable formula is :-

Maximum Heart Rate = 205.8 minus (0.685 × age)      

                                                                           185                  168

This test gives a narrower range, and gives a higher heart rate for an older age.

 There is significant variation in individuals even with the same age, fitness level (e.g. on the same team), so it can not really be used to compare the fitness levels of different sportspersons.

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