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The 220-minus-age formula is a population average; true max varies by 10 or more either way. Anyone with a heart condition or on heart medication (such as beta blockers, which lower heart rate) should get zones from their doctor. General information, not medical advice.
What The Heart Rate Zone Calculator Works Out
- Estimated max heart rate: 220 minus your age by default, the classic population average. A 30-year-old gets 190 bpm, but true maximums vary by 10 or more either way, so treat it as a starting point.
- Moderate zone (NHS target): 50% to 70% of max, roughly 95 to 133 bpm for a 30-year-old. This is the intensity behind the NHS advice of 150 minutes of moderate activity a week: you can talk but not sing.
- Five-zone table: splits effort from easy warm-up work to flat-out sprinting. The counterintuitive lesson from endurance sport is that easy matters most: often 80% of effective aerobic training happens in zones 1 and 2, with hard zone 4 and 5 work used sparingly. Beginners tend to drift into zone 3 on every run, which is more tiring than zone 2 without the sharpening effect of genuine intensity.
- Max heart rate formula (advanced): the Tanaka (208 - 0.7 x age), Gellish (207 - 0.7 x age) and Nes (211 - 0.64 x age) formulas were fitted to larger modern samples and give a higher max than 220 minus age for anyone over about 40. The comparison card shows all three.
- Measured max heart rate (advanced): if a watch or a supervised test has recorded your real maximum, enter it and every zone is built from that instead of a formula. Watches that estimate max from your actual data are generally better than any age formula.
- Resting heart rate and Karvonen method (advanced): resting pulse, best taken on waking, is typically 60 to 80 bpm and lower in the very fit. The Karvonen method sets each zone as a percentage of your heart rate reserve (max minus resting) added back to resting, which gives fitter people more realistic, higher zones.
- Vigorous zone (advanced): 70% to 85% of max, the NHS "vigorous" band where 75 minutes a week is the equivalent of 150 moderate minutes.
- Your recent workout (advanced): enter an average heart rate from a run or ride and the calculator places it in a zone and as a percentage of max, a quick check on whether your "easy" runs really are easy.
- Caveats: practical alternatives to numbers include the talk test and perceived effort, which the advanced table lists per zone. If you experience chest pain, unusual breathlessness or palpitations while exercising, stop and seek medical advice; anyone on heart medication such as beta blockers should ignore generic zones in favour of their doctor's numbers. General information, not medical advice.
Source and further reading: NHS: exercise guidelines.