Heart Rate Zone Calculator: Max Heart Rate and 5 Training Zones

What are your heart rate zones?

Your heart rate zones are five bands of your maximum heart rate, from 50 to 60% in zone 1 to 90 to 100% in zone 5. Enter your age above for your maximum and your zones in bpm.

Add your resting heart rate, measured in the morning before you get out of bed as the AHA suggests, for the Karvonen version, and a tested maximum if you have one. The moderate and vigorous bands are labelled as a share of your maximum, or of your heart rate reserve once you add a resting rate.

Maximum heart rate from Tanaka, Monahan and Seals (Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2001), with the AHA's 220 minus age beside it. The five zones follow the convention most training watches use, as set out by Polar.

The moderate and vigorous bands are the ACSM's (Garber and colleagues, 2011, as tabled by Evenson and Hesketh, 2021). All checked 7 November 2026. The result is an estimate for healthy adults, not medical advice.

How do you calculate your heart rate zones?

Estimate your maximum heart rate from your age, then take a share of it for each zone. Zone 2, for example, is 60 to 70% of your maximum. Every number on this page is worked out that way, with the maximum rounded to a whole beat first.

1. 01220 minus ageThe formula the AHA and HealthHub's intensity calculator use. At 35 it gives 185 bpm.
2. 02Tanaka, 208 minus 0.7 x ageAt 35, 208 minus 24.5 is 183.5, rounded to 184 bpm.
3. 03A zoneThe maximum times each end of the zone. Zone 2 at 35 is 184 x 0.6 and 184 x 0.7, or 110 to 129 bpm.
4. 04With a resting heart rate (Karvonen)Take your resting rate from your maximum, take the share of that, then add the resting rate back. At 35 with a resting rate of 60, zone 2 is 134 to 147 bpm.

The zones here use Tanaka. Tanaka's team pooled 351 studies with 18,712 people, then checked the result by measuring the maximum of 514 healthy adults in a lab, and got almost the same line (209 minus 0.7 x age).

The line was the same for men and women and for people with very different activity levels, and the authors concluded that 220 minus age underestimates maximum heart rate in older adults.

The HUNT fitness study of 3,320 Norwegian adults (2013) also found the older formulas underestimated the measured maximum above age 30. The two formulas meet at 40, where both give 180 bpm. Below 40 Tanaka gives a lower maximum (194 against 200 at 20), and above 40 a higher one (159 against 150 at 70).

What is your max heart rate by age?

About 220 minus your age, or 208 minus 0.7 times your age on Tanaka: 194 bpm at 20, 180 at 40 and 159 at 70. Pick your age below for your maximum on both formulas, your five zones and the ACSM's moderate and vigorous bands, all worked out from the Tanaka maximum. Use the age closest to yours, or the calculator for your exact age.

What is each heart rate zone for?

Zone 1 is for warming up and recovering, zone 2 for long easy sessions, zone 3 for steady work, and zones 4 and 5 for hard intervals. The descriptions follow Polar's zone guide. The last column shows where each zone sits on the ACSM's intensity bands, which decide whether the time counts toward the weekly guideline.

What is zone 1 heart rate?

Zone 1 is 50 to 60% of your maximum heart rate, 92 to 110 bpm for a 35-year-old with a Tanaka maximum of 184. It is very light, for warm-ups, cool-downs and recovery days. It runs from below light into the ACSM's light band at 57%, and never reaches moderate at 64%, so zone 1 minutes do not count toward Singapore's weekly 150 to 300 moderate minutes.

What is zone 2 heart rate?

Zone 2 is 60 to 70% of your maximum, 110 to 129 bpm at 35, or 134 to 147 bpm on Karvonen with a resting rate of 60. It is for long, easy sessions you can keep up for a long time.

From 64% of maximum it reaches the ACSM's moderate band, so the upper part of zone 2 counts toward the weekly guideline. At a moderate effort you can talk in phrases but not sing.

What is zone 3 heart rate?

Zone 3 is 70 to 80% of your maximum, 129 to 147 bpm at 35. It suits steady runs, rides and swims. On the ACSM's bands it is moderate up to 76% and vigorous from 77%, so every zone 3 minute counts toward the weekly guideline, and the top of the zone counts as vigorous.

What is zone 4 heart rate?

Zone 4 is 80 to 90% of your maximum, 147 to 166 bpm at 35. It is for tempo efforts and intervals, breathing heavily. The whole zone sits inside the ACSM's vigorous band of 77 to 95%, where you have difficulty talking. Add it once easier weeks in zones 2 and 3 feel comfortable, as the training section below sets out.

What is zone 5 heart rate?

Zone 5 is 90 to 100% of your maximum, 166 to 184 bpm at 35, for short, very hard efforts only. In Helgerud and colleagues' 2007 trial, four 4-minute bouts at 90 to 95% of maximum, with 3 minutes at 70% between them, three times a week for 8 weeks, raised VO2 max by 7.2%. More in our guide to VO2 max by age.

What is your target heart rate for moderate and vigorous exercise?

For moderate exercise, about 50 to 70% of your maximum on the AHA's chart or 64 to 76% on the ACSM's. Vigorous is about 70 to 85% on the AHA's and 77 to 95% on the ACSM's. HealthHub's intensity calculator, from Singapore's Health Promotion Board, uses 64 to 75% and 76 to 95%, close to the ACSM's.

These bands are what turn a heart rate into the national guideline. The Singapore Physical Activity Guidelines (HPB and SportSG, 2022) ask adults aged 18 to 64, and those 65 and over, for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week.

For adults they count every vigorous minute as almost two moderate ones, so about 75 to 150 vigorous minutes does a similar job. The ACSM sets the same floor: at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 of vigorous exercise a week. Adults should also strengthen their muscles on at least 2 days a week.

No monitor needed: the guidelines use a talk test. At a light intensity you can talk in full sentences and sing, at a moderate one you can talk in phrases or short sentences but not sing, and at a vigorous one you have difficulty talking.

Brisk walking to the MRT can count as moderate if it passes that test. HealthHub's calculator applies its percentages to 220 minus age, so under 40 its bpm run a few beats above ours and over 40 a few below.

How does resting heart rate change your zones?

It raises them, most of all in the lower zones. The Karvonen method, from Karvonen and colleagues' 1957 study, works on your heart rate reserve: your maximum minus your resting rate. Target heart rate = (maximum minus resting) x the percentage, plus resting, as Evenson and Hesketh set it out.

They note the ACSM recommends heart rate reserve over a straight percentage of maximum. Because part of your resting rate is added back, the Karvonen zones always sit above the plain ones: at 35 with a resting rate of 60, zone 1 starts 30 beats higher, and the gap closes to nothing at 100%.

Measure your resting rate in the morning, after a good night's sleep and before you get out of bed or have coffee, as the AHA advises. Count your pulse for 30 seconds and double it, or read it off a watch.

The AHA calls 60 to 100 bpm normal for most adults, and says athletes can sit as low as 40. A lower resting rate means a wider reserve, so each zone spans more beats.

What are the heart rate zones for a 35-year-old?

For a 35-year-old, maximum heart rate is 184 bpm on Tanaka (185 on 220 minus age) and zone 2 is 110 to 129 bpm. With a resting heart rate of 60, the heart rate reserve is 184 minus 60, or 124 beats, and the Karvonen zone 2 is 60 + 124 x 0.6 to 60 + 124 x 0.7, or 134 to 147 bpm. The calculator opens on this example.

For this 35-year-old, 30 minutes at 118 to 140 bpm (110 to 133 on Karvonen) on 5 days is 150 moderate minutes, the bottom of HPB's weekly range. Without a monitor, the talk test is the check: at a moderate pace they can talk in phrases or short sentences but not sing.

How accurate are max heart rate formulas and watches?

Formulas are right on average but can be well off for one person. Evenson and Hesketh put the standard error at 12 bpm for 220 minus age and 11 bpm for Tanaka, with about 95% of people within 24 and 22 bpm of the estimate.

The HUNT study found a standard error of 10.8 bpm. If your zones feel far too easy or too hard, a supervised maximal exercise test measures your real maximum instead of estimating it, and you can enter that figure in the calculator as your tested maximum.

Chest straps read heart rate more accurately than wrist watches. In a test of 50 adults against an ECG (Gillinov and colleagues, 2017), a Polar H7 chest strap agreed almost exactly, while the optical monitors on the wrist and forearm varied with the exercise: all but one did well on a treadmill, and none was accurate on an elliptical trainer with arm levers. The authors advise a chest strap when accuracy matters.

Who should not rely on heart rate zones?

Anyone whose heart rate does not follow the age formula. Use the talk test or how hard the effort feels instead, and ask your doctor for your own target, if any of these apply:

1. 01Beta blockers and other heart-rate medicinesBeta blockers lower the heart rate, and the AHA notes that some medicines give you a lower maximum and a lower target zone. Our guide to exercise with high blood pressure covers training on them.
2. 02A heart conditionThe AHA advises anyone with a heart condition or on medication to ask their doctor what their heart rate should be.
3. 03PregnancyResting heart rate rises through pregnancy, by an average of 16 bpm from before pregnancy to delivery in one study, so the zones on this page do not fit. Evenson and Hesketh report that perceived exertion may work better than heart rate, and the Singapore guidelines ask pregnant and postpartum women to avoid vigorous activity.
4. 04Under 18The formulas here were built on adults, so the calculator works from age 18.
5. 05Anyone far from the averageWith a standard error of 11 to 12 bpm, a fit 50-year-old may sit well above the formula and someone else well below it.

Stop and get medical help for chest pain, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or a racing or irregular heartbeat. In Singapore's heat, the guidelines advise avoiding the hottest hours, getting used to the heat first, pacing accordingly and taking more frequent breaks. If your heart rate climbs out of your zone on a hot run, slow down rather than push.

How do you train with heart rate zones in Singapore?

Spend most of your weekly minutes in zones 2 and 3, and add one harder session in zones 4 and 5 once that feels easy. Everything from 64% of maximum counts toward the guideline, which takes in the top of zone 2 and everything above it.

A run along a park connector, laps at an ActiveSG pool or a game of badminton can all do it. That split is our coaching approach, not an official rule.

Heart rate tells you how hard you are working, and pace tells you how fast. Use the running pace calculator to turn a target time into a pace per km, then check your heart rate at that pace. If the target is the IPPT 2.4km, the IPPT calculator shows what each time scores for your age group.

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