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Heart rate training zones

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Find your age for the five training zones in beats per minute. Max heart rate is the Tanaka estimate (208 − 0.7 × age); each zone is a share of it.

Zones by age

Age	Max HR	Zone 1 50–60%	Zone 2 60–70%	Zone 3 70–80%	Zone 4 80–90%	Zone 5 90–100%
20	194	97–116	116–135	135–155	155–174	174–194
25	190	95–114	114–133	133–152	152–171	171–190
30	187	93–112	112–130	130–149	149–168	168–187
35	183	91–109	109–128	128–146	146–164	164–183
40	180	90–108	108–126	126–144	144–162	162–180
45	176	88–105	105–123	123–140	140–158	158–176
50	173	86–103	103–121	121–138	138–155	155–173
55	169	84–101	101–118	118–135	135–152	152–169
60	166	83–99	99–116	116–132	132–149	149–166
65	162	81–97	97–113	113–129	129–145	145–162
70	159	79–95	95–111	111–127	127–143	143–159
75	155	77–93	93–108	108–124	124–139	139–155

What each zone feels like

Zone	Feels like	What it trains
1 · Recovery	Very easy; nasal breathing	Active recovery, warm-ups
2 · Endurance	Conversational, all-day pace	Aerobic base, fat oxidation
3 · Tempo	Short sentences only	Aerobic power, muscular endurance
4 · Threshold	A few words at a time	Lactate threshold, race pace
5 · Max effort	Unsustainable; can't talk	VO₂ max, sprint power

Your zones

Name

Max HRbpm

Resting HRbpm

Zone 1– bpm

Zone 2– bpm

Zone 3– bpm

Zone 4– bpm

Zone 5– bpm

Most weekly minutes belong in Zone 2: 3–4 sessions of 30–60 minutes is a good start, in line with the 150-minutes-a-week guideline.
Know your resting heart rate? The free calculator at cohesionbrew.com/apps/vitalscalc/guides/heart-rate-zones.html fits the zones to it (Karvonen method), as the VitalsCalc app does.

Prepared by Eric Adriaansen, ACSM-CPT, Precision Nutrition Level 1 · Max HR per Tanaka et al., J Am Coll Cardiol 2001 · Estimates for healthy adults, not medical advice. cohesionbrew.com/apps/vitalscalc