Predicted Maximum Heart Rate Calculation
Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009
by Ralph Pedersen
http://www.lose-belly-now.com
Before beginning an exercise program it is a good idea to check out your resting heart rate, target heart rate for your age, and a predicted maximum heart rate. In order to measure progress it is good to get a start point. It also gives a target to reach in each exercise session.
Calculation of resting heart rate is best done before getting out of bed and you are still horizontal. This is the minimum heart rate that you are likely to reach. A stop watch or clock can be used to measure the pulse rate. This is better taken over a minute for more accuracy but some people take it for 6 seconds and then multiply by 10 to get the number of beats per minute.
People most often have found that taking the heart rate is easiest on the wrist. Take the radial artery heart beat on the side of your hand on which your thumb is located. Use your fingers as you may get confused with a beat in your thumb which will make a count difficult. Another option often seen on TV programs is to take the pulse under the jaw on the carotid artery on the side of the neck
Having established your resting heart rate the next measure is the the predicted maximum heart rate calculation. The beats per minute is determined using this method. The target maximum heart rate is then calculated.
A cardiac stress test is the recommended approach to get data for the predicted maximum heart rate calculation. Supervision by a doctor is really required for the test which won't suit everyone. The maximum heart rate can be determined by a doctor who looks for changes that occur when the heart is stressed. These tests are often done for top athletes and less often for the ordinary fitness enthusiast.
A more common approach is to apply a formula to estimate the predicted maximum heart rate based on the age of the person. These formulae have been calculated by researchers using the cardiac stress test. It should be understood that significant variances can occur between individuals.
You will often have seen a chart on the wall at the gym, and sometimes it is on the powered exercise machines that gives a guide along the following lines:-
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
The second test gives a somewhat narrower range, and also allows a higher heart rate at an older age.
As discussed there is a substantial disparity between individuals even if they are the same age and fitness level. As a point of interest this has been tested on members of the same team who have undergone the same training regime and are close to the same age. So these methods cannot really be used as a comparison of the fitness levels of different sportspeople.
For lots more information on weight loss and fitness check out the link below:-
http://www.lose-belly-now.com/predicted-maximum-heart-rate-calculation.php
This Article has been viewed 88 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Great article Ralph. Thank you for writing an informative and insightful piece. Welcome to Searchwarp. Best of luck to you. ~Nenita~Thanks Nenita, I see that you are a very active participant in this forum
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.