New way to calcuate max. HR

[emily_in_nc]

This formula only made 2 bpm difference in mine (age 46), but I found this article interesting:

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine
July 15, 2007

Rethinking the Maximum Heart Rate Formula

For more than forty years, fitness instructors have based exercise prescriptions on the maximum heart rate formula of 220 minus your age. A study from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan shows that this formula may be wrong (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, May 2007). The researchers found that the original formula overestimated the maximum heart rate for younger exercisers and underestimated the maximum rate for older ones. The new formula they recommend is 206.9 - (age x .67) = maximum heart rate.

Athletes train by taking a hard workout on one day, feeling sore on the next day, and then going easy for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. Then they take another hard workout and repeat the cycle. Most exercise physiologists and coaches tell their conditioned athletes to raise their heart rates to 80 to 100 percent of their maximum when they take a hard
workout. For people who exercise for fitness, a hard workout usually means exercising at 60 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate. However, the maximum heart rate formulas are set by averages of large populations. Your own maximum heart rate is determined by your fitness level as well as your age. Your legs drive your heart, not the other way around. When you start to
exercise, your leg muscles contract and squeeze blood from your veins near them. Then when your leg muscles relax, your veins open and fill with blood. This alternate contacting and relaxing of muscles pushes extra blood toward your heart. The increased return of blood to your heart speeds up your heart. People with stronger muscles pump more blood towards their hearts and therefore can get a faster heart rate.

Since there is huge variation between individuals ranging from competitive athletes to novice exercisers, you would be better off setting your workout level by "perceived exertion", rather than by any formula based on averages. "Perceived exertion" means that your brain interprets how hard your are exercising, and you can respond to these signals. As you exercise more
intensely, you become short of breath and your muscles start to burn and hurt. You can interpret your own effort and discomfort levels to decide how hard you should work on a hard day or an easy day. People who are just starting an exercise program or who do not exercise regularly should use much lower levels of effort. They should never try to get to their maximum heart rates because they are the ones most likely to suffer heart attacks during exercise. Start any new exercise program slowly and build up your level of fitness gradually.

Copyright 2007 The Sportsmedicine Institute, Inc.
www.drmirkin.com

[koala]

Thanks for this one. I have been hearing about re-thinking the HR max calc. I have been using his training method of work hard, ride sore & then ride easy for some time now. The results are that I am riding stronger & faster.

[alpinerabbit]

Using this formula, I get to 184. I know my max is 193 or thereabouts.

so much for that one - the 220-age (same result) is no more accurate for me.

[Tri Girl]

Interesting, but I'm the same as Alpine. I know my max is far above the 184 that formula has me at. Why, oh, why can't there be a perfect formula?

[LBTC]

Why, oh, why can't there be a perfect formula?

Because for every complex problem there is an fast, easy, cheap, solution that's wrong.

Hugs & butterflies,
~T~

[HappyAnika]

I'm similar to Alpine, this formula gives me 186, I can get to 187 doing sprint intervals (running) and not feel like I'm going to die. I think my max is somewhere around 193 or 194.

[GLC1968]

That formula gave me 180.8. 220-age is 181. Not much difference there!

But I like to be the loan dissenter - it's damn close to correct for me. My max was figured to be about 180 in a live test using a treadmill.

[Jiffer]

As for the "220 - age" method, I have read on several sites that 220 is for men, but women should use 226. This makes more sense for me and probably a lot of you who say your max is higher than the calculations tell you.

[newfsmith]

Doesn't make much difference for me; 166.7 by the new formula, 166 by the old female formula. My heart rate monitor quit working last year, but my average commute HR then was 180.

[Mr. Bloom]

Thanks for posting this...this is particularly interesting to me right now. Of course, like everyone else, this gives me a close, but lower, number...and one that I'm consistently exceeding.

Like LBTC says...fast and cheap...hmmm...but I think it's intriguing to be challenged by the concepts...