The best person to ask is your GP or cardiologist. They would know the details of your heart such as blockages and EF. . Mine was set lower than your formula suggests.
As MichaelJH has stated it is based on what condition your heart is { stable with medication } mine is also set a lot lower than your formula due to the damage of my heart.
It really depends on a lot of factors that only your Dr { good luck there } or better still your Cardiology Dept who will have all your heart function results and what to base your heart rate at, { presume you are after an exercise rate }
Others will be along soon that understand the formula better than I.
Doing re-hab I had to sit out a lot because my rate was so low and it took very little effort to get to my heart rate limit.
I wish that they explained this to others as it became embarrassing when 90 year olds where completing the routines that I had to sit out on.
I think there are too many variables to give an exact number/calculation. Dose? What as your max hr before? What was your pre bb RHR? what is your RHR now? And of course age as you mention and obviously diagnosis or the reason you have to take bb's.
Personally when I was at 10mg Bisop I couldn't get mine above about 90-95 bpm at age 49/50, now on 5mg I can get it 120-130 maybe a bit higher, prior to bb I could get to 175-180 on my bike and sustain that for a minute or so, my natural measurement is being out of breath, I don't have any CHD , I take it for arrhythmia. I personally try and keep my heart way under the max exertion zone ie. struggling to breathe , my bb equivalent of aerobic I guess. I would say that one should be able to have a conversation while exercising with no problems as a median rule of thumb and that should be safe.
However all said, I would speak to you GP/cardiologist to get an idea as we are all so different.
Thanks - I couldn't agree more... yes it all depends on individual variability... but my question still stands ... on what basis does the expert base his decision.. ? (Are there any sports cardiologists on the forum.?. ) In these days of "evidence based medicine" - I'm just wondering what the evidence shows...(Expert opinion is generally considered to be at the bottom of the hierarchy, in terms of quality of evidence) and if I ask my Cardiologist -" what is my safe maximum heart rate" - and he says ..." on no account must it go above 110.".. I'd like to know if he has just plucked that number out of the air.... . - or if it is based on science...
Thanks - that seems helpful and sensible... I think for all practical purposes I'll be using my "perceived exertion" to guide what I should be doing.... I'm curious though - I hadn't seen the 202 -(0.55 x age) formula before (just variations - as per my original post - and the answers are markedly different - which is my whole point) - do you have a reference for the formula you have quoted.... )
When I trained as a Personal Trainer and took a course on exercise referral, we were told that beta blockers meant that heart rate could no longer be used as a meaningful way to assess exertion. So what you are doing, using 'perceived exertion', assessing levels of fatigue, and talk tests (which are part of the perceived exertion scale), is precisely right.
Also, any age-based formulas for estimating maximum heart rate are of limited value and likely to be serious underestimates for older athletes who have trained regularly for years. Their main value is to be sure of safety, especially when working with people who have been relatively inactive for long periods. Beyond that, I don't think they need be taken seriously.
Hello Heartifact - Tremendous resource !!--- can't thank you enough for bringing it to my attention... exactly what I was looking for... lots of hard information - with references - and the "ready reckoner" calculators are really fun and useful ... Exactly the kind of helpful advice I was hoping to find when I joined the forum...
Thanks Prada I believe, though it may be apocryphal, that the "6-20" version of the scale was devised to reflect the approximate heart rates that corresponded with the level of exertion... (i.e multiply the Borg rating by 10) - obviously only applies to the young, fit and healthy at the higher levels......
I attended cardiac rehabilitation after my heart attack. They assessed me and came to the conclusion that my safe zone is 101-121 bpm whilst exercising. 2 years on and running 5k 3 times a week I regularly push myself beyond this 130-140. I now do what feels ok for me. I was told that as long as I can hold a conversation while jogging then it's fine. Everyone is different I guess. At first I was extremely paranoid of exceeding my safe zone.
almost 1 year on... when I exercise I push myself as hard as I possibly can ... I've no idea what my HR is.. it's "maximum perceived exertion" -- I'm not going to hold myself back.... Not saying it's right for everyone... - but to me it seems "normal" ....
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maximum heart rate at excersise 
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