Hi there can anyone explain to me how to work out my maximum heart rate and to what percentage of the MHR its safe to workout or is max ok

[allanoak]

Hi there can anyone explain to me how to work out my maximum heart rate and to what percentage of the MHR its safe to workout at or is it safe to go to the max.

Cheers Al

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

You can't work out your maximum heart rate, you have to measure it, or to be on the safe side have it measured by a suitably qualified medical professional. This is potentially risky so I will leave you to investigate further.

The commonly used formula (there are several others) is 220 BPM minus your age, which is based on averages for the general population. You may not be average.

When I was 60 I could run for over an hour with my heart rate in the mid 150s, when my max, based on the above formula, should have been 160 and felt absolutely fine during and after those runs. From that I have deduced that my true max was considerably higher and I suspect nearer to 180 BPM.

I have never bothered establishing my actual maximum heart rate and while it can be a useful metric, without the actual maximum, everything is pretty much guess work.

You could run at the recommended easy conversational pace and see what your rate is and use that as a gauge. That pace should equate to something like 75% of your max hr.

If you run at actual max hr for anything more than a few minutes you are quite likely to feel ill as a consequence and this is potentially dangerous, so I am not going to advise you to do it.

If you are going to pay attention to heart rate as part of your training, I would advise you to read and research as much as you can and be prepared for contradictory advice.

[SpanishShuffle Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Good answer 👍

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

As someone who is in marathon training currently but who dips his toe into this C25K forum, I have to ask....

... why?

If you Google a bit, you can find out how to establish it... but.....

... why?

[MarkyD Graduate]

Let's get the facts established. "Maximum heart rate" is not the maximum heart rate that your body is capable of. MHR is the anticipated heart rate when your body is operating at the upper band of exertion. If you participate in an incrementing-exertion fitness test (start walking, break into a jog, jog, run, sprint - say over a 12 minute test) then your heart-rate at the end is your "max heart rate". It is basically your heart rate at which exhaustion is going to happen. It is an indication of your cardiovascular health, and can improve with training.

You can book a fitness assessment with clinics - I had one with BUPA a few weeks ago - and they'll measure your heart-rate with a chest-strap, and your V02max whilst you're on a treadmill or an exercise bike (you'll wear a mouthpiece that will measure your lung capacity, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide exhalation). You'll also learn your aerobic threshold and possibly your lactate threshold. All the numbers are pretty pointless for us amateur athletes, but maybe a good baseline if you are serious about improving your fitness. Actually, aerobic threshold is a useful number as it gives the heart-rate below which the body is burning fat.

It is not recommended that you measure your own MHR (and you cannot measure V02max without the equipment) as this test should be supervised by someone medically trained. Instead, Firstbeat have a patent for calculating V02max based on heart-rate data collected by a GPS-based running watch (eg Garmin ForeRunner 620). From V02max the heart-rate ratio method can be used to estimate max heart rate, but the dataset for the calculation was collected on male athletes in range 20-50 years old and may not apply to all of the population.

Sorry, rambling a bit.

You can run at or above your max heart rate unless it has been scientifically measured (at a clinic). The estimation MHR = (220-age) you can take with a pinch of salt. But for building stamina, endurance and burning fat you'll need to be running below your aerobic threshold (with might be 70% of your MHR but will need to be measured).

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

By the way, welcome to the forum.

If you are doing C25K, then you may find this guide to the plan helpful healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

[SpanishShuffle Graduate]

Good answer from IT.

Please be aware some medications and even things like caffine/alcohol can affect HR.

Rate of Perceived Exertion is an alternative way to monitor your workouts.

GP route is best for both HR and RPE advice.

Hope this helps.

[Time_to_run Graduate]

I wear a Fitbit that measures my resting heart rate and also tracks when I enter different zones like FatBurning, Cardio & Peak. I have noticed through just doing the C25k that my resting heart rate has reduced. The Fitbit also assesses your cardio fitness and scores you based on averages. I find for me that this information is sufficient enough for monitoring C25k progress.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Just run..slow and steady...at a happy pace..and enjoy... IannodaTruffe has said it all..😉

[allanoak]

Thnx to all who responded