Heart Rate Training Zones

To perform exercises effectively, you need to monitor your heart rate when exercising, as each heart rate zone will mean different exercise effects.

Below are a list of heart zones for different exercising effects. Before you go on to explore the different zones to decide on your needs, you'll need to understand what is maximum heart rate.

When we talk about maximum heart rate (MHR), we are talking about the highest number of times your heart can contract in one minute, beyond which, heart failure will occur. In order to find out this number, you are of course, not required to push yourself to the point of heart failure, there is an easier way to find out about that, which is by using this formula: 220 - Age.

For example, given that I'm 25 years old, my MHR will be 220-25=195 beats per minute.

1. Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --> 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate:

This is the easiest zone and probably the least tedious zone. Most suitable for people just starting on their exercise regime. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers.

This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!

2. Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --> 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate:

This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more calories. The percent of fat calories burnt is still 85%, but is a necessary zone to pass through in order to do a gradual improvement to the next zone.

3. Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --> 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate:

The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart, which will in turn improve the respiratory process, making your fat-burning capacity more efficient! Also, this is the zone whereby mitochondrias are increased and enlarged to increase your metabolism. But due to the intensity of the workout, only 50% of the burnt calories are fats, but of course, the amount of calories burnt is much more than when you work out at 60%, so the ultimate value of fat burnt is still about the same, with greater benefit of increase mitochondria.... definitely worth the effort for weight-losing!

4. Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --> 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate:

Benefits of this zone include an improved stamina and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, also that your endurance will improve and you'll be able to last longer in higher intensed exercises like e.g. sprint for a longer period of time. This is a high intensity zone burning even more calories, but our of which only 15 % is from fat. But of course, it has the same effect of increasing and enlarging your mitochondrias which will in turn increase your metabolism.

5. Red Line (Maximum Effort) --> 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate:

Although this zone burns the highest amount of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so. Bearing in mind that the MHR is only a rough guide, for the fitter folks, it doesn't mean that upon reaching this zone, you'll conk out and die, for the less-fit folks, even before you reach this zone, you might have already conked out... so... do watch your body and listen to the cues yea... stop when necessary, it's not worth losing your life over a few kilos!

Calculate Maximal Heart Rate

To perform exercises effectively, you need to monitor your heart rate when exercising, as each heart rate zone will meant different exercise effects and each zones contributes differently to the increase in metabolism.

For example,
Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate (MHR)
Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of MHR
Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of MHR
Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of MHR
Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of MHR

(For details of what each heart rate zone, click here.)

So how do we calculate the MHR? No worries, as long as you have passed Primary 3 maths, you can do this without much problem.

Let's say we wanna increase our mitochondria, we need to exercise at the Anaerobic Zone of 80% of MHR, and assuming you are 25 years old.

Step 1: Subtract your age from 220 to find out your maximum heart rate
MHR --> 220-25 = 195 beats per minute

Step 2: Multiply your MHR by 80%
195 x 80% = 156 beats per minute

Viola! You should maintain the intensity of exercise once you reach your desired HR.

You can check your heart rate during a workout, but first slow down the pace a little so you can concentrate more. Gently place your index and middle finger on the inner part of your wrist. Now count how many beats in 10 seconds, then multiply the number by 6. Of course, there are effective electronic instruments around which can purchase to make this easier for you, like a watch that measures heart rate, but that's entirely up to you.

What is mitochondria?

Basically, mitochondria are the energy factories of our body cells. They are responsible for producing the fuel needed for all of our bodily activities. These fuels are produced, using the food that we eat, as the raw materials. So naturally, the more of them, the better our body can metabolise fat.

Cells with high energy needs often contain more mitochondria, therefore, exercising will help increase this need for energy thus raising the numbers. However, not all kinds of exercise will work for raising the metabolism efficiently enough to lose weight quickly.

The best way to increase the number and size of the mitochondrial mass is to exercise at around 80% of maximum heart rate (MHR) for at least 15 minutes. The changes occur within the exercised muscle cells and may happen within a few weeks if the workout schedule of at least 3 times a week is adhered to. *A word of caution though that not all abled persons are able to exercise at 80% of MHR for 15min, some unfit ones may find this hard to maintain and passing out is a probable response. To give you a feel of what 80% of MHR is like, imagine sprinting up a flight of 50 steps at your best possible timing, to effectively increase the number and size of the mitochondrial mass, do that for 15min.... panting hard already??

It is thus vital to raise the HR gradually over the course of 2 weeks or more, NO ONE should be exercising at 80% of MHR within the first few workouts, it will only reduce the ability for cells to develop at later stages. It is recommended to start off at around 40% of MHR increase it by 10% at each workout as deem fit.

Some of the recommended activities to help raise the heart rate to 80% of maximum are swimming and rowing as both require the use of the major muscle groups (the limbs). This places a greater demand on energy production to raise calorie expenditure making it easier to reach a higher level of one’s target heart rate. Also the more muscles involved in the activity, the more mitochondria involved in the adaptation process. There are other good exercises that raise the heart rate however some, such as running, tend to be traumatic to joints like the knees, ankles and hips.

To calculate your MHR, check out the formula here.