Have you ever been at the gym or in an exercise class and observed people working out with a heart rate monitor or watching someone check there pulse repeatedly? Are you curious what they were doing and why? Monitoring your heart rate is very important to help achieve great health and wellness and optimize your workout. I would like to take the mystery out of calculating your heart rate.

The importance of working out in your target heart rate zone is to maximize your work out. If your goal is to burn fat you will want to work out with your target heart rate of 50% to 60%. This is a slower longer work out. If your goal is to improve your cardio vascular fitness than your target heart rate should be 60% to 70% for your maximum heart rate (MHR).

Target Heart Rate

To calculate your target heart rate range the formula is very simple.

1) Calculate your approximate maximum heart rate (MHR): Start by subtracting your age from 220. Example 220-47(age) =173 (MHR of a person 47 year old).

2) To calculate your target Heart Rate (THR) range multiply the MHR (maximum heart rate) by 60% and then by 90%. Example 173 x 60%= 104 173 x 90%= 156.

So the Target Heart Range (THR) for a 47 year old is between 104 and 156 beats per minute. If you workout at your 50% to 60% target heart range this is a very easy workout but will still improve your fitness.

Working-out at the low training intensity the body chooses fat as fuel for the work out. This is the best workout for people who want to lose body fat. Working-out at your 60% to 70% of your target heart range is argued by many athletes to be the most important training intensity. It will increase the strength in your muscles, the ability of the heart to pump blood, and improve endurance. When we workout at the maximum target heart range (MHR) between 70% to 80% we improve our endurance. When we are unfit, our muscles will choose carbohydrates as our fuel source. But if we are fit our body will select a percentage of fat as our fuel source, while saving our limited stores of glycogen.

This should take the mystery out figuring your target heart rate, and how hard you should work out. So find your target heart rate, and work out for great health and wellness.