Finding Your Maximum Heart Rate
What max heart rate is, why the 220 minus age rule is shaky, and how to estimate or field-test yours. Includes a six-formula calculator.
Your maximum heart rate (HRmax) anchors every heart-rate zone. Get it wrong by 10 beats and every zone shifts by 5–10 bpm.
What max heart rate is
HRmax is the highest your heart can beat during all-out effort. It is largely genetic, drifts down slowly with age, and is not a measure of fitness.
You can't train your max heart rate up. Its only job is to anchor your zones.
Estimate it in five seconds
The 220 − age rule is easy to remember but was never derived from solid data. It runs high for older athletes and low for some younger ones. Tanaka (208 − 0.7 × age) is more accurate. Drop your age in below to see six published formulas side by side:
HRmax yang direkomendasikan
184bpm
Tanaka (2001)
Rata-rata dari 6 model
183bpm
jika ragu, gunakan ini
Enam prediktor yang dipublikasikan, berdampingan (kesalahan umum ±10–12 bpm)
| Fox / Haskell (1971) | 185 bpm |
| Tanaka (2001)Direkomendasikan | 184 bpm |
| Gellish (2007) | 183 bpm |
| Nes (2013) | 189 bpm |
| Gulati, perempuan (2010) | 175 bpm |
| Londeree & Moeschberger | 181 bpm |
| Rata-rata dari keenam modelrata-rata dari prediktor di atas | 183 bpm |
- Kami merekomendasikan Tanaka (2001) karena diturunkan ulang dari meta-analisis 18.712 orang dan lebih akurat di berbagai usia dibanding aturan lama 220 dikurangi usia, yang cenderung terlalu tinggi untuk atlet yang lebih tua.
- HRmax yang diprediksi rumus memiliki simpangan baku sekitar ±10–12 bpm, jadi dua atlet seusia bisa berbeda 20+ bpm. Gunakan hanya sebagai titik awal.
- Untuk akurasi, lakukan tes lapangan maksimal (misalnya sesi repetisi tanjakan yang berat atau tes ramp yang diawasi) dan baca HRmax sebenarnya dari perangkatmu.
PDF berisi hasil personalmu, plus kode QR untuk membukanya kembali kapan saja.
Test it for real
A field test beats any equation. After a thorough warm-up:
- Run or ride 2–3 minutes hard uphill.
- Recover briefly, then go again, building to an all-out final 30 seconds.
- The highest number you see is close to your true HRmax.
Maximal effort, not for beginners. Stop if you feel unwell. One good test lasts years, since HRmax drops only about 0.7 bpm per year.
Then build your zones
- Heart-rate zone calculator: the standard %HRmax 5-zone split.
- LTHR zones: anchor to lactate-threshold heart rate instead.
- Max heart rate calculator: the six-formula tool above.