How Strava Calculates Your Heart Rate Zones
Strava uses 220 − age, falls back to 190 bpm with no age on file, and silently rewrites your zones on your birthday. Here is how to take control.
Strava estimates your maximum heart rate as 220 − age and draws your zones from it. If it has no age on file it assumes a maximum of 190 bpm, a number attached to nobody in particular. And unless you have set a maximum manually, your zones move every year on your birthday, without telling you.
That last part matters more than it sounds, because Strava is where most people actually look at their training.
Your watch decided, then Strava decided again
Your Garmin, COROS or Polar has its own maximum heart rate and its own zones. Strava has a separate set. The activity uploads with raw heart rate data, and Strava re-buckets it using Strava's numbers.
So a run that your watch called zone 2 can appear as zone 3 on Strava, with neither device wrong. They are two different reference numbers applied to the same data. If you have never touched Strava's settings, the reference is an age formula that carries roughly ±10 to 12 bpm of individual error and is biased high for the young and low for the old.
Frequenza cardiaca massima
185bpm
| Zona | Intervallo | Cosa allena |
|---|---|---|
| Z1 | Recupero 93–111 bpm | Recupero attivo e riscaldamento; favorisce il flusso sanguigno senza aggiungere fatica. Molto facile, RPE 1–2. Conversazione completa, respirazione appena accelerata. |
| Z2 | Resistenza 111–130 bpm | Base aerobica, ossidazione dei grassi e densità capillare: la zona fondamentale, pane quotidiano dell'allenamento. Comodo, RPE 3–4. Puoi reggere frasi intere. |
| Z3 | Tempo 130–148 bpm | Capacità aerobica e resistenza muscolare; lavoro costante 'moderatamente duro'. Impegnativo, RPE 5–6. Solo frasi brevi. |
| Z4 | Soglia 148–167 bpm | Soglia del lattato, il tetto sostenibile del tuo ritmo gara. Duro, RPE 7–8. Poche parole alla volta. |
| Z5 | VO₂max 167–185 bpm | Potenza aerobica massimale e VO₂max tramite intervalli brevi e intensi. Da molto duro a massimale, RPE 9–10. Non si parla. |
Z1 · Recupero. Recupero attivo e riscaldamento; favorisce il flusso sanguigno senza aggiungere fatica. Molto facile, RPE 1–2. Conversazione completa, respirazione appena accelerata.
Z2 · Resistenza. Base aerobica, ossidazione dei grassi e densità capillare: la zona fondamentale, pane quotidiano dell'allenamento. Comodo, RPE 3–4. Puoi reggere frasi intere.
Z3 · Tempo. Capacità aerobica e resistenza muscolare; lavoro costante 'moderatamente duro'. Impegnativo, RPE 5–6. Solo frasi brevi.
Z4 · Soglia. Soglia del lattato, il tetto sostenibile del tuo ritmo gara. Duro, RPE 7–8. Poche parole alla volta.
Z5 · VO₂max. Potenza aerobica massimale e VO₂max tramite intervalli brevi e intensi. Da molto duro a massimale, RPE 9–10. Non si parla.
- Le zone sono semplici percentuali della frequenza cardiaca massima (Z1 50–60% fino a Z5 90–100%). Sono facili da impostare ma presuppongono che la tua HRmax sia accurata.
- La frequenza cardiaca ha un ritardo di 1–3 minuti rispetto allo sforzo e deriva verso l'alto con il caldo o la disidratazione ('deriva cardiaca'), quindi gestisci gli sforzi brevi e intensi a sensazione.
Un PDF con i tuoi risultati, più un codice QR per riaprirli quando vuoi.
Work out what your zones should be from a tested maximum, then go and make Strava agree with them.
The birthday problem
Because 220 − age changes every year, Strava recalculates your zones annually unless you have set a maximum yourself. Nothing announces it. Your zone boundaries drop by one beat, your historical comparisons shift underneath you, and the "zone 2" you ran last year is a slightly different band this year.
Setting a manual maximum stops this. It also means you own the number, which is the point: a real maximum falls by about 0.7 beats a year, not a clean one, and the way to track that is to retest every couple of years rather than to let a formula guess. Gesa Krause's post covers what that decline does and does not mean.
How to take control
- Test your maximum. Build to hard over 10 to 15 minutes, finish with an all-out 60 to 90 second effort, take the highest reading off a chest strap, repeat within two weeks and keep the higher number. Not for anyone with cardiac risk or new to hard training. Protocol in finding your maximum heart rate.
- Enter it in Strava under your training zone settings, rather than leaving the age estimate.
- Edit the zone boundaries directly if you prefer a different model to Strava's default split.
- Set sport-specific zones if you subscribe. Running and cycling maximums differ by several beats, because more muscle is working when you run.
- Make your watch match. Two systems disagreeing is worse than either one being slightly off.
If you have a tested threshold heart rate, that is a better anchor than any maximum, and LTHR zones will tell you where the boundaries belong before you type them in.
FAQ
How does Strava calculate heart rate zones? From your maximum heart rate, estimated as 220 − age unless you set your own. With no age on file it defaults to 190 bpm.
Why are my Strava zones different from my Garmin zones? They use separate maximum heart rate settings. Strava re-buckets the uploaded data with its own number, so the same run gets different zone labels.
Do Strava zones update automatically? Yes. If you have not set a manual maximum, Strava recalculates on your birthday as 220 − age changes.
Can I set custom heart rate zones on Strava? Yes. Set your own maximum or edit the boundaries directly, and subscribers can keep separate zones for running and cycling.
What is Strava's default max heart rate? 220 − age, or 190 bpm if no birth date is on file.
Other brands
- Garmin uses Tanaka and auto-raises HRmax from peaks.
- COROS recommends Gellish and runs three zone models.
- Wahoo is the outlier that anchors to threshold instead.
- Apple Watch publishes no formula at all.
Sources
- Strava Help Center on heart rate zones
- Strava Help Center on training zones
- Tanaka, Monahan & Seals (2001), the 208 − 0.7 × age formula
Cover photo by Snora2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
