Hurry, heart!

On Wikipedia alone, there are eight different formulae for calculating your maximum heart rate. I hadn’t really looked much into the topic until I came into a discussion with my uncle last night about why it’s relevant, and what it’s relevant for. I’ve just been doodling along with my heart rate monitor, proud to reach anything above 185 beats per minute (lunges are particularly good for this), cause that’s when I really feel like my muscles cease their interest in any kind of movement, after just a few seconds. Then, at the end of my workout, my watch tells me my average heart rate, my maximum heart rate, and how long I’ve been in the “Fat Burn” zone, in addition to how long I’ve been in the “Fitness” zone. The latter hasn’t really peaked my interest much, until I got into this discussion with my uncle last night. 

The most widely cited formula for HR_max, would have my mum in cardiac arrest pretty much every time she gets on a bicycle. It was developed in 1970, and simply calculates your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Then you’ve got the reaaaaally complicated ones, like the Lund Study, which has different formulae for women and men (plus, plus), and incidentally gives one of the most accurate calculations to what I’ve experienced when running as fast as I can for a little while. It goes:

190.2 / (1 + exp (0.0453 x (age - 107.5))) (put it into Google - it does the math for you)

But everyone agrees: if you really want to find out how hard you can go - you need a set-up ala Captain America’s muscle transformation machine, with at least two specialists overseeing you and monitoring an ECG machine, while simultaneously screaming at you to run faster and faster, until you collapse. I’m not that keen on falling off a treadmill (and particularly not the consequent burn marks from the mill band), but an approximate is handy to have up your sleeve.

Now, the reason I’ve been going on about this, is because the most useful thing about knowing your maximum heart rate, is that you can tailor your workout accordingly. If I want to burn fat, I need to be at between 60-70% of my maximum heart rate. If I want to do anaerobic training, I need to be at 80-90%. In other words: when you have an estimate of your 100% heart rate, you can choose your exercise, choose the results you want, and train thereafter. And that’s pretty darn useful. Plus, it might be good knowing just how fast your ticker can go if you’re out in the woods being chased by dogs, bears, or wolves, just in case you’re running so fast you might be in danger of a heart attack. But then you’re maybe not wearing a heart rate monitor in the woods, or worrying about cardiac arrest when you’re being chased through them, anyway.