Understanding Heart Rate Zones

A lot of us have wearable devices that tell us what our heart rate is at any given time. Sometimes we focus on this during our workout to understand how intense our workout was. Especially if you’re training for something intense, it’s important to understand the intensity of your workout far beyond the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale. Welcome to the Heart Rate Zones. You may have heard of this concept, but what is it exactly and how often should we focus on each zone for optimal health? Here’s the rundown on Heart Rate Zones and what you need to know.

Basically, the Heart Rate Zones is a 1-5 scale that shows the effort and energy that you put into a workout or activity. Similar to the rate of perceived exertion, 1 is the lowest, and 5 is the highest, but instead of simply feeling where you are on the scale, you use your actual heart rate as a guide. Each zone is based on the percentage o your maximum heart rate during that exercise and this number varies based on your age, fitness level and other factors.

A lot of our wearable devices calculate this for us. If you go into the app, say of your Oura ring or Apple Watch, you can see how often you reach each zone of exercise in a given week. It’s based on your heart rate during each exercise activity that you do. This is just another way of measuring your effort! It’s not for everyone, but if you like data, then this may be a nice way to track it instead of using how you’re feeling (which is perfectly acceptable!!!).

To compare. Here is a great summary we found at Harvard Medical School that explains how the RPE scale corresponds to the heart rate zones.

RPE	Intensity or effort (based on the impact of exercise on your breathing or speaking pattern)	Heart rate zone (percentage of maximum heart rate)
1	Low (extremely easy, able to sing)	Zone 1 (50% to 60%)
2	Very easy (able to speak in complete sentences)
3	Easy	Zone 2 (60% to 70%)
4	Easy to moderate (speech becomes broken)
5	Moderate (breathing becomes heavier)	Zone 3 (70% to 80%)
6	Moderate (talking is difficult)
7	Moderate to vigorous (deep, forceful breathing)	Zone 4 (80% to 90%)
8	Vigorous (labored breathing, cannot talk)
9	Vigorous (very labored breathing, borderline breathless)	Zone 5 (90% to 100%)
10	Very vigorous (gasping for air)

*INFORMATION TAKEN FROM HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL ARTICLE

https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/understanding-exercise-heart-rate-zones

How do you calculate your heart rate based on the zones?

The basic math for your heart rate is 220 - your age = max heart rate. Then multiply that number by the corresponding percentages in each zone to get your heart rate for each zone.

Zone 1: 90 to 108 bpm (50% to 60% of max HR)

Zone 2: 108 to 126 bpm (60% to 70% of max HR)

Zone 3: 126 to 144 bpm (70% to 80% of max HR)

Zone 4: 144 to 162 bpm (80% to 90% of max HR)

Zone 5: 162 to 180 bpm (90% to 100% of max HR)

Now, based on your age, fitness level and other factors your max heart rate may not fall into these zones perfectly so we caution you to also LISTEN to your body. Every body is different so don’t judge yourself if you don’t fall perfectly in these categories.

We’re visual people, so here’s a great snapshot of the zones and corresponding descriptions to help you determine which zone to focus on based on your fitness goals!

ZONE	HEART RATE %	INTENSITY	FUEL SOURCE
1	50 - 60% OF MAX HR	MODERATE - LOW	FAT
2	60 - 70% OF MAX HR	MODERATE	FAT
3	70 - 80% OF MAX HR	MODERATE - HIGH	FAT, CARBS, PROTEIN
4	80 - 90% OF MAX HR	HIGH	CARBS AND PROTEIN
5	90 - 100% OF MAX HR	VERY HIGH	CARBS AND PROTEIN

As an example, if you’re looking to lose weight, focus on the zones that are using fat is their primary source of energy (Zones 1-3). If you’re looking to set a PR, focus on the higher-intensity zones (4-5). Workouts in the higher zones should be limited to 1-2 times per week to avoid injury or burnout.

We hope this helps debunk zone training and help you better understand it and how to use it with your workouts and goals!