FOR DECADES, ATHLETES HAVE USED MAX HR AS A WAY TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ZONES THEY SHOULD BE TRAINING IN.
The most common wisdom was to subtract your age from 220, and voilà! – you had your maximum heart rate, representing the greatest number of beats per minute your heart can achieve safely. From that number, in theory, you could calculate recovery, fat-burning, lactate threshold, and anaerobic heart-rate training zones.
However, it’s a rudimentary system – like, “‘Using an abacus as a bike computer’ rudimentary,” says Dr Cherie Miner, sports medicine physician at Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Centre. “It’s been the standard for years, but there are a lot of variables that can throw off max HR.” How fit you are, how hot it is, and how much stress…
