Heart Rate Zone Calculator
Find your training heart-rate zones from your age.
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Enter your age and this calculator estimates your maximum heart rate with the classic 220 − age formula, then divides it into five training zones in beats per minute. Runners, cyclists and gym-goers use these ranges to set watch alerts and keep easy days easy and hard days hard.
How the five zones are worked out
Maximum heart rate = 220 − age. Each zone is a percentage band of that maximum, rounded to whole beats. For a 30-year-old the maximum is 190 bpm:
| Zone | % of max | Age 30 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Warm up | 50–60% | 95–114 bpm |
| 2 · Fat burn | 60–70% | 114–133 bpm |
| 3 · Cardio | 70–80% | 133–152 bpm |
| 4 · Hard | 80–90% | 152–171 bpm |
| 5 · Max | 90–100% | 171–190 bpm |
At 45 the maximum drops to 175 bpm and zone 2 becomes 105–122 bpm. Neighbouring zones share their boundary number; treat it as the top of the lower zone.
What each zone feels like
- Zone 1: brisk walking or very easy cycling. You could hold a phone call without pausing. Good for warm-ups and recovery days.
- Zone 2: easy jogging where you can still speak in full sentences. Most endurance coaches build the bulk of weekly training here.
- Zone 3: comfortably hard; sentences get shorter and breathing is noticeably deeper.
- Zone 4: hard, sustained efforts such as tempo runs, where you can only manage a few words.
- Zone 5: all-out sprints and short intervals that last seconds to a couple of minutes.
The "fat burn" label is often misread. At low intensity a larger share of the energy comes from fat, but you burn fewer calories per minute overall, so harder sessions can burn more fat in total. Pick zones for the training effect you want, not the label.
How accurate is 220 minus age?
It is a population average, and individual maximums commonly sit 10 bpm or more above or below it. A 2001 study by Tanaka, Monahan and Seals proposed 208 − 0.7 × age as a better fit, especially for older adults: at 60 it gives 166 bpm against 160 from 220 − age. The most reliable number is one you have actually seen, such as the highest reading on a chest strap at the end of a hard race or a supervised test. If yours is known, divide it by the calculator's maximum and scale the zones in proportion.
This tool does not use resting heart rate. The Karvonen method, which some watches offer, bases zones on heart rate reserve (maximum minus resting), so its numbers will differ from the ones here.
Practical notes for training
Wrist-based optical sensors can lag behind during short intervals, while chest straps respond faster. Heat, dehydration and poor sleep push your heart rate up at the same pace, so on a humid day, trust the zone over your usual speed. Medicines such as beta-blockers lower heart rate and make any formula-based zone unreliable. These figures are estimates, not medical advice. To pair zones with speed targets, the running pace calculator converts time and distance to pace.