Target Heart Rates for Aerobic Exercise

Before you start exercising, consult with your physician to determine your appropriate heart rates and whether there are any physical limitations that you need to consider.

We were having a discussion the other day about what our Maximum heart rate was and at what level should we push our hearts to get good Aerobic exercise. The first thing we have to find out is what our Maximum Heart Rate is. This is simply a calculation of 220 minus our age. So as you can see below. At age 55 our Maximum Heart Rate is 220 – 55 = 165. From this number we can start coming up with some plans.

For someone who has not been exercising, I would suggest that they target the 50 percent level of their maximum heart rate. While doing this you should be starting with a lower duration of exercise. Let’s say if our long term goal is to walk 30 minutes, you may want to start out at 5 or 10 minutes twice a day at an easy gate. Once you have created a reasonable baseline you can start increasing by a minute a day. After a week you should be ready to start kicking it up.

The next step would be to pick up the pace of your walking to simulate how you would walk if you were going ‘to get somewhere’. Monitor your heart rate so you know how each change that is made affects it. The goal would be to get up to the 75 percent range. You may need to add some hills into your route if your heart rate doesn’t want to come up. This is a good range to be at for the average person who is just wanting to stay healthy.

If you decide you are going to train for a more arduous event you could work yourself up to the 85 percent range. I’d say at that point you should be working closely with a trainer and physician to make sure everything is okay and monitored properly. The only other note for the average person is that it doesn’t hurt to push from 75 towards 85 percent on a once or twice a week basis just to keep the edge on.