Happy Hearts are Healthy Hearts

A cardio fit heart is a  happy heart. Cardio- fitness also provides your lungs with the ability to increase your air capacity adding positive results to your lung fitness for overall wellness. 

Karvonen Formula

You can calculate your own training heart rate using the Karvonen Formula, but first you’ll have to determine your Resting Heart Rate, Maximum Heart Rate and Heart Rate Reserve:

1. Resting Heart Rate (RHR) = your pulse at rest (the best time to get a true resting heart rate is first thing in the morning before you get out of bed). (60 or a little below is excellent)

2. Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) = 220- your age=?

3. Heart Rate Reserve (HRR)= Maximum Heart Rate – Resting Heart Rate

Once you have your Heart Rate Reserve, you can calculate your training heart rate:

4. (Heart Rate Reserve*.85) + Resting Heart Rate = Upper end of the training zone

5. (Heart Rate Reserve *.50) + Resting Heart Rate = Lower end of the training zone

Example: To calculate the training heart rate of a 35 year old person with a resting heart rate of 70:

Maximum Heart Rate: 220-35=185 bpm (beats per minute)
Heart Rate Reserve= 185-70=115 bpm
High End of the Training Heart Rate: (115*.85) + 70 = 167 bpm
Low End of the Training Heart Rate: (115*.50) + 70 = 127 bpm

Once this person understands their numbers they can go to work on their cardio and lung fitness goals.

Ideally in this example this person would spend the first 2 weeks working with the low end of the cardio fitness measurement (127), surpassing this rate within 4-6 intervals in a (15) minute span.

The long term goal to be cardio fit would be the measurement around the 70-75% measurement. If you are shooting for the athletic goal, that would be the 85% measurement.