Heart Rate Training Zones

Measure it first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. Use two fingers on your wrist or neck and count beats for 60 seconds. A healthy adult resting HR is 60–100 bpm; fit athletes often have resting HRs of 40–60 bpm.

It is a population average with a significant standard deviation of ±10-12 bpm. Your actual max HR could be 10 bpm higher or lower. For the most accurate max HR, perform a medically supervised stress test or a hard all-out effort at the end of a 20-minute race.

Zone 2 burns the highest percentage of fat as fuel, but Zone 3-4 burns more total calories per unit time. For overall fat loss, a combination is most effective. Consistently training in Zone 2 builds an aerobic base that makes all other exercise more efficient.

No. Zone 5 training requires 48-72 hours of recovery. Training in it too frequently leads to overtraining syndrome, which causes fatigue, performance decline, and increased injury risk. It should be limited to 1-2 sessions per week maximum.

This suggests you may need to increase training intensity. Try interval training: alternate between very high effort (Zone 4-5 for 2-4 minutes) and recovery (Zone 1-2 for equal time). Alternatively, get a VO2 max test to reassess your actual physiological zones.