Glossary
Maximum heart rate
The highest rate your heart reaches at all-out effort. Age formulas estimate it with a spread of roughly 10 bpm either side, so two 40-year-olds can differ by 25 bpm.
What it is
The ceiling. It is the highest heart rate you can reach when you empty yourself, and it is mostly set by your age and your genes.
It falls slowly as you get older. Training does not raise it. A fitter runner has a lower heart rate at any given pace, but the same ceiling.
| Method | At age 30 | At age 50 |
|---|---|---|
| 220 - age | 190 | 170 |
| Tanaka | 187 | 173 |
| Gulati (women) | 180 | 162 |
| Nes | 192 | 179 |
What it is not
It is not a safety limit. Reaching it does not mean anything is wrong. It is also not the number your watch shows unless you have actually hit it.
Most watches start from a formula. Some update it when they see a higher reading. If yours has never seen you sprint, its number is a guess.
What moves it
- Age. Roughly 0.7 bpm a year, by Tanaka's fit.
- Nothing else you control. Fitness, weight and training do not move it.
- The sensor. A wrist reading can lock onto your cadence and invent a higher number.
- Illness and heat. Both can raise your rate at a given effort, but not the ceiling itself.
When to ignore it
Ignore any formula figure if you have seen a genuine higher reading. The real number wins.
Ignore it altogether for pacing. Pace and breathing tell you more about a run than a percentage of a number you have never measured.
Sources
- Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR. Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. J Am Coll Cardiol 37(1):153-156, 2001 primary
- Robergs RA, Landwehr R. The surprising history of the HRmax = 220 - age equation. J Exerc Physiol Online 5(2):1-10, 2002 primary
- Gulati M et al. Heart rate response to exercise stress testing in asymptomatic women. Circulation 122(2):130-137, 2010 primary