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Your 'Max Heart Rate' Is Probably Wrong

Posted: Jan 10, 2025 in In the News

This article originally appeared in Life Hacker

If you’ve ever worried about your heart rate during exercise being too high or too low, you’ll want to read this. Your "heart rate zones" might be completely wrong. Not only are zones defined differently in different apps, they are also usually calculated based on your maximum heart rate. And that maximum heart rate calculation? It’s incorrect for huge swaths of the population...

Because of the problems above, reputable organizations have mostly backed away from the idea of “calculating” your max heart rate. Runner’s World took down its target heart rate calculator. The American Council on Exercise, one of the major organizations that issues personal training certifications, instructs trainers not to use max heart rate calculations, but to do real-world tests to help clients match their own heart rates to appropriate intensities of exercise...

Read the full article here.