Heart Rate Zone Calculator
Find your five training heart-rate zones from your age.
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Your training heart-rate zones are bands of beats per minute that match different levels of effort, from easy recovery work up to all-out intervals. Training by zone tells you whether a session is genuinely easy or quietly too hard, which is the difference between building endurance and burning out. This calculator estimates your maximum heart rate from your age, then splits the effort below it into five zones and shows the beats-per-minute range for each. Add your resting heart rate and it tailors those ranges to your own fitness instead of using a flat percentage.
How your max heart rate and zones are set
We estimate your maximum heart rate with the Tanaka formula, 208 minus 0.7 times your age. It tracks real measured values across the adult age range more closely than the familiar 220 minus age rule, which tends to overestimate for younger people and underestimate for older ones. For a 40-year-old that gives 208 minus 28, or 180 beats per minute.
The five zones are then carved out as percentage bands of that maximum: Zone 1 recovery (50 to 60%), Zone 2 endurance (60 to 70%), Zone 3 aerobic (70 to 80%), Zone 4 threshold (80 to 90%) and Zone 5 VO2 max (90 to 100%). Using the 180 bpm max above, Zone 2 runs from 108 to 126 beats per minute.
The Karvonen method with resting heart rate
When you enter a resting heart rate, the calculator switches to the Karvonen, or heart-rate-reserve, method. Instead of taking a percentage of your maximum, it works from your reserve, the gap between your maximum and resting rates, then adds your resting rate back on. The formula for each boundary is reserve times the percentage, plus resting heart rate.
Take the same 40-year-old with a 180 bpm max and a resting rate of 60. Their reserve is 120 beats. The lower edge of Zone 2 becomes 120 times 0.60 plus 60, which is 132 bpm, and the upper edge is 120 times 0.70 plus 60, or 144 bpm. Those numbers sit higher than the plain-percentage version because a fitter heart with a low resting rate has more room to work in, so Karvonen gives ranges better matched to your conditioning.
How to train with the zones
Most endurance progress comes from spending the bulk of your time in Zones 1 and 2, where you can hold a conversation and recover quickly, with shorter, harder efforts in Zones 4 and 5 to lift your ceiling. Zones 2 and 3 use the highest share of fat for fuel, but total calorie burn keeps climbing with intensity, so the best zone for fat loss depends on how long you can sustain it.
Treat these numbers as a guide, not a hard limit. Predicted maximum heart rate varies by about 10 to 12 beats between people of the same age, and heat, caffeine, stress and poor sleep all push your reading up. If a zone feels far easier or harder than the effort it describes, trust your body and adjust, or use a measured maximum from a hard field test in place of the estimate.
How to use
- 01
Enter your age
We estimate your max heart rate with the Tanaka formula.
- 02
Add resting HR (optional)
A resting heart rate switches on the more personal Karvonen method.
- 03
Train by zone
See the beats-per-minute range for each of the five training zones.
Frequently Asked Questions
We use the Tanaka formula (208 − 0.7 × age), which is more accurate across ages than the old 220 − age rule.
It bases zones on your heart-rate reserve (max minus resting HR), giving ranges tailored to your fitness rather than a flat percentage of max.
Zones 2–3 (60–80%) burn the highest share of fat, but total calories — and overall fat loss — climb with intensity and duration.
Count your pulse for 60 seconds first thing in the morning before getting up, ideally averaged over a few days.
Reference data
| Training Zones | % of max HR | bpm · age 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Recovery | 50–60% | 94–112 |
| Endurance | 60–70% | 112–131 |
| Aerobic | 70–80% | 131–150 |
| Threshold | 80–90% | 150–168 |
| VO₂ Max | 90–100% | 168–187 |
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Last reviewed June 2026 · Methodology & sources