Fitness experts recommend maintaining your pulse rate in a specific range known as your target heart rate during exercise. The Karvonen method calculates this range using age, maximum heart rate, and resting heart rate. Maintaining a target heart rate ensures improvements in cardiovascular health and can predict the effectiveness of a particular form of exercise.
Fitness experts recommend trying to achieve and maintain your pulse rate in a specific range known as your target heart rate when you exercise. This heart rate range varies between people, but can be calculated using a formula known as the Karvonen method. In general, the formula takes into account age, maximum heart rate, and resting heart rate to calculate the most effective exercise heart rate.
To determine heart rate using the Karvonen method, first determine an intensity range. Unfit individuals and novice athletes will want to start at 50% intensity, while more fit or experienced athletes may want to work at an intensity of 65% or higher. The Karvonen method takes into account both the low end of the intensity range and the high end, which is typically 85-90%.
Taking a sample intensity range of 50-85%, the range in which you want to maintain your pulse rate during exercise, the Karvonen formula can be calculated as follows: Target Heart Rate (THR) = (( MaxHR – RHR) x Intensity%) + RHR. The maximum heart rate, or what is considered the maximum safe heart rate during exercise, can be determined by subtracting age from 220, so a 30-year-old would have a maximum HR value of 190. Resting heart rate it can be measured by taking your pulse and counting the number of beats during one minute, ideally when you wake up in the morning.
If the individual in the sample has a MaxHR of 190, an RHR of 70, and a target intensity range of 60-85%, then that individual’s exercise pulse rate can be calculated using the Karvonen method. First, the low end of the range must be determined: THR = ((190-70) x .60) + 70 = 142 beats per minute. Then the upper end: THR = ((190 – 70) x .85) + 70 = 172. Therefore, that person’s exercise pulse rate must be maintained between 142 and 172 bpm during exercise to achieve improvements in cardiovascular fitness.
Maintaining a target heart rate ensures that the exercise performed will bring improvements in cardiovascular health. It is also an intensity indicator that can predict the effectiveness of a particular form of exercise. This can help assess its value as a fat burning method.
During exercise, the increased demand for oxygen by the muscles means that the heart has to beat faster to deliver a greater volume of oxygen through the blood to these active muscles, which will use it for energy production. . Oxygen is drawn into the lungs, where blood pumped from the heart pauses to collect it before being pumped back through the heart and out into the body for delivery. To carry a greater volume of oxygen over a set period of time, for example during a 30-minute cardio workout, your heart rate must increase from your resting rate to your exercise pulse rate.
An indicator of cardiovascular fitness is the volume of oxygen that can be carried by the amount of blood leaving the heart with each beat. A fit person will be more efficient at taking in oxygen than a fit person, which means that individual’s heart will not need to beat as many times per minute to deliver the amount of oxygen the body requires. The resting heart rate (RHR) will be lower, typically less than 70 beats per minute in a fit individual, and the exercise pulse rate, which corresponds with the resting heart rate, will also be lower. Training the cardiovascular system by exercising within the target heart rate range will make it more efficient over time and lower your resting heart rate.
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