Greetings:

I've always had an "athletic" heart (at least that's what the doctors call it).

I'm 47 years old, male, 5'10" and right about 200 lbs.

I've been running for about six years and lifting weights seriously for about a year.

I've lost about 60 lbs slowly over the past three years or so - but I've obviously increased muscle mass as well.

I have a question about maximum heart rate and calculating a target heart rate.

My resting heart rate is about 53 bpm.

I understand that a maximum/target heart rate is a guideline, but when calculating maximum heart rate, is resting heart rate taken into consideration?

Because my heart rate is low, is my maximum higher? Lower? Or is it just as all the guides say?

Any clue? Appreciate the help.

Anybody? Moved to the top in hopes someone may know. I've googled this to death and can't seem to find anything.

Thanks!

In some calculations, yes. I think that the Polar HRM algorithm uses resting HR in determining your %HRmax.

Honestly, you may be too worried about this point - if you are pushing yourself hard, you'll make progress. More important for me is keeping HR high during exercise and lifting to get a larger EPOC for fat burning.

If you want to determine your MaxHR, get a heart rate monitor, and push yourself on HIIT untill you find your typical upper limit.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin - good point about pushing myself and seeing what that limit is.....duh....I have a heart rate monitor - I just need to look at it when I'm maxed out....

The formulas for max HR are just estimates, and not that good of estimates at that. So testing yourself is the real true way to find out.

As for "target heart rate", that's irrelevant IMO. Yes, you might possibly get a slightly higher percentage of energy for exercise in this HR range from fat, but overall metabolic increases and fat burning post exercise is positively affected much more by higher intensity exercises like HIIT and weight training.

Yes there is a formula for factoring in resting HR.
Google: karvonen formula and it will show you the steps.
I will also mention- Your max is what ever you can achieve at an all out effort.
I have been racing bicycles competitively for over 15 yrs and can tell you that your max can be different depending what you are doing exercise wise and your level of fitness.
You can always do a running test and try to achieve your max then plug in numbers to train with.
Depending on what your goal is: this can help greatly.