Determining Heart Rate

Determining Heart Rate

1. Use a wrist watch with a second hand, place watch where it can easily be seen.

2. With one palm facing upward, place the fingertips of your other hand on the opposite wrist, in the groove just below the base of the thumb.

3. Press lightly until you feel your heart rate/pulse.

4. Once you’ve located your pulse:

a. Determine the rythym (regular/irregular)
b. Count the number of beats that occur in 15 seconds, and multiply by 4.
c. If your heart rhytyhm is irregular, be sure to count for a full 60 seconds.

Determining Maximal Heart Rate
To determine your TARGET heart rate you must first find your Predicted Maximal Heart Rate. Note this is a predicted rate and may need to be adjusted depending on you level of conditioning and/or other medical conditions. Check with your doctor or health professional.

To calculate the predicted maximal heart rate subtract your age from 220.

For example if you are 30 years of age, subtract 30 from 220.
220
-30
=190 Maximal Heart Rate

Determining Target Heart Rate
There are two methods to determine target heart rate. In either method, you determine what your range is. If you are sedentary or not participating in regular exercise, you may want to keep you target heart rate at the lower limit. Ask your health professional or doctor where your particular level should begin.

Method 1:
Take your pulse to determine your Resting Heart Rate. Subtract your resting heart rate (rate while sitting still) from your maximal heart rate. Take this answer and multiply it by
.6 to find lower limit, and multiply by .8 to find upper limit. Then add the resting heart rate back to find the final result.
Example: Your maximal rate is 190. Your resting heart rate is 70.
190 190
-70 -70
= 120 = 120
x .6 x .8
=72 =96
+ 70 +70
= 142 = 166
Lower limit is 142
Upper limit is 166

Method 2:
Take Maximal heart rate and multiply by .7 and .85 (If you are just beginning an exercise program and feel you are very deconditioned, then you may want to use .6 instead of .7)
Example: your max heart rate is 190
190 190
x .7 x .85
133 161
Lower limit is 133
Upper limit is 161
As you can see the results are very similar. Remember these are only guidelines. Check with your health professional or doctor for your particular target heart rate ranges.