Establish resting heart rate, target heart rate, and predicted maximum heart rate before starting a new workout program. It is important to establish a base so that progress can be measured. This gives a goal for each workout.

Before getting out of bed take the resting heart rate, at this stage it will be at a minimum. This is a good method to determine the minimum heart rate. Take your pulse using a stop watch or the second hand on a clock. The best approach is to measure this for a minute, but a half minute could be used and then doubled.

Resting heart rate can increase with age but there is also often significant difference among people depending on fitness levels, age, and their genetic background. How-ever it does give a base measurement for you.

People most often have found that taking the heart rate is easiest on the wrist. Measure the beat of your radial artery on the side of your hand where your thumb is. Use your fingers as you may get confused with a beat in your thumb which will make a count difficult. Another option often seen on TV programs is to take the pulse under the jaw on the carotid artery on the side of the neck

Having established your resting heart rate the next measure is the the predicted maximum heart rate calculation. A calculation can then be made as to the beats your heart could possibly for a minute. This point is used to work out what the target maximum heart rate base is.

A cardiac stress test is the recommended approach to get data for the predicted maximum heart rate calculation. A doctor should ideally supervise this test so it is not for everyone. The doctor is looking for signs of changes in the heart when stressed and this is the point for the maximum. Top athletes are often tested this way because they are really working hard but it is not so common for the regular exerciser.

The predicted maximum heart rate is probably more commonly determined using a formula based on the age of the person. These formulae have been calculated by researchers using the cardiac stress test. Keep in mind that there are still significant variations between individuals.

You will often have seen a chart on the wall at the gym, and sometimes it is on the powered exercise machines that gives a guide along the following lines:-

At age 30         At age 55

Maximum Heart Rate = 220 minus your age                 190                165

Another acceptable formula is

Maximum Heart Rate = 205.8 minus (0.685 × age)       185                168

As can be seen the range is narrower for the second formulae and the maximum heart rate is also a little higher at an older age.

As mentioned before there is a significant difference between different people even if the fitness level and age is similar. An interesting test has been undertaken on team members on the same exercise regime, and are of similar age. So these methods cannot really be used as a comparison of the fitness levels of different sportspeople.

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