Target Heart Rate/Training Heart Rate (THR)

It is determined by a formula that basis training intensity zones on heart rates/min. These rates are affected by circulatory system, muscles, metabolism, aerobe/anaerobe, anoxia of the brain and intensity, duration and environmental factors may have impact on our heart rates. Differences among these rates may depend on what types of muscle groups are involved in trainings. The more muscles are used the higher the training heart rate will be. It varies between resting pulse and maximum heart rate. It is evident that different training heart rates trigger various physiological effects. Beginners’ training heart rate is under 180/min while running.

Dr. Wildor Hollman’s (Köln) approach is more precise. He takes the resting heart rate of a runner into consideration (see table 1). The training heart rate maximum is 220 minus age. He uses age-group average. He adds the difference between half of the training heart rate maximum and resting heart rate to resting heart rate and this gives the initial training heart rate.

If a 46 year old runner’s resting heart rate is 70, the maximum is 180 then the calculated number is: 182-70=126. The beginner runner’s training heart rate is 134, but he should be careful. If for these athletes lower heart rate means easier tempo then running should be done with higher heart rate.

Sarolta Monspart: Jogging and running. National Institute for Health Development, 2001.

Calculations of beginner athletes’ training heart rate (W. Hollmann)

Age	Resting heart rate	Maximum training heart rate	Initial training heart rate
20-30	60 65 70 75 80	195 195 195 195 195	128 130 133 136 138
31-40	60 65 70 75 80	189 189 189 189 189	125 127 130 132 135
41-50	60 65 70 75 80	182 182 182 182 182	121 124 126 129 131
51-60	60 65 70 75 80	170 170 170 170 170	115 118 120 123 125
61-70	60 65 70 75 80	162 162 162 162 162	111 114 116 119 121
71-80	60 65 70 75 80	145 145 145 145 145	103 105 108 110 113