New Heart Rate Formula for Women

Posted By elissa on Jul 7, 2010 | 2 comments

According to a recent study, the standard heart rate formula, 220 – age,  overestimates the maximum heart rate for women performing cardiovascular exercise.  According to the New York Times report,

The commonly used formula subtracts a person’s age from 220. But based on the data collected in the Chicago study, the right formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate is a little more complicated: 206 minus 88 percent of a woman’s age.

…But the new study shows that for women, the number typically derived from the standard formula is far off the mark. Using the old formula of 220 minus age, a 40-year-old woman would achieve an average maximum heart rate of 180 beats per minute. That means her pulse should stay around 153 beats per minute during her workout to achieve a target heart rate of 85 percent.

But based on the new calculation, the same woman’s average maximum heart rate is 171 beats per minute, meaning her desired target heart rate is just 145 beats per minute, 8 beats a minute slower than under the old formula. Although the gap seems small on paper, it can be the difference between an exhilarating workout or a frustrating one that ends in exhaustion.

For what it’s worth, I rarely keep tabs on my heart rate at all, unless I’m doing early morning fasted cardio (relatively rare) – I go by perceived exertion. But for those who do, this could be useful info.