The 5 Heart Zones

Tuesday, July 1st 2008 — Archived Post

After about 4 months of using my Polar F6 heart rate monitor, i have learned that working out at different heart rate ranges affect the body differently and that working yourself out at maximum exertion is not necessarily beneficial to your body. In fact, there is an optimal target depending on your personal goal. I also learned that working out on the upper zones is not cumulative (i.e., that you DO NOT gain the benefits of the other zones below it).

In the book Heart Zones Cycling by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed, they describe two methods for determining these heart zones: either by figuring out the maximum heart rate (HRmax) or aerobic treshhold (aka VT1). These are practically identical except for Zone 5 where the treshhold based range is further subdivided into 3 subareas (5a, 5b and 5c). For simplicity, I wil just outline the one based on maximum heart rate here which divides the heart zones from 1 to 5.

Zone 1 (50% to 60% of HRmax)

  • calories burned come from 10% carb, 85% fat, 5% protein
  • less than 4 calories per minute
  • VO2: 28 to 39
  • first point of aerobic benefits
  • calories come primarily from fat
  • used for maintaining a healthy heart
  • improve metabolism
  • mood improvement
  • improved self-esteem
  • works well for a gentle recovery ride
  • reduces blood cholesterol
  • lowers blood pressure
  • stabilized body weight

 

Zone 2 (60% to 70% of HRmax)

  • calories burned come from 15% carb, 80% fat, 5% protein
  • less than 7 calories per minute
  • VO2: 40 to 58
  • used for building skeletal muscle mass
  • decreases body fat
  • improved aerobic function
  • increase mitochondria
  • more efficient fat metabolism
  • ideal for warm ups and cool downs

 

Zone 3 (70% to 80% of HRmax)

  • calories burned come from 55% carb, 40% fat, 5% protein
  • less than 10 calories per minute
  • VO2: 49 to 70
  • oxygen consumption
  • VO2max increases
  • endorphins, a stress reducer, are released (resulting in cyclist's high)
  • key fitness zone
  • builds resistance to fatigue
  • increased endurance
  • builds cardiovascular efficiency
  • improved appetite control

 

Zone 4 (80 to 90% of HRmax)

  • calories burned come from 70% carb, 25% fat, 5% protein
  • less than 15 calories per minute
  • VO2: 71 to 83
  • improved fitness and endurance
  • aka high intensity training
  • stressful for a beginner
  • not an easy training zone to stay in
  • high physical stresses

 

Zone 5 (90% to 100% of HRmax)

  • calories burned come from 90% carb, 5%fat, 5% protein
  • less than 20 calories per minute
  • VO2: 84 to 100
  • also known as red-lining
  • zone above lactate treshhold or first ventilatory treshhold
  • athletes suffer pain
  • high intensity
  • not sustainable
  • heart can not contract at or near its maximum for long
  • taxing oxygen capacity
  • stay too long and reach complete exhaustion

 

So what do these numbers mean? I guess the bottomline here is that how hard you need to work out depends on your primary goal. Is it to loose weight? Is it to increase your athletic performance (like ride faster when cycling) or extend your endurance (increased distance when biking)? One can also deduce from this that there is such a thing as a sweet zone when working out. If you overdo it (aka overtrain), you risk working so hard that it will take longer for your body to recover or you could be in pain (and with very little gain at that). This could be among the reasons why people who try gym memberships eventually give up after a few months when they think feel they've been working very hard at the gym and yet don't get the results they expect.

By the way, in case you're wondering how to figure out your maximum heart rate, a quick and easy formula for HRmax is: 210 - [your age] (this is in beats per minute). I also found a formula for calculating HRmax on wikipedia but the quickie version works similarly to what my Polar F6 calculates.

Related links:

 

-kyo-