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Heart Rate Zones

Target Heart Rate Calculator — Training Zones

Find your maximum heart rate and the four training zones that match it. Add your resting heart rate for the more personalized Karvonen method.

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💓 Enter Your Details

Take your pulse for 60 seconds right after waking. Leave blank to use the simple %-of-max method instead of Karvonen.

💓 Your Zones

Enter your age to see your training zones
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Disclaimer: This calculator provides a general estimate for fitness-tracking and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Heart rate response varies with fitness level, medication, and underlying health conditions. Consult a doctor before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have a heart condition or are on heart-rate-affecting medication.

How Your Heart Rate Zones Are Calculated

This calculator starts from your estimated maximum heart rate: Max HR = 220 − age. From there it can build your training zones two ways, depending on whether you provide a resting heart rate.

Simple Method (%-of-Max)

If no resting heart rate is entered, each zone is calculated as a straight percentage of Max HR: Light 50-60%, Moderate 60-70%, Cardio 70-80%, and Peak 80-90%. This is quick and requires no extra data, but it treats a very fit person and a sedentary person with the same max heart rate identically.

Karvonen Method (Heart Rate Reserve)

If you provide a resting heart rate, the calculator switches to the Karvonen formula, which accounts for your personal fitness baseline: Target HR = ((Max HR − Resting HR) × intensity%) + Resting HR, applied at the same four intensity bands. Because it factors in your resting rate, Karvonen zones are generally considered more personalized than the simple percentage method.

Frequently Asked Questions

Only enter it if you have a reasonably reliable reading — check your pulse for a full 60 seconds right after waking up, before getting out of bed, on two or three mornings and average them. A guessed or inaccurate resting heart rate will skew every zone calculated with the Karvonen method, so when in doubt, leave it blank and use the simpler percent-of-max zones instead.
The simple method takes a straight percentage of your maximum heart rate, ignoring how hard your heart already works at rest. Karvonen instead works from your heart rate reserve — the gap between resting and maximum — which better reflects your personal fitness level. Two people with the same max heart rate but very different resting heart rates (say, a trained athlete versus someone sedentary) will get noticeably different Karvonen zones, which is the point.
It depends entirely on your goal, not on picking the "hardest" zone. Light and Moderate zones build an aerobic base and are sustainable for longer sessions; Cardio pushes fitness gains with moderate discomfort; Peak is a short, high-intensity zone meant for intervals, not sustained effort. Most training plans deliberately rotate through several zones across a week rather than living in one.
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