Workouts with Heart Zones

One of the most helpful things that helped me to lose weight was exercising with the Heart Zone.

To avoid too many scientific details, I’ll simply try to explain what it is.

The top triathlete Sally Edwards (today in her 50’s) is one of persons that prone this kind of fitness preparation. By simply following her advices, I lost weight and achieved the fitness level I could only dream of when I was younger.

The theory says that everybody a maximum heart rate (MaxHR). This number is not age dependent, is inherited and is sport dependent. Although there were many proofs that the widely accepted formula is no more valid (there is a difference of up to 20 beats compared to a real world data), the formula is still in use. This formula is based on a person’s age and now we know that a fit person can preserve its high maximum for years.
In the beginning, I also used this formula and lost quite a lot of weight (but later, I replaced it with another one, more precise), so it can be a kind of starting point.

So, let’s start with this formula that states:
MaxHR = 220 – age (in years)

In theory, a person 30 years old has MaxHR of 190 (220 -30)=190. Someone 50 years old would have MaxHR of 170.
Just to show the discrepancy, I’ll give you my example: I am 49 years old and my MaxHR, according to the age-dependent formula, would be 171 (220 – 49). In practice, I already run at 182. According to the other formula (that I use now, but I’ll explain it later), my MaxHR would be 180. Not bad: 2 compared to 11. It can be almost a whole zone!

Then, depending on this value, we can calculate the 5 heart zones used in workouts:

1. Healthy Heart Zone: 50 to 60 % of MaxHR-a (this zone will be used to warm up and cool down)
2. Temperate Zone: 60 to 70 % of MaxHR
3. Aerobic Zone: 70 do 80 % of MaxHR
4. Threshold Zone: 80 do 90 % of MaxHR
5. Red Zone: 90 to 100 % of MaxHR

If you want to preserve your heart (without using the benefits of other zones), use the first zone. You will notice that your blood pressure will be lower after some time.

The second zone (together with the first one) is the one in which you’ll burn the maximum of fats so these zones are used to lose weight. The total of burned calories is higher in the second zone, but in both of them, 85% of all calories burned come from fat. It is also good to lower the high cholesterol, with the changes in nutrition.

The third zone is the aerobic and helps to improve the endurance. In this zone, 50 to 60 % of all calories come from fats (higher total calories, but lower percentage from fats).

The last two zones are for the athletes and the percentage of calories burnt from fats is low.

It means, in order to lose weight, you should exercise in the first two zones, and when you become a lot less heavy (to avoid the injuries), you can occasionally exercise in the third zone (easy jogging). It is not worth of trying while you are still very overweight because there is high risk of injuries.

Example of zones:

For the 30 years old person with MaxHR of 190, these are the zone limits:
1. 95 to 114 heartbeats
2. 114 to 133 heartbeats
3. 133 to 152 heartbeats
4. 152 to 171 heartbeats
5. 171 to 190 heartbeats