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Average heart rate

During HIIT or running; what should your average bpm heart rate should be?

 

 

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This is a loaded question Smiley Happy

 

I'll post 2 responses. The first will be some technical information and the second will be a recommendation.

 

Background information

First of all, the number for you will be different than for me. Your HR during exercise varies based on genetics, fitness and age. There are calculators that will predict your HR zones based on your max HR. Most people don't know what their max HR is, so they use an aged based formula 220 - age to estimate your max HR. Studies I've seen show those have a possible error range of 10 - 15 bpm in those formulas. For some, they work perfectly, for others they are off. Depending on your goals, that might be accurate enough. 

 

So, you have 2 choices -- use a calculator to determine your zones or go by feel. If you use a HR zone calculator, you'll get better results if you know your actual max HR.

 

 

Here is a decent HR zone calculator that shows results of different well known algorithms -- some using max HR and some using heart rate reserve:

http://www.fitdigits.com/personalized-heart-rate-zones.html

 

Here's a running specific zone calculator:

http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/heart-rate-calculators/hrzone

 

Here's a site that maps heart rate zones to perceived effort:

http://www.agtri.com/workouts-3/heartrate-training-zones/

 

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How to proceed differs based no your goals.

 

I'm going to presume your goal is weight loss given you posted this in the weight loss forum and that you aren't training for an endurance race.

 

First, ignore everything you read about the fat burning zone. If your goal is weight loss, contrary to popular belief, the fat burning zone is a waste of time. What really matters at the end of the day is CaloriedBurned - CaloriedEaten. Our bodies are burning different sources of fuel all throughout the day, trying to focus on burning fat during exercise doesn't really matter. If you eat fewer calories than you burn you will burn fat to make up the difference.

 

If your goal is weight loss then ideally you will want to optimize for max calorie burn while still avoiding injury. Going too hard, too often leads to injury and getting burnt out. Going too easy burns fewer calories. For those of us that have trained for endurance races, we understand the difference between hard and easy and how to mix different types of workouts through the week and how to progress week to week. Our training plans are designed based on periodization which alternates hard and easy workouts and includes recovery days/weeks.

 

I bring up periodization because you mentioned running. It's easy to get hurt running if you don't have the body type for it and/or you don't understand the concept of progression/periodization.

 

Finally, an answer to your question Smiley Happy

 

Running

For running, you probably want most of your runs to be at an easy pace. If you are using HR as a guide, that would be in the 70% - 80% aerobic zone. Based on feel and the link I sent on perceived effort, that would be "breathing conversational to feeling labored and feeling like you’re working", "Sensation of leg effort and fatigue is generally low, though it may occasionally rise to higher levels."

 

You might run occasionally at higher intensity levels but for shorter distances or in intervals.

 

HIIT

For HIIT, you probably want the work intervals to be closer to 90% max if using HR zones. If by feel, it should probably be an intensity that allows you to sustain the intensity for the  work interval but just barely complete the last one. It should be hard, you should be almost out of breath and maybe feeling some burn in your muscles. The recovery portion of the HIIT should be around 60% if using HR zones. By feel, it should just be easy and allow you to fully recover so you can go near all out on the next interval.

 

 

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