athleticfly

Heart Rate Zones Calculator

Find your five training zones in beats per minute. Train in the right zone to build endurance, speed and recovery — instead of running every run at the same middling effort.

Max HR: 184 bpm · using heart-rate reserve (Karvonen)
Z1
Recovery
5060% of max
122134 bpm
Z2
Easy / Aerobic
6070% of max
134147 bpm
Z3
Tempo
7080% of max
147159 bpm
Z4
Threshold
8090% of max
159172 bpm
Z5
VO2 Max
90100% of max
172184 bpm

What the zones mean

Zone 1–2 build your aerobic base (most of your weekly running should live here). Zone 3 is steady tempo, Zone 4 is your threshold (comfortably hard), and Zone 5 is short, hard VO₂-max intervals. Most runners go too hard on easy days and not hard enough on hard days — zones fix that.

Max HR vs Karvonen

With only your age we estimate max HR (Tanaka: 208 − 0.7 × age) and take a percentage of it. Add your resting heart rate and we switch to the more personal Karvonen method, which uses your heart-rate reserve. Pair this with your VO₂ max and target pace to train smarter.