Is it ok to train at 95% of your maximum heart rate?
when I do cardio my average hear rate for 1 hour is 160bpm. My bp at doc last week was 123/71 with 60bpm heart rate. What I would like to know is – is it ok to train at say 95% of max heart rate? sometimes when i go flat our for a less than a minute etc I can get my heart rate up to 180 but can’t sustain it… am I doing damage to my heart if I train at say 95% o f heart rate 3 days week?
As others have said it is alright to train at 95% of your maximum heart rate, though it is not possible to train at that intensity for extended periods of time. For effectiveness without over training, I recommend an 80-10-10 rule to my clients: train within your target zone 80% of the time, and no more than 10% below or 10% above it.
As far as calculating maximum heart rate, I use the updated formula “208 – (.7 x Age)” to estimate Max Heart Rate. If I have a client who in the past year has achieved a higher maximal heart rate than the estimated MHR then I use that instead.
Once I have Estimated Max Heart Rate I adapt the Karvonen method to calculate training zones:
(MHR – Resting Heart Rate) X Training Intensity + Heart Rate = Training Rate (bpm)
Jonathan
www.integratedfit.org