Myth or fact

Your max heart rate is 220 minus your age

Short answerNo

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 20267 sources

No. 220 minus your age was never checked in enough older adults, and it runs low for most people over 30. Formulas built on 18,712 and 3,320 people do better, and even they miss a third of people by more than 11 beats a minute.

Why people believe it

It’s printed on gym posters, treadmill panels and the first page of most training plans. It’s easy to remember, it gives a round number, and for a lot of people in their 20s it’s close enough. Its main use in medicine has been to set exercise programs, judge whether someone pushed hard enough on a stress test, and guide doctors during testing.

What’s wrong with it

In 2001, the researchers Tanaka, Monahan and Seals pointed out that, despite all that use, the rule’s validity “has never been established in a sample that included a sufficient number of older adults.”

They checked. They gathered the average max heart rates from 351 studies, with 492 groups and 18,712 people, and the line that fit best was 208 minus 0.7 times age. Then they tested it in a lab, measuring max heart rate directly in 514 healthy people, and got 209 minus 0.7 times age, almost the same. They concluded that 220 minus age underestimates max heart rate in older adults.

In 2013 a Norwegian team tested 3,320 healthy men and women in the HUNT study, keeping only people whose test reached a verified maximum. The best fit was 211 minus 0.64 times age, and the older formulas underestimated measured max heart rate in people over 30.

The three formulas agree in your 30s and drift apart after that. At 70, the old rule puts a hard session’s target 16 beats lower than HUNT does.

A simple way to picture it

Guessing someone’s max heart rate from their age is like guessing their shoe size from their height. The average is real, and taller people do have bigger feet. But two people of the same height can be a couple of sizes apart, and nobody would buy running shoes from a height chart.

The HUNT study put a number on that spread. Its formula had a standard error of 10.8 beats a minute, which means about 1 in 3 people sit more than 11 beats away from their predicted max. Two 50-year-olds with the same formula number can really be 160 and 190.

What a wrong max does to your training

Every heart rate zone is a share of your max. If your max is off, all of your zones are off with it.

• The 4x4. The hard minutes are 90 to 95 percent of max. At 50, that’s 153 to 162 on the old rule and 156 to 164 on Tanaka’s. If your real max is higher than the old rule, its targets have you working easier than the trial did.
• Zone 2. 60 to 70 percent of max on Garmin and most watches. A max that’s 10 beats too low pulls your easy pace down by 6 or 7 beats.
• Your watch’s VO2 max. It compares your heart rate at a pace with your max. Garmin says to set your max heart rate for the most accurate estimate.

Do fit people have a higher max?

Lots of people assume fit people have a higher max heart rate. They don’t. In Tanaka’s analysis, max heart rate depended mostly on age, and wasn’t changed by how physically active people were or by whether they were men or women. HUNT found the same, with no difference by activity, fitness level or body mass index.

What training changes is what the heart does at that top rate. It pumps more blood per beat. The five Dallas men’s top heart rate fell from 193 at 20 to 181 at 50, while each beat pushed out more blood, so their hearts’ maximum output didn’t drop at all.

The best case for 220 minus age

“It’s simple, everyone knows it, and every formula is a rough guess anyway. Why switch?”

Every formula is a rough guess, true. But a rough guess that’s biased low in older people is worse than one that isn’t, and switching costs nothing. The bigger fix is to stop trusting any formula over your own body. A measured max beats all three. If you can’t measure it, use the effort scale as a cross-check. The Generation 100 trial in people aged 70 to 77 used about 16 out of 20 for the hard minutes. If you take a beta blocker, heart rate targets don’t apply to you at all. Use effort, and ask your doctor before hard sessions.

What’s my max heart rate? puts the three formulas side by side for your age with the range most real maxes sit in, and your heart rate zones works out your zone 2 and 4x4 band.