Max Heart Rate

What is your max heart rate? Not, how fast have you had your heart beat but what is your max rate? It is easy to find out. If you look just under your left ventricle right next to the model number you should see some stats that will have the max rate. Try not to read the rest, warrantee, expiration and the like, it's to depressing. Seriously how do you figure it out? A lot of the training I have done is based on knowing this number and then extrapolating efforts from there. Things like: "run at an effort of 50% of MAXHR", "cool down at 30% of MAXRH", "15 min at 85%MHR", and the like. Have I been running to hard to 20 years? Have I been not running hard enough for 20 years? Have you ever seen a EKG of a person sneezing? It's cool, never mind. I have found many of the simple equations having you add your age and subtract the number of petals on a south slope growing flower of your choice. Or just.....guess. I know everyone has there favorite way of determing the magic number and I guess it is a mute point, cuz God gave us all a different set of A, T, C, and G's. We could really find out the MAXHR of each person in a similar fashion as the Navy created the current SCUBA Diving Decompression tables. But we would have a lot fewer runners around. "Dr. Fartlek said that just before his hearts exploded it was beating at a rate of 210bpm. I guess that was his MAXHR." Here is what I have come up with (forgive the plagerism but I have had this little bit of info for so long I do not know where it came from.): "Summary data Target intensity for health benefits = 40% VO2 max = 63% HR max Target intensity for aerobic fitness = 60-80% VO2max = 75-88% HR max Target intensity for elite training = >85% VO2max = >92% HR max Swain et al equation: % HR max = 0.64 x % VO2 max + 37 Miller et al formula: HR max = 217 - (0.85 x age) -3 beats for swimming -5 beats for cycling elite sub 30 YO –3 beats elite +50YO +2 beats elite +55YO +4 beats Londeree & Moeschberger interactive formula: HR max = 199.1 + 0.119 x AEF4 + 0.112 x AE + 6.28 x EF3 + 3.485 x F2 + 2.468 - 0.0006 x A4 - 0.591 x A A = age; A4 =(age4)/1000; E = exercise type, if run = 1, if bike = 0; if sedentary F2 = 1, otherwise F2 = 0; if active F3 = 1. otherwise F3 = 0; if endurance trained F4 = 1, otherwise F4 = 0 Raphael Brandon " So 220-your age seems a bit easier don't ya think. I have graph of my heart rate during the Firefighter Stairclimb here in Seattle and I spent just around 6 minutes above 190 and almost 1 minute above 200 maxing at 203bpm. And look Ma I can still type. So my max must be above 203, right? I know there are many waaaaaaaaay smarter people out there with great answers and explanations but I just don't really care much to spend the money and time, plus every time I look at the computer on my wrist calculating and displaying all 5 lines of data downloaded every millisecond from the 32 satellites orbiting the earth high above my head I tend to trip over a protruding stick or rock and miss the beautiful colors of fall, oftentimes my fall. Oh the joys of running in NW woods at 187.352bpm. Next time a question about trees. Tony