Don in Austin,

Find out what yours uses. That's how I learned what I learned.

When they administer a stress test, they try to stress you up to "95% of max." Already used to HR training, I knew from the way it felt that they had me nowhere near what my tested value should have been (176). They wouldn't tell me my actual number. But they evaluate your performance (EKG and echocardiogram) based on norms established by using that formula. They also look at your actual performance in terms of proper cardiac behavior, and evaluate it. I don't think I'm in any danger because of the cardiologists using this as a norm.

If you want to improve the quality of medicine in the world, become a cardiologist, write a research proposal, and shop it around to hospitals and the Feds to get research money. Then do the work, publish, and defend your work to your peers; it might then become accepted science. Meanwhile, if you haven't even asked a cardiologist, you have less ground to stand on than I do.