CrossChain

Can somebody steer me to a definitive or broadly accepted Heart Rate zone chart. I've seen at least two. On one, Zone 2 is 65-72% mhr, on another chart, Zone 2 is 65 - 84%.

What are people using and is there a commonly accepted definition for the range of each zone?

leinad

I highly recommend the "Heart Rate monitor book for cylist, 2nd ed." by Salley edwards and Salley Reed. This book has great explainations of how to use heart rate as well as some great workout using heart rate both indoor and outdoor. My wife has used the book and I can attest to her improvement with it, the girl is awesome.

Pendergast

Basing zones on lactate threshold heart rate is a better way to go than basing them on MHR. Using a formula to get your MHR is very inaccurate and trying to actually drive your heart rate up to its maximum isn't really the wisest thing to do. Do the 2x20 min anaerobic threshold test shown at the sticky on this(BF Training & Nutrition) page. There's a good chart at the very bottom of this web page(https://www.vegasvelo.com/html/vvrttraining2.asp) that you can use once you know your lactate/anaerobic threshold. That chart is based on Joe Friel's zones which are probably about as commonly used as anyone's. The numbers are exactly the same as the chart for cycling in his latest book "Total Heart Rate Training" except in the book he breaks zone 5 into 5a, 5b, and 5c and gives the numbers for those. I also have the latest edition of the book by Sally Edwards that leinad mentioned; it's titled "Heart Zones Cycling" now. Her numbers are a slightly higher % of lactate threshold at the high end of the scale and a slightly lower % at the low end, but they're not different by a whole lot. Her book does have a chart using zones based on MHR, as well.

fuzzthebee

https://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/levels.asp