I'm 60 years old. According to "the formula" (220-age=max heart rate), my max should be 160. I don't use my HR monitor on the road (80-100 miles per week) but do when I'm doing a spinning class. I find it extremely difficult to reach and maintain 80% (134 bpm) and literally impossible to maintain 90% (144 bpm) other than for a very short time. I'm working hard and at 125 bpm or so I feel the effort and and have that great working really hard feeling. BTW...My monitor registers the same numbers as the bike computer so I know that the numbers are accurate.

My questions. I know that formulas don't always fit everyone, so how does one (or should one) factor in a relatively low resting heart rate of 54 bpm?
Is there another formula that factors in the resting rate?

It seems to me that for me to reach 134 bpm I'm doing 250% of my resting rate while someone my age with a resting rate of 72 bpm would only be doing around 185% of their resting rate.

The formula is reasonable for populations not individuals. If you want to know your max you'll need to measure it when you're going all out. Find a hill you can climb steadily at a hard pace for a few minutes and then sprint all out until you can't go any more. Your peak HR should come just after you stop.

Alternatively, it's probably better to structure your intervals around your threshold HR. There is a sticky at the top of this subforum (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...threshold-test) for measuring your threshold HR.

Maximum HRs vary widely between individuals. I'm 57, I still see numbers in the 180s occasionally. As Greg says, it's more useful to work out your threshold and base your training on that.

And having a low resting HR does not mean you will necessarily have a low maximum. My own resting HR is currently 48. So my max is about 380% of the resting rate. But that will have zero relevance to you because of the individual variations.

Resting hr has nothing to do with max hr. My resting rate is 45, max hr I've seen on my garmin is 183.

You need to figure out your max by doing a physical test of some sort. I'm sure most cycling training books have a procedure in them for getting your max and setting up your zones.

I'm 64, and my max is 171. The formula says it should be 156. I hit 165 to 172 on 2 out of 3 rides.
So, as pointed out above, you have to experiment. Also, I found as I got into better shape, my max appeared to rise. It didn't, but my ability to go all out increased.

59.5, yo. Mine hit 203 spinting on the treadmill, and I wasn't at my maximum. My guess is my max is around 210, but haven't been there under circumstances I was able to verify. Cruising heartrate seems to be 140-150. I think the formula is fairly useless; how hard I'm breathing, sweating and what my legs are saying is a better measure for me.

As others have said, you can't pay much attention to the formula. By formula, my MHR should be about 164, but it is impossible to get mine over about 145. My resting heart rate is about 55. Now I AM on beta blockers, which have a significant impact on heart rate, so if you take any medications, therein may lie your issue. I just did a 10 mile timetrial at Charlotte Motor Speedway last week, and I was all out for the 10 miles, and it never got over 145, but it stayed around 140 the entire ride. That's higher than my road rides. It usually stays about 125 -135 on those.

I'm a bit confused? (No surprise) I understand that many of you have exceeded the formula by a large number but...I thought that the formula provided the safe max rate. I could probably push and hit the 190s or low 200s but it seems like it would be just before the heart attack killed me.

I will look into the threshhold HR.

Thank you all for responding.

At your age, doesn't it make more sense to get a heart stress test by your doctor? That will give you a base number to work with and you can find out if there are any problems lurking in the background.

Just my 0.02

Er, what? In your initial post your concern was that no matter how hard you worked, you couldn't get your HR up to your theoretical max of 160. But now you could probably push hard enough to get it to 200? Confused is the word...

The formula is nothing but that - a quick, inaccurate, shorthand way to calculate your max HR. It's a starting point, nothing more.
Since I hit my max fairly routinely, I was concerned that, at age 64, I was putting myself in some danger. But I did some research and asked my doc, and since my underlying heart health is very good, there is no real danger. You won't be able to stay at max HR for very long, either. Your body will force you to slow down.

However, you probably should pay very close attention to any symptoms while you're at that rate -- dizziness, chest pain, anything other than what you'd expect going at that rate. And you should probably get an OK from your doc before you make this a habit.

If getting to your max HR were dangerous, you'd have to have a fleet of ambulances at every race.

I don't want to turn this thread into something the OP doesn't want, but I have some questions that fall along the same lines.....

How should Max Heartrate be calculated at home/home gym?

There is the 2x20 method.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...threshold-test
My only issue with this is, if you don't know the number you are trying to reach, you will not get a constant HR and the test results are suppose to be a constant number (not a range).



There is the one at beginner triathlete.
https://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cm...?articleid=633
The warm-up is 15 minutes of cycling, moving through the different gears, always keeping the cadence above 90 RPMS. Do a few short sprints to get your heart rate up and ready for the test!





You should start out in a gear that you can maintain 90 RPMS in. Make sure you remember what gear you started in.

• The 30 minute TT begins.
  
  
• At 10 minutes into the test, hit the 'Lap' button on your heart rate monitor, to get the average heart rate over the final 20 minutes of the test.
  
  
• The average for the final 20 minutes is your Lactate Threshold or LT.
  
  
• You should finish knowing you gave it everything you had.

15 minutes easy cool down.


This would be great, but the HR monitor doesn't do lap HR.


There are other methods described at beginner triathete.
https://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cm...?articleid=405

All of this leaves me a little confused.

I see your point but my intent was to describe a rate while working extremely hard but not totally out of control. The numbers did not describe pushing myself like a maniac to complete exhaustion.

Thank you. That is the type of answer I was looking for.