Heart rate zones: moderate and vigorous effort, maximum heart rate and bpm by age

What are heart rate zones?

A heart rate zone is a band of beats per minute (bpm) that goes with a level of effort. Some watches and apps show more bands than UK guidance defines. The UK sources read for this guide describe fewer, and this guide sticks to what they say.

The BHF defines moderate intensity as exercising at 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate, which it also calls your target heart rate.¹ The UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) and the NHS describe moderate and vigorous effort mainly by how it feels, through the talk test.²³

No British source read gives percentage bands for a five-zone system, or says which zone “burns the most fat”. This guide therefore does not draw a five-zone table. Where a device shows more zones than this page, treat its percentages as the device maker’s scheme, not as UK guidance.

The talk test: moderate or vigorous?

Three UK sources give the same simple test. The NHS says moderate activity raises your heart rate, makes you breathe faster and feel warmer, and you can still talk but not sing.³ The CMOs say being able to talk but not sing indicates moderate intensity, and difficulty talking without pausing is a sign of vigorous activity.²

At vigorous intensity, the NHS adds, you cannot say more than a few words without pausing for breath.³ The BHF says if you can comfortably talk while being active, feel warm and breathe a little more heavily, you are at moderate intensity. If you can breathe easily, you need to increase your effort to raise your heart rate.¹

How to estimate your maximum heart rate

The BHF’s method is to deduct your age from 220. Its worked example is age 60: 220 minus 60 gives a maximum of 160 bpm, and 50 to 70% of that is 80 to 112 bpm.¹ That is simple, and the BHF uses it, but it is an estimate.

Three studies give different equations, and a different spread of error. Tanaka and HUNT studied healthy adults; Gellish followed adults attending a university fitness centre:

A worked example for a 45-year-old

For age 45, 220 minus 45 is 175 bpm. The Tanaka equation gives 208 minus 31.5, or 176.5. The Gellish equation gives 207 minus 31.5, or 175.5. The HUNT equation gives 211 minus 28.8, or 182.2, and its standard error of 10.8 puts a typical range at about 171 to 193 bpm.⁴⁵⁶ The age is invented to show the arithmetic.

So three of the four estimates sit within a beat or two of each other, one (HUNT) is about 6 to 7 beats higher, and the HUNT authors say a standard error of 10.8 bpm must be taken into account. The practical lesson is to treat your estimated maximum as a rough guide, and to use the talk test alongside it.

For the moderate range using 220 minus age at age 45, 50% of 175 is 87.5 and 70% is 122.5, so about 88 to 123 bpm.¹

Your moderate range by age: a bpm table

The table shows the moderate range only, because that is the band the UK sources define in percentages. For harder efforts, use the talk test and how you feel rather than a percentage that no UK source read supports.

Resting heart rate and your zones

Your resting heart rate is a separate figure. The BHF says a normal resting rate is between 60 and 100 bpm, though yours may be higher or lower.¹⁷ The sources read for this guide do not use resting heart rate to set exercise bands, so this page does not either.

If you want your own resting figure, see how to measure your resting heart rate, and for what the number means, the guide to a normal resting heart rate.

How accurate is a wrist sensor during exercise?

The BHF says many heart rate monitors on sale today are not currently recommended by clinical guidelines, and that being able to talk while exercising is a simple way to judge effort.⁹ It also says a battery that needs replacing or very sweaty skin can make a smartwatch record inaccurately.¹

A laboratory study of seven wrist-worn devices in 60 volunteers found that most adequately measured heart rate in the laboratory activities. Device error was higher for males, for a greater body mass index, for darker skin tone and for walking, and six of the seven had a median heart rate error below 5% during cycling.⁸

That study, published in 2017, tested specific models under laboratory conditions. It says nothing about any particular band you may own, so treat a wrist reading during effort as an estimate and check it against how you feel.

Frequently asked questions