Free target heart rate calculator
Find your target heart rate zone in two seconds. Enter your age and resting heart rate and the calculator returns your target bpm band with the Karvonen heart-rate-reserve method, all five training zones, and the simpler percentage-of-max range — pick any intensity from recovery to maximum, updated live, as you type.
On this page13 sections
Max HR estimate (220 − age) is an average. Consult a physician before changing exercise intensity, especially if you have heart conditions.
Results are estimates. Consult a professional.
What is your target heart rate?
Your target heart rate is the working range — in beats per minute — that you aim to keep your heart inside while you exercise. It is not a single number but a band: a floor you want to climb above so the session actually challenges your heart, and a ceiling you stay under so the effort is sustainable and safe. Stay below the floor and you are barely working; push past the ceiling and you cannot hold the pace. This calculator turns your age, your resting heart rate, and a chosen intensity into the exact bpm band you should see on your watch. The point of training to a target rather than to feel is repeatability: the same band on every session means easy days stay genuinely easy and hard days deliver the stimulus you intended.
Target heart rate sits well below your maximum heart rate (the all-out ceiling your heart can reach) and well above your resting heart rate (your beats per minute at complete rest). The American Heart Association frames the useful working range as 50–85% of maximum: 50–70% for moderate effort and 70–85% for vigorous effort. The calculator can express that range two ways — a plain percentage of your maximum, or the more personalised Karvonen method that also folds in your resting heart rate.
Target zone vs maximum heart rate — why they are not the same
It is easy to confuse the two. Your maximum heart rate is a fixed personal ceiling set mostly by age and genetics; you would only touch it during all-out exertion. Your target zone is where training actually happens — a deliberately chosen slice beneath that ceiling. This page is about the slice. If you only need the ceiling itself, the max heart rate calculator estimates it from age alone.
The Karvonen formula: target heart rate from heart-rate reserve
The Karvonen formula is the method this calculator leads with, because it produces a target that is personal to you rather than to everyone your age. It works from your heart-rate reserve — the gap between your maximum and resting heart rates — which is the real room your heart has to speed up. Two people the same age but with different resting rates get different targets, which is exactly right: a fitter heart should be worked differently from a sedentary one.
The detail that makes Karvonen different from a plain percentage is the final step: after you take a percentage of the reserve, you add your resting heart rate back in. That single addition shifts every target upward and ties it to your own physiology. It is why Karvonen targets almost always read higher than the equivalent plain-percentage targets, and why endurance athletes — who have very low resting rates — get a band that genuinely fits their training.
The five target heart rate zones
Intensity is not one setting — it is a ladder of five zones, each a defined band of your effort and each producing a different result. The table below pairs every zone with what it is for and how it feels, using the talk test (the simplest way to tell which zone you are in without a monitor). Most of your weekly training should sit in zones 2 and 3; the top zones are powerful but you can only hold them briefly.
| Zone | % of max / reserve | Best for | How it feels (talk test) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Recovery | 50–60% | Warm-up, cool-down, active recovery | Very easy — you can sing |
| 2 · Fat burn / base | 60–70% | Endurance base, weight management | Comfortable — full conversation |
| 3 · Aerobic / cardio | 70–80% | Cardio fitness, stamina, endurance | Comfortably hard — short sentences |
| 4 · Threshold | 80–90% | Speed, power, lactate-threshold work | Hard — a few words at a time |
| 5 · Maximum | 90–100% | Short VO2-max intervals, peak effort | All-out — cannot talk |
The five-zone model. Percentages apply to maximum heart rate for the plain method or to heart-rate reserve for the Karvonen method. Talk-test cues follow Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic guidance.
A worked example using the target heart rate calculator
Dan is 40, has measured his resting heart rate at 60 bpm, and wants the bpm band for a steady aerobic (zone 3, 70–80%) session. Here is exactly how the calculator runs the Karvonen formula, step by step.
- Estimate the maximum. Using 220 − age: 220 − 40 = 180 bpm. That is the ceiling the rest of the math sits under.
- Find the heart-rate reserve. Subtract the resting rate from the maximum: 180 − 60 = 120 bpm of reserve — the room Dan's heart has to speed up.
- Take the intensity band off the reserve. For 70%: 120 × 0.70 = 84. For 80%: 120 × 0.80 = 96.
- Add the resting rate back in. Lower bound: 84 + 60 = 144 bpm. Upper bound: 96 + 60 = 156 bpm.
Karvonen vs percentage of maximum: which should you use?
There are two honest ways to set a target, and the calculator offers both. The plain percentage-of-maximum method simply takes a percentage of your max heart rate — quick, but blind to your fitness. The Karvonen method takes the same percentage of your heart-rate reserve and adds your resting rate back, so it adapts to you. Karvonen is the better default whenever you know your resting heart rate; the plain method is the fallback when you do not.
| Intensity | % of max (plain) | Karvonen (rest 60 bpm) |
|---|---|---|
| 50% | 90 bpm | 120 bpm |
| 60% | 108 bpm | 132 bpm |
| 70% | 126 bpm | 144 bpm |
| 80% | 144 bpm | 156 bpm |
| 85% | 153 bpm | 162 bpm |
Both columns for a 40-year-old (max HR 180 bpm); Karvonen assumes a 60 bpm resting rate. Karvonen always reads higher because the resting rate is added back in. Source: Karvonen et al., 1957; American Heart Association.
Fat-burning zone vs cardio zone: the truth
The "fat-burning zone" (zone 2, 60–70%) earns its name honestly: at that easy intensity your body draws the highest share of its fuel from fat. The "cardio zone" (zone 3, 70–80%) is a notch harder, where the body shifts toward burning more carbohydrate. From that, gym lore concludes you should stay low and slow to lose fat. The arithmetic says otherwise.
The practical takeaway: pick the zone that fits the session, not a myth. Long, easy zone-2 work builds an aerobic base you can do often without burning out; harder zone-3 and above burn more per minute but cost more recovery. For weight management, what matters most is total calories — pair this tool with the calories-burned calculator to see the energy each session actually costs.
How to measure your heart rate and resting rate
The Karvonen method needs one input most people guess at: an accurate resting heart rate. Getting it right is worth a careful minute, because it shifts every target you train to.
Taking your resting heart rate
Measure it first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed, when your heart is at its true baseline. Find your pulse at your wrist (radial) or the side of your neck (carotid), count the beats for a full 60 seconds, and that is your resting rate in bpm. A typical adult sits at 60–100 bpm; well-trained endurance athletes are often 40–60 bpm. Take it across a few mornings and average them — a single reading can be thrown off by a poor night's sleep, caffeine, or stress, all of which nudge the resting rate up.
Checking your heart rate during exercise
- Chest-strap monitor — the most accurate option for live readings; it reads the heart's electrical signal directly.
- Wrist watch or fitness band — convenient and good enough for zone training, though optical sensors can lag or misread during sharp intensity changes.
- Manual count — pause briefly, count your pulse for 15 seconds, and multiply by 4. Quick, but you lose a few beats as your heart rate drops the moment you stop.
Target, resting, maximum, and reserve
Sources and methodology
This calculator sets target zones with the Karvonen heart-rate-reserve method — target = (max HR − resting HR) × intensity + resting HR — first described by Karvonen, Kentala & Mustala in 1957 and recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine for exercise prescription. The maximum heart rate it builds on is the 220 − age estimate published by the American Heart Association, whose 50–85% target-zone guidance frames the moderate and vigorous bands. The plain percentage-of-maximum method is offered as the fallback when no resting rate is entered. The arithmetic is exact; the underlying age formula carries a roughly ±10–12 bpm individual error.
American Heart Association — Target Heart Rates Chart.Karvonen MJ, Kentala E, Mustala O. The effects of training on heart rate. Ann Med Exp Biol Fenn. 1957;35(3):307–315.Frequently asked questions about the free target heart rate calculator
About this target heart rate calculator
This target heart rate calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your age and resting heart rate never leave your device — nothing is sent to a server, logged, or shared. It builds your target zones with the Karvonen heart-rate-reserve method (falling back to a plain percentage of maximum when no resting rate is entered), covering all five training zones from recovery to maximum, updating instantly.
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