Heart Rate Zones Explained: The 5 Zones for Beginners

Heart rate zones are five effort bands, from very easy (zone 1) to all-out (zone 5), each defined as a percentage of your maximum heart rate or your heart rate reserve. They give you a simple way to make easy days truly easy and hard days purposeful. You estimate your maximum heart rate, optionally add your resting heart rate, and calculate the beats per minute that belong to each zone. Our heart rate zone calculator does the maths for you in a few seconds.

This guide explains what each zone is for, how the formulas work, how much to trust them, and how to use zones in your weekly training without getting obsessed with numbers.

What is a heart rate zone?

Your heart rate rises as exercise gets harder. A heart rate zone is a range of beats per minute (bpm) that corresponds to a particular level of effort. Instead of saying "go easy", a zone says "keep your heart rate between 130 and 145 bpm".

Zones are useful because perceived effort can be misleading. On a good day, a hard pace feels easy. On a hot, stressful or tired day, an easy pace feels hard. Heart rate is not perfect either, but combined with how you feel, it gives you a second opinion.

The 5 heart rate zones at a glance

This is the five-zone model used by many watches and apps, and by our calculator:

Zone	% of max HR or HR reserve	Feels like	Typical use
Zone 1	50–60 %	Very easy, could chat all day	Warm-ups, cool-downs, recovery walks and jogs
Zone 2	60–70 %	Easy, full sentences possible	Base endurance, most easy runs and rides
Zone 3	70–80 %	Moderate, sentences get shorter	Steady runs, tempo-ish efforts for beginners
Zone 4	80–90 %	Hard, only a few words at a time	Threshold work, intervals
Zone 5	90–100 %	Maximal, cannot talk	Short sprints and very hard intervals

Different brands use slightly different percentages or three- to seven-zone models. That is fine. What matters is that you use one model consistently.

Step 1: Estimate your maximum heart rate

Your maximum heart rate (max HR) is the highest number of beats per minute your heart reaches during all-out effort. It is largely individual and generally declines with age. It is not a fitness score: a higher max does not mean you are fitter.

Common formulas

Method	Formula	Example for age 35
Classic	220 − age	220 − 35 = 185 bpm
Tanaka	208 − 0.7 × age	208 − 24.5 = about 184 bpm
Measured	Highest value seen in a hard effort or a supervised test	Your own number

Both formulas are estimates based on averages across many people. Your personal maximum can sit well above or below the result. That is why the heart rate zone calculator lets you choose a formula or enter a max you have actually seen.

Should you test your max heart rate?

An all-out field test is very demanding and is not a good idea for beginners or anyone with health concerns. A safer approach is to note the highest heart rate your watch records during hard efforts over a few weeks, for example at the end of an uphill interval. If that number is clearly higher than your formula estimate, use it instead.

If you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, are pregnant, take medication that affects heart rate (such as beta blockers) or have been inactive for a long time, talk to your doctor before doing hard efforts, and ask them how you should judge intensity.

Step 2: Add your resting heart rate (Karvonen method)

The simple method calculates zones as a percentage of max HR. The Karvonen method also uses your resting heart rate, which personalises the zones a little more.

1. Measure your resting heart rate: in the morning, before getting up, count your pulse for 60 seconds, or use your watch's overnight reading. Do this on a few days and take the average.
2. Calculate your heart rate reserve: max HR − resting HR.
3. Zone heart rate = resting HR + (heart rate reserve × zone percentage).

Worked example

Take a 35-year-old with an estimated max of 185 bpm and a resting heart rate of 60 bpm.

• Heart rate reserve = 185 − 60 = 125 bpm.
• Zone 2 lower limit = 60 + 125 × 0.60 = 135 bpm.
• Zone 2 upper limit = 60 + 125 × 0.70 = 147.5 bpm, so about 148 bpm.

Here are the full results for both methods:

Zone	% of max HR (185)	Karvonen (max 185, rest 60)
Zone 1	93–111 bpm	123–135 bpm
Zone 2	111–130 bpm	135–148 bpm
Zone 3	130–148 bpm	148–160 bpm
Zone 4	148–167 bpm	160–173 bpm
Zone 5	167–185 bpm	173–185 bpm

Values are rounded to whole beats. The Karvonen method shifts the lower zones up noticeably, because it accounts for the fact that your heart is already beating 60 times a minute at rest. For many people, Karvonen zone 2 feels closer to a true easy run than the simple percentage of max HR, which can feel almost like walking. Plug in your own numbers in the calculator to get exact values without hand arithmetic.

How each zone feels and what it does

Zone 1: recovery

Very light movement. Walking briskly, an easy spin on a bike, the first minutes of a warm-up. You could hold a conversation without any effort. Zone 1 is useful for active recovery and for people returning to exercise.

Zone 2: easy endurance

The "all-day" pace for many people. Breathing is a little deeper, but you can speak in full sentences. Most easy runs belong here. Because this zone gets so much attention, we have a separate guide on zone 2 training for beginners with sample weeks.

Zone 3: moderate

Comfortably hard. You can talk, but in shorter sentences. Many beginners drift into zone 3 on every run because it feels productive. It is a perfectly good zone, but living there every day can leave you tired without making your hard days harder.

Zone 4: hard

Breathing is heavy, and talking is limited to a few words. This is where threshold and interval sessions sit. For beginners, a little zone 4 goes a long way.

Zone 5: maximal

Short bursts you can hold for seconds up to a few minutes. Hill sprints and very short intervals. Not needed at all in your first months of training.

How to use heart rate zones in your week

A simple, widely used guideline is to keep most of your training easy and a smaller part hard. For a beginner running three times a week, that could look like this:

Day	Session	Target zone
Monday	Rest or walk	Zone 1
Tuesday	25–35 min easy run or run-walk	Zone 2
Wednesday	Rest or strength training	—
Thursday	20–30 min easy run with 4–6 × 20 s faster strides	Zone 2, short spikes higher
Friday	Rest	—
Saturday	30–45 min easy, longer run	Zone 2
Sunday	Rest, walk or mobility	Zone 1

Once you are running consistently for a couple of months, you can replace one easy run with a session that includes short zone 4 intervals. New to running altogether? Start with our how to start running guide and the run-walk method, both of which work well with heart rate guidance.

Why your heart rate is sometimes "wrong"

Heart rate responds to more than effort. Expect it to read higher than usual when:

• It is hot or humid.
• You are dehydrated, under-slept or stressed.
• You are getting ill.
• You have had caffeine.
• You are running uphill or into the wind.
• You are at altitude.

It can also read lower than usual if you are very fatigued from heavy training, or if you take medication that slows the heart.

Wrist sensor vs chest strap

Optical sensors on the wrist are convenient but can be thrown off by a loose fit, cold skin, tattoos or arm movement, especially during intervals. Chest straps measure electrical signals and are usually more responsive. If your watch shows a sudden jump to an implausible number at the start of a run, it is often a sensor glitch rather than your heart.

Combine heart rate with the talk test

The most robust approach uses two signals:

• Talk test: can you speak in full sentences (easy), short phrases (moderate) or only single words (hard)?
• Heart rate: does the number match the zone you are aiming for?

If both agree, great. If they disagree, for example your heart rate says zone 2 but you are gasping, slow down and trust how you feel. If your heart rate seems unusually high at an easy effort for several days, take it as a sign to rest more.

Common mistakes with heart rate zones

• Treating formula results as exact. They are estimates. Adjust when your experience says otherwise.
• Running every session in zone 3. Easy days drift up, hard days lose quality.
• Chasing the number mid-interval. Heart rate lags behind effort during short intervals; use pace or effort for those.
• Comparing zones with friends. Your max HR says nothing about your fitness compared with someone else's.
• Ignoring warning signs. Chest pain, dizziness, unusual shortness of breath or an irregular heartbeat are reasons to stop and seek medical advice, whatever your zone says.

Your heart rate zone checklist

• Estimate max HR with a formula, or use a max you have seen in hard efforts.
• Measure resting HR on a few mornings and average it.
• Calculate zones with the heart rate zone calculator.
• Keep most runs in zones 1–2, add harder work slowly.
• Cross-check with the talk test.
• Recalculate every few months or when your resting HR changes.

Heart rate zones are a tool, not a rulebook. Use them to keep yourself honest on easy days, and enjoy the extra structure they bring to your training.