How to Maximize Your Fitness with Heart Rate Training

Numbers can tell us a lot. Whether it’s a milestone, class streak, or a new pace on the tread, fitness metrics are a useful and motivating indicator of all your hard work. If you nerd out looking at your fitness trackers or are looking to tailor your workouts even more to your specific goals, you may want to consider heart rate training.

What Is Heart Rate Training?

Heart rate training is a technique in which you use your heart rate as a guide to control the intensity of your workouts. “As you exercise, your heart rate increases to deliver oxygen and nutrients to your muscles,” says Peloton instructor Matt Wilpers. “By monitoring your heart rate, you can ensure that you are working out at the appropriate level of intensity to achieve your fitness goals.” That means whether you want to improve your endurance, speed, or overall cardiovascular health, there’s a heart rate training zone that’s ideal for your goal.

Understanding Heart Rate Zones

Heart rate training zones are calculated based on your maximum heart rate, the highest heart rate you can achieve during exercise. 

While you’ll still benefit from any workout even if you’re not clued into your heart rate, being aware of your heart rate training zones and how they impact your training can get you the results you want faster. Plus, being aware of how long your heart takes to recover after each workout can indicate your health, not just your fitness level. A 2024 Cleveland Clinic study found that 50 percent of Americans use at least one type of technology to monitor their health, and more than half track their heart rate.   

Benefits of Heart Rate Training

“The benefits of heart rate training include improved cardiovascular fitness, increased endurance, and better overall health,” Matt says. Training for your cardiorespiratory health results in a lower resting heart rate, improved blood flow, and enhanced oxygen delivery to your muscles, adds Peloton instructor Alex Karwoski.

Recovery and injury prevention are also key benefits of heart rate training. “By training at the appropriate heart rate zones, you can also prevent overtraining and reduce the risk of injury, as you are not pushing your body beyond its limits,” Matt says.

Your workouts will also become more efficient, which leads to better performance and endurance. “Being in the right zone specifically targets the energy systems and physiological adaptations required for your activity, leading to increased stamina, improved lactate threshold, and overall better performance,” Alex says. Not to mention, heart rate training can give you a real motivation boost as you watch how your metrics and ability to focus your training improves over time.

Improved Cardiovascular Health

Heart rate training will go a long way towards making you a stronger, more efficient athlete. However, it can also provide heart-healthy benefits: Pushing yourself at the gym will strengthen your heart and lungs so blood can move through them more efficiently, putting you at lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart disease. 

If you’re not motivated by metrics, knowing that heart rate training helps reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of death in the U.S., causing 928,741 deaths in 2020) might be enough incentive to get it pumping more regularly. 

Understanding Your Heart Rate Training Zones

The five heart rate training zones, plus what they are used for, according to Alex: 

Determining Your Maximum Heart Rate

The standard equation to calculate your individual maximum heart rate is simple: Subtract your age from 220. (A 34-year-old would have a max heart rate of 186.) There are more individualized tests you can perform to narrow that number even further, but it’s recommended that you work with a professional to help you do so, if that’s something you’re interested in.

Once you have your max heart rate calculated, you can find your heart rate training zones that are “divided into several levels, ranging from low-intensity recovery zones to high-intensity anaerobic zones,” Matt says. Each zone is associated with different physiological benefits and targets different aspects of your fitness, such as endurance, speed, or fat burning.

Applying Heart Rate Zones to Your Workouts

Now that you know how to calculate your heart rate training zones, it’s time to get excited about workouts that will get you there. While many Peloton classes allow you to sync post-workout data from classes to compatible fitness apps when wearing a heart rate monitor, it’s also helpful to know what activities qualify for each heart rate training zone. Zone 1 activities, for example, include casual walks and stretching that you can do for an extended period, while zone 5 activities should leave you breathless after just 30 seconds.

Choosing a Heart Rate Monitor

So, how will you know what heart rate zone you’re in? You’ll need to use a heart rate monitor, of which there are several different styles to choose from.

When looking to buy a heart rate monitor for exercise, you want to pay attention to several key elements: accuracy, comfort, compatibility with devices, additional features, battery life, ease of use, water resistance, and price. 

Peloton Heart Rate Monitor

The Peloton heart rate monitor, which wraps comfortably around your chest (a placement that’s known for its accuracy) and connects seamlessly to any Peloton equipment via Bluetooth. You can also get metrics delivered to your phone or tablet, and connect the Peloton heart rate band with other fitness apps. (Buy It: Peloton Heart Rate Monitor, $34.)

More Heart Rate Monitors

In addition to the Peloton Heart Rate Band, some other popular devices with heart rate monitoring include:

Apple Watch: Check your heart rate while wearing the Apple Watch Series 4 or newer at any point by opening the Heart Rate app. Those devices with at least watchOS 5.1.2 software can also get irregular rhythm notifications. If you have Peloton equipment or use the Peloton App, you can also easily track your heart rate in classes with the Apple Watch integration.

Garmin: The popular fitness device manufacturer has smartwatches (such as the popular Forerunner series) that measure your heart rate 24/7 while wearing the device as well as heart rate monitor chest straps. 

Polar: Whether you want a heart rate monitor that’s fairly simple in design for ease of use or prefer something with all the bells and whistles, Polar offers a monitor or smartwatch with heart rate capabilities for any kind of athlete. Try the Polar H10 heart rate sensor.

Fitbit: The range of Fitbit products and trackers includes the brand’s PurePulse heart rate monitoring tool. Popular models include the Fitbit Luxe, Fitbit Versa, and Fitbit Inspire.

How to Use a Heart Rate Monitor For Exercise

Ready to create a heart rate training plan and get one step closer to your goals? To do so, you’ll want a clear understanding of your current fitness level, target heart rate training zones, and the type of training you want to do, Matt says. Here’s a general guide to help you get started.

Monitoring Your Heart Rate

Remember, you want to first find your max heart rate.Then using that number, you’ll be able to calculate your Zones 1-5 using the percentage range given for each. 

Adjusting Your Training Intensity

Next, determine your goal(s). “For example, if you're training for endurance, you may want to focus on longer, steady-state workouts at a moderate intensity,” Matt says. This would be largely in Zones 2 and 3. “If you're training for speed or strength, you may want to focus on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or resistance training,” he adds, which means your workouts will be more so in Zones 4 and 5. 

Then plan your type of workouts, the duration of each, and the frequency of your training. An example week of rowing workouts might look like six days of training that follows a pattern of low intensity workout, another low intensity workout, difficult, low intensity, moderate intensity, and another difficult day at the end, followed by one day of rest, according to Alex. 

Monitor your progress along the way. Keep an eye on your heart rate zones not just during each workout, but also over time. As your endurance or strength changes, your heart rate training ranges may too.

The most important thing? No matter what your heart rate says or what you have scheduled for your workout that day, nothing trumps what your body’s telling you. “Listen to your body,” Alex says. “If you consistently feel too tired [for the planned workout intensity], you probably need to adjust your goals—and vice versa if you feel like you can always go harder.”

Heart Rate Training with Peloton

Peloton Members can connect any compatible heart rate monitor with the Peloton App or Peloton Bike, Bike+, Tread, or Row to view their real-time heart rate and zone during classes, as well as record their heart rate performance to easily refer back later.

What’s even more notable about heart rate training with Peloton, however, is your Strive Score. This is a unique metric only available to Peloton Members that’s calculated based on the time spent in each heart rate zone. “If you’re new to training with heart rate zones, this tool takes the math out of the process, allowing you to track your progress and compare your workouts based on heart rate as well as [how you] feel,” Matt explains. “You earn a fraction of a point for each second that you’re in a [particular] zone. The higher your Strive Score, the more effort you put into your workout.”

What’s cool is that your Strive Score follows you through every type of class, so you can compare your performance across all workouts with the Peloton heart rate monitor or another compatible device. Peloton Members can use the Strive Score to set goals, track their progress, and compete with others on the Peloton platform. As you continue to log workouts, zone training can help you observe how your body responds over a long period of time—starting anywhere from three to six months.

No matter how you decide to use heart rate training zones as part of your exercise routine, understanding how your exercise heart rate changes with different types of activity is a valuable tool for getting more in tune with your body.