Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Recalibrated Formula Eases Women’s Workouts



Since the 1970's if you wanted to know if you were working out efficiently you monitored you heart rate using the simple formula 220 - your age x 65% -85%. This simple formula has been used by Doctors, trainers and just about every fitness company.
But recent research may change the formula at least for women.

Researchers at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago announced a new formula for calculating a woman’s maximum heart rate

But based on the new calculation, the same woman’s average maximum heart rate is 171 beats per minute, meaning her desired target heart rate is just 145 beats per minute, 8 beats a minute slower than under the old formula. Although the gap seems small on paper, it can be the difference between an exhilarating workout or a frustrating one that ends in exhaustion.


Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
www.drdavidmarcon.com

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