Women’s Peak Heart Rate Differs from That of Men
Mon, July 12, 2010 at 02:00AM The peak heart rate is used in assessing the response of the heart to stress (usually in a treadmill stress test) and for setting goals for aerobic physical exercise. It clearly depends on age – in fact, the common formula for peak heart rate that’s been used for the last 40 years is 220 minus age. In exercise stress testing, subjects increase their exercise rate up to 85% of their calculated peak heart rate, at which point EKG tracings, blood pressure, respiration rate, and other measures are made. Failure to reach the 85% mark is regarded as a submaximal test, and is called an attenuated heart rate response, or chronotropic incompetence.
Now US cardiologists have found that the formula used to calculate peak heart rate doesn’t apply to women. In an online article in the journal Circulation, they describe the results of a study on 5,437 healthy women aged 35 or above that started in 1992. They developed a new formula for women’s peak heart rate – 206 minus 88% of age. Using the new formula allows a more accurate determination of whether women have a normal or abnormal response to exercise. For example, inability to achieve 80% of their new age-predicted peak heart rate for women was a predictor of mortality over the subsequent 16 years.
As another practical consequence of this study, women who are struggling to reach their target heart rate (65% to 85% of the 220-age peak rate) may find they can achieve this more readily with the newly calculated rate: 206 minus 88% of age.
Reader Comments (3)
The new heart rate calculationis interesting but certainly is not easier to acheive. My heart rate calculation with the old method is 137. With the new method it is 155. I don't see how this can be much different with anyone else. Very confusing article.
Susie:
Are you sure you are using the 'new formula', 206 minus 88% of age? I find that for a person aged 100, the difference is indeed very, very small: old method - 220-100=120, new method -206-88=118. For a 50-year old, it's old method - 220-50=170, new - 206-44=162. For someone aged 20, old method - 220-20=200, new method 206-17.6=188.4. From ages 20 through 100, the new method gives a lower peak heart rate then the old method, so I think your calculations are probably wrong.
I won't be indiscreet and ask you your age . . .
Bob Griffith
There should be more articles like this one on the web. Very well written, lots of useful information. Greetings and thanks for sharing.