Most people have probably encountered the classic formula for calculating maximum heart rate is 220

Most people have probably encountered the classic formula for calculating maximum heart rate is 220 - age. This formula is used in very scattered hitched contexts, ranging from clinical submaximal tests you can perform at the hospital if doctors want to examine your health to design training programs for beginners of any fitness sport. In this post I will tell you a little more about the formula, how it arose, and also explain why it is not usually something good. I will give a better formula to more precisely estimate the maximum heart rate in individuals hitched who are unable or unwilling to perform an exercise stress test, and I will also tell you when this formula can be useful and when not it enough. The story behind the formula 220 - age
2002, a literature review in which researchers tried to find out the origin of the formula (1). By following the various references that refer to different articles will eventually reach a study published in 1971 (2). However, there are two things that make this finding surprising. Partly it was found very many studies that have referred to secondary sources, and a great many studies that indicated the formula without giving a source. This is a bit of a cardinal sin in science and research then you should always refer to the original source of the information it represents. If not that then at least you have examined so that the source can enter in turn have entered the correct source. In this case, it seems that most scientists have copied the references from each other without actually examine hitched whether that is in fact the source is consistent with what is said.
The other thing that is remarkable about the find is that the formula 220 - age is not calculated or designed by some precise measurements. In fact, the authors of the study from 1971, only aggregated results from some other studies, put them into a graph and then appreciated a little loose about how the slope appears to be. The article writes them:
no single line Will Adequately Represent thedata on the apparent decline of maximal heart rate with age. The formula maximum heart rate = 220-age in years defines a line not far from many of the data points ..
Researchers who tried to investigate hitched the formula made origin because its own calculation where they were up to the same sources, and then they made themselves a more accurate mathematical calculation. The result hitched of the calculation formula was 215.4 - (0.9147 x age).
The formula 220 - age has thus never been produced in an actual study. It is based only on rough estimates by some researchers when they looked at a graph and after that estimate appears to have been quite life of its own and has spread rapidly. Is there a better formula then?
The 220 - age is not the best formula to use, I hope that most people now understand. But is there a better formula to use to calculate, or rather hitched appreciate, maximum heart rate? After the researchers hitched looked for the origin of the formula 220 - age realized that the formula has no scientific basis, so they did a literature search to find true formulas (1). Total found 43 different formulas in which 30 of them were measured in healthy humans. After you add up all of these into a single formula had to the following equation, 208.754 - (0.734 x age).
In another large meta-analysis from 2001 which included a total of 18,712 subjects and then self tested 514 people came to the conclusion the formula 208 - (0.7 x age) (3). This formula is very similar to the one that was taken up by the other research and this formula is probably the best.
In a very recent study which investigated the overweight people to see the formula that worked best for them compared the three different equations, 220-age, 208 - (0.7 x age) and 200 - (0:48 x age) (4) . The equation 200 - (0:48 x age) had previously been developed in a preliminary study to fit obese individuals (5). Total enrolled 132 obese people in the study and the results you can see in the table below.
Comparison of the calculated values with those actually measured in obese people of different ages. Tanaka et al, the equation 208- (0.7 x age) and Miller et al. the equation 200- (0:48 x age). Tanaka et al equation worked best.
Okay, now we know which formula is best for estimating maximum heart rate in ourselves hitched or any person that we should test or write an exercise program. Or? Actually, we only know what the equation that works best for calculating the mean if you test several different people. However, the variability of individuals still quite large even when using the best formula.
The graph to the right shows the individual maximum heart rate in relation to their age and the line on the graph shows the calculated mean. As you can see, it's very great variation between