Heart rate zones - no bpm option

Can you tell us exactly what your medical lab test wants you to set your zones at?

I actually went to the hospital sport health center 2 weeks ago for a performance test on a treadmill.

The 5 zones in the medical report are defined in bpm.

1. Zone 1: 115 -129
2. Zone 2: 130 - 144
3. etc...

Translating them in % of Max HR is not correct because I didn't reach my max HR in the performance test (I reached max Vo2, high lactate level, and high VMA though). For convenience, they did show %HRMax (based on max hr in the test), but that is a calculation based on bpm and not the other way around.

I would appreciate not telling me I don't understand zone training. There is not only one way to do it.

Garmin changed my zones with the latest firmware update to put %age default zone values based on my actual HR Max. Zone 2 is now going to 150 whereas it was previously configured to 144; and no information that it was automatically changed to some default values.

So yes, I can manually define a lower than real HR max in Garmin, and then translate the bpm zones to %age. Or make calculations with actual bpm zones and actual max HR. However I have no way to check that this is correct except actually going for a run and checking the HR gauge during the run.

But none of this is convenient; in the same way than displaying the time of the day in EPOC and asking me to do the calculation to HH:MM:SS would not be convenient. But then I might not understand how time works either.

Can you tell us what each zone is in BPM that they gave you?

The max HR you reached on the test?

The lactate threshold they gave you?

Was this a medical stress test by any chance?

I'm just trying to understand that if this was a athletic performance test, why they would not push you to your MHR, as that is the most important number to set your zones up correctly.

The 3 BPM numbers that are needed for heart rate training are...

max heart rate (changes with age)

lactate threshold (usually 85% of max heart rate in most people, but can change with fitness level)

resting heart rate (used to calculate heart rate reserve (HRR))

Those numbers are used to calculate the training zones "in percent" (not BPM), and your garmin has settings for those 3 numbers. Your garmin also has settings for the type of heart rate training that you want to base it on.

%max HR (default)

%HRR

%LTHR

The default zones that garmin uses are...

50-59%

60-69%

70-79%

80-89%

90-100%

These zones will change the BPM depending on what type of heart rate training you select, but the zones are still percentages of those 3 BPM settings.

Let say you set all your zones by BPM and not %... that means that every time you age (and your MHR goes down), or you increase your fitness level (and your LT goes up), you will have to set all your zones up from scratch each time. Where as, if you set them by percent (like it was meant to be), you will never have to change them, as long as you keep your MHR, LT, and RHR settings up to date.

If you provide me with the information i requested above, I can help you set up your zone percentages.

Agreed. It is easy to do the math but it's not that hard to do the %.

Thanks for this. excellent explanation. Being 71 years old, I can vouch for age affecting your maximum HR. Lol

You would be surprised at how many people don't know their true max heart rate.

For example, I'm 65, and according to the 220 - age formula, my MHR should be 155, but just a few years ago when I was running a lot, I could get my HR into the low 170's.

When I got my epix pro 51mm, I set my MHR to 155, and had MHR auto detection on, and after my first run, auto detect set my MHR to 163. I mainly walk now, but I do add run intervals into my walks.

Just an OldAssDude looking for the fountain of middle age... lol

As much as I appreciate the help proposal .... I went to a specialized center to do that performance test (athletic), and got the zones defined by experts based on a full series of data (including lactate and gas exchanges). I paid for those tests (which are not cheap) The results were validated by the 2 professional coaches I work with (who are also experts on those topics). I am not going to start debating zones or Max HR or percentage (If you are asking why "they would not push to MHR", there might be a few things you don't know about how those tests work)

My zones are set for this year, in bpm

I just need Garmin to let me enter them in my watch without having to make useless calculations.

It's frustrating to pay the high price for the epix2 saphire and not have that basic function. Every other platform I used (or have used) allows bpm.

9178404 said:

My zones are set for this year, in bpm

While some of us are annoyed at the change it’s not the end of the world. Since you paid for those tests either have the testers give you the percentages to enter or do the simple math yourself. The calculations aren’t useless as they’ll still give you the outcome you desire - HR zones for training.

Also, contact Garmin Support and voice your disapproval. As has been said there are advantages to having the data entered as %age but since most of us appear to like numbers there does need to be an option. 

I'm also on a beta blocker so that also confounds things as it slows my HR down.

I don't understand why they would not get your MHR, because it is probably the most important part of getting your zones correct. I also never heard of zones being given in BPM and not percent of MHR, HRR, or LT.

I would seriously question these 2 so called coaches, especially if I was paying for such tests.

But anyway, I was just trying to help, and I was not even going to charge you anything.... lol

Good luck with your training.