noob HR zone configuration questions

hi

I've read various threads on this topic but some are quite old (couple of years).

Basically, i'm questioning some of the times i'm awarded intensity minutes. I'm, i think, ok with what gets counted during activities.

I've found intensity minutes captured outside of tracked activities (part of "intensity minutes 2.0") useful but i'm not sure of their accuracy sometimes. I've even managed to earn a few vigorous minutes when i feel i've not done anything aside from my tracked activities (which is obviously wrong). Equally well, on days when i've been just around the house, etc, the watch has correctly NOT allocated mins.

It was recommended by Garmin Support that i try using the HR zones.

I've looked at them and tbh they seem pretty low on the default settings e.g. % of max i.e. zone 1 is 86-103bpm

So, i guess my question is what are reasonable HR zones to set?

Then, at what point do i set my watch to capturing intensity minutes?

I don't have a HR strap but think' wrist captured HR is tolerable.

I'm content to use my 220-age as a ceiling.

So, as an example, i do hiking. My exertions obviously depend on my pace, the ground resistance, gradient etc. I'm not sure what's the correct threshold to start earning minutes?

I found a couple of websites that proposed my HR zones. Both are actually within 1-2 bpm of each other for stages. One says it used "Karvonen" as a calculation.

I'm 49, i'm active, i'm not unfit lol (but that's just relative - compared to a triathlete, i'm most likely a lump ), bit overweight (carrying a bit of fat but i'm toned). I play, train in and coach field hockey. I cycle (but not competitively or long distance). I very occasionally run (but my knees are ruined, so tend to shy away from that steady state cardio).

Garmin reports my 7 day & 4wk resting HR as 56, which i'm reasonably pleased with.

These are my suggested HR zones (https://theathleteblog.com/heart-rate-zone-calculator/)

Zone	Effort	Target Heart Rate*	Training Benefit
ZONE 1	50% - 60%	113 - 125	Warmup / Recovery
ZONE 2	60% - 70%	125 - 136	Base Fitness
ZONE 3	70% - 80%	136 - 148	Aerobic Endurance
ZONE 4	80% - 90%	148 - 159	Anaerobic Capacity
ZONE 5	90% - 100%	159 - 171	Speed Training

I also tried https://www.myprocoach.net/calculators/hr-zones/

The default currently for moderate activity by garmin is zone 3 (their zone 3, which is 120-138 bpm - it's % of max HR)

And zone 4 for vigorous (their zone 4 138-155 - % of max HR).

So, on which zones do i set moderate and vigorous minutes to trigger, if I use the above values??

Zone 2 for former?
Zone 3 or 4 for latter?

moderate intensity is supposedly "you can hold a conversation but not sing while exercising"

vigorous is supposedly "you can only speak a few words between breaths while exercise."

tbh that could be upper half of zone 3 in the table, maybe?

I don't want to overstate how hard i'm working, of course.

I had a quick investigation of using garmin's % of HR reserve. That seems to give 'better' zones but i can't really see my resting HR decreasing further, so i can't see my zones budging.

If i used the above table when i was umpiring last saturday, i wouldn't have scored much (having said that, i didn't get that many points anyway, under gamin's automatic setting). Obviously my (field hockey) umpiring is stop/start and has plenty of static periods. Equally well, i have to keep up with play and/or recover (i.e. i'm behind the game line), so have to run hard sometimes.

I think i read a brisk walk can equate to moderate intensity minutes but if i used the above ranges for my last hike, again, i'd not score much. My HR for was 80-100ish when walking (i thought) briskly on level ground. HR obviously went higher on gradients etc. To me, if i'm walking steadily, uphill, beyond what's comfortable (i.e. a strolling pace) i'll be breathing more deeply and probably match zone 2 in the table but that seems 'harder' to me than a brisk walk. Hope that makes sense.

So, in summary, i've read the app and device help pages. I've a better idea about HR zones but i'm not sure about setting them accurately and i'm not sure about the definition of moderate vs vigorous intensity minutes and what zones / HR ranges i might set them too.

Advice would be welcomed.

Regards,

Gary

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0 5135968 over 3 years ago

The key thing before you do anything else is find out your Maximum heart rate - this is a must before you set zones, otherwise your zones will be meaningless.

Do not guess. Do not use the 220 - age thing is this could be off +/- 20 beats either way. Do a few hard runs up a hill, max effort 3 or 4 times and it's likely that the highest reading is close to your max - you will only be able to sustain this max for only a brief period.

Once you've figured your max HR, my inclination would be to allow Garmin to set your zones based on MaxHR.

0 Gary over 3 years ago in reply to 5135968

5135968 said:
The key thing before you do anything else is find out your Maximum heart rate - this is a must before you set zones, otherwise your zones will be meaningless.

Do not guess. Do not use the 220 - age thing is this could be off +/- 20 beats either way. Do a few hard runs up a hill, max effort 3 or 4 times and it's likely that the highest reading is close to your max - you will only be able to sustain this max for only a brief period.

Once you've figured your max HR, my inclination would be to allow Garmin to set your zones based on MaxHR.

thanks for this.

setting MHR like this isn't optimal but fair enough.

however, if i choose to use zones (rather than automatic), then i still have to choose which stages are moderate and which are vigorous.

Any advice on this latter bit?

0 mcalista over 3 years ago

maxHR is used as a key input to many of the training metrics, so it is important to get this right. While 220 minus age might be the average MHR for the population as a whole, there is too much individual variation around the average for it to be a useful predictor.

Look at some really hard efforts you have done recently - your maximum is probably 5-10 beats faster than that.

iirc, the heart rate reserve and MHR zone setting methods produce similar results at a RHR of 60 bpm, but diverge with lower RHRs.

The intensity minutes calculation is really intended for pretty sedentary people - basically walking is moderate, and anything much more than that (even a light jog) is vigorous. For serious athletes, this is not that useful (even recovery efforts count as vigorous), and many repurpose it a bit, counting anything aerobic (z1 & z2) as moderate, and more than that as vigorous. Those following an 80/20 approach to training might have moderate being pretty close to threshold, and vigorous being threshold and above. The question is - what are you going to do with this intensity minutes information? That should guide you as to how to modify moderate/vigorous.

0 Gary over 3 years ago in reply to mcalista

mcalista said:
maxHR is used as a key input to many of the training metrics, so it is important to get this right. While 220 minus age might be the average MHR for the population as a whole, there is too much individual variation around the average for it to be a useful predictor.

Look at some really hard efforts you have done recently - your maximum is probably 5-10 beats faster than that.

iirc, the heart rate reserve and MHR zone setting methods produce similar results at a RHR of 60 bpm, but diverge with lower RHRs.

The intensity minutes calculation is really intended for pretty sedentary people - basically walking is moderate, and anything much more than that (even a light jog) is vigorous. For serious athletes, this is not that useful (even recovery efforts count as vigorous), and many repurpose it a bit, counting anything aerobic (z1 & z2) as moderate, and more than that as vigorous. Those following an 80/20 approach to training might have moderate being pretty close to threshold, and vigorous being threshold and above. The question is - what are you going to do with this intensity minutes information? That should guide you as to how to modify moderate/vigorous.

ahhhh thanks mcalista

Very interesting and helpful.

I guess i use the intensity minutes as an indicator of 'quality' of activity levels. I fully agree, as it feels just like an extension of the entire steps argument, that one needs to reflect intensity of activity, not merely the accumulation of but that it's relative too, to one's fitness levels. Maybe it's a bit of a virtue thing too. I read a T3 article saying we need to be doing 150-300 mins a week now. 150 is a bare minimum, so maybe that's an argument already for tracking them. Equally well, if one is, for example, a serious runner, then intensity minutes isn't probably what you look at and you'll have a specific training schedule and you'll know what kind of run you want to aim for, pace, terrain, gradients, etc. You'll be monitoring your performance more specifically with maybe stuff like VO2 max, etc.

For me, i guess i'd like my intensity minutes to reflect my activity levels, so moderate i suppose should be a light jog, yet i know a steady state 5km run would be a lot more demanding for me (because it's not something i do). I know i was literally in a state of euphoria for hours afterwards (a massive runners high), even though i only managed i think about 5km in 30 mins, which is shocking, compared to what some runners can do it in.

Yet i can go out and play a field hockey match, which is much more high tempo and more sprint related but with cardio recovery too and it's not dictated by me but the opposition, so is pretty demanding. Equally well, it has enough lull periods for me to cope with the sprints.

The 1st half, for example, had my average HR @ 137bpm, a max of 167 and the bulk of the half was actually above the average 137. I scored 3 mins of moderate and 27 mins vigorous, which doesn't feel like it's wildly inaccurate.

2nd half was an average of 145 b pm, max of 163 and maybe half my HR was above the average. RE: mins. 6 moderate and 31 vigorous.

I'm thinking i've maybe pitched my moderate/vigorous right, as i shouldn't really be getting mins for hiking, as unless the terrain's difficult e.g. uneven, sticky ground or climbing on rocks or maybe i'm going at a really brisk pace. Strolling isn't really exercise.