In order to achieve a training effect, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) suggests performing aerobic exercise sessions of fifteen to sixty minutes a day, three to five days a week. Furthermore, to get the most from aerobic exercise, you should exercise at a level of intensity called your training heart rate.
The easiest way to compute this is to subtract your age from 220 - that's your maximum heart rate - then take 60 percent and 80 percent of that number. The results are the upper and lower end of your target heart rate zone: while you exercise, your heart rate per minute should fall somewhere between these two numbers.
| Maximum and Training Heart Rates by Age | ||||
| Age | Maximum Heart Rate (per minute) |
Training Zone | ||
| 60% Rate | 80% Rate | 90% Rate | ||
| 20 | 200 | 120 | 160 | 180 |
| 25 | 195 | 117 | 156 | 175 |
| 30 | 290 | 114 | 152 | 171 |
| 35 | 185 | 111 | 148 | 166 |
| 40 | 180 | 108 | 144 | 162 |
| 45 | 175 | 105 | 140 | 157 |
| 50 | 170 | 102 | 136 | 153 |
| 55 | 165 | 99 | 132 | 149 |
| 60 | 160 | 96 | 128 | 144 |
| 65 | 155 | 93 | 124 | 140 |
