Understanding Your Average Walking Heart Rate
TLDR: There are many factors which can determine what an individuals ideal heart rate would be at rest, walking, or during intense physical activity. A rough average walking heart rate for adults can be considered around 100-120 beats per minute, but this can vary significantly based on multiple factors.
Introduction
Walking is a such a great and accessible form of exercise. It offers up numerous benefits to your overall well-being. Whether you’re just out for a casual walk through your neighbourhood or taking a more fast paced brisk walk through nature trails.
Understanding what your optimal walking heart rate should be can help you improve your fitness routine and ensure you’re getting the most out of your exercise program.
So lets take a look at some of the factors that come into play for a good walking heart rate and why it’s important to monitor it during your walks.
The Importance of Heart Rate in Walking
Your heart rate is your own personal indicator of your exercise intensity and overall cardiovascular fitness. When you walk, your heart rate will increase boost your blood flow and supply your muscles with the vital oxygen and nutrients they need to keep going.
Monitoring your heart rate while walking can help you:
Optimize Exercise Intensity:
Knowing your target heart rate zone allows you to adjust your pace to achieve specific fitness goals, such as weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, or endurance training.
Avoid Overexertion:
Monitoring your heart rate can help you avoid pushing yourself too hard, reducing the risk of overexertion or injury.
Track Progress:
Consistently monitoring your heart rate during walks enables you to track improvements in cardiovascular fitness over time.
Calculating Your Target Heart Rate
To determine your optimal average walking heart rate, you’ll need to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR). Using your own specific MHR, you can then identify the appropriate heart rate zone for your fitness goals. Here’s how to do it:
Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR):
There are many factors which can influence your heart rate, such as health, overall physical fitness level and age. Understanding what is considered a “normal” heart rate and maximum heart rate, can help you to ensure you are maintaining a healthy maximum heart rate and to also seek help or advice where necessary.
A generally used method to calculate your estimated maximum heart rate (MHR) is to subtract your age from 220. This provides your estimated MHR.
Using this MHR value, there are other factors to consider which can then help you to identify different heart rates for different levels of activity, depending on whether your out for a casual walk or looking to maintain a brisk walk and burn some calories.
Identify Your Target Heart Rate Zone:
There are different “zones” based around your maximum heart rate which are considered ideal for different activities as discussed here. Whether your out for a casual walk or looking to push your exertion and endurance, there can be target heart rates to try and fall between.
Health and Fitness Zone (50-70% of MHR):
This zone is ideal for getting started or just looking for to improve your overall fitness. To calculate your heart rate range in this zone, multiply your MHR by 0.5 and 0.7.
Fat-Burning Zone (70-85% of MHR):
The fat-burning zone is a perfect moderate intensity exercise for targeting weight loss activity and improving your cardiovascular fitness. Multiply your MHR by 0.7 and 0.85 to determine your heart rate range.
Aerobic or Endurance Zone (85-100% of MHR):
The endurance zone is reserved for more advanced athletes or those pushing yourselves and training for endurance. You can calculate your heart rate range by multiplying your maximum heart rate by 0.85 and 1.0.
Using this information we can calculate a few averages based upon different age ranges.
From the chart above we can see that if you are between 30 and 40 years old, your maximum average heart rate should fall between 180 and 190 beats per minute bpm.
Then when engaging in physical activity your average heart rate for the health and fitness zone should, at a minimum, be between 90 and 95 beats per minute bpm, 126-133, as a minimum, to engage the fat burning zone and 153-161.5 beats per minute bpm, as a minimum, to enter the endurance zone.
As you increase your general fitness level you should also expect your normal resting heart rate to come down. The slowest resting heart rate was measured at 26 bpm. This was in a British pensioner, who regularly exercised.
What’s a Good Walking Heart Rate?
For most individuals, a good walking heart rate typically falls within the health and fitness zone, which is 50-70% of your maximum heart rate. Here’s why:
Effective for General Health:
This heart rate zone provides significant benefits, including improved cardiovascular fitness, reduced risk of heart disease, and better overall well-being.
Sustainable for Most People:
It’s an intensity level that can be maintained for more extended periods, making it suitable for daily walks and promoting consistency.
Safe and Accessible:
This zone is generally safe for individuals of various fitness levels, including beginners, older adults, and those with medical conditions.
Aiming for a heart rate in the lower to mid-range of the health and fitness zone during your walks is a practical and sustainable approach for improving and maintaining your overall fitness.
What’s a Good Walking Heart Rate for Exercise?
If your goal is to use walking as a form of exercise for weight loss, increased cardiovascular fitness, or endurance training, you may want to aim for the fat-burning or aerobic zone. However, it’s crucial to consult with a doctor or healthcare provider or fitness professional before engaging in high-intensity exercise, especially if you have underlying health conditions.
In the moderate intensity, fat-burning zone (70-85% of your MHR), you can aim for brisk walking as your pace and expect to burn more calories and improve your cardiovascular fitness. This zone is suitable for those looking to challenge themselves and achieve specific fitness goals.
Monitoring Your Heart Rate During Walks
To monitor your heart rate during walks, you can use a heart rate monitor or a fitness tracker with heart rate monitoring capabilities. Alternatively, you can manually check your pulse by placing your first two fingers on your wrist (radial artery) or neck (carotid artery) and count the number of times you feel your pulse for 15 seconds, then multiply by four to get your beats per minute.
Regularly monitoring your heart rate during walks allows you to stay within your target heart rate, adjust your pace as needed, and ensure you’re reaping the full benefits of your walking exercise.
Increasing Your Average Walking Heart Rate
If after a few walks you find your missing out on your desired heart rate zones you can also look into ways to make your walking route a little more challenging and increase your maximum heart rate.
Vary Your Speed
You can try interval training and increasing your speed for short bursts when out for your typical walk. This method should get the heart rate increase you’re after, ideally getting you into a moderate intensity or vigorous intensity exercise zone a number of times.
Vary Your Route
If you can plan a different walking route which includes walking uphill you can encourage yourself to push your body farther and increase your normal heart rate. If you can increase the number of times your heart beats per minute, landing at your target heart rate, you can improve your exercise routine and gain more benefit from your normal walk.
Conclusion
Understanding your normal walking heart rate is a valuable tool for optimising the effectiveness of your walks and achieving your fitness goals. Whether you aim for the health and fitness zone or a higher intensity level, monitoring your heart rate during walks provides insight into your exercise intensity and overall cardiovascular fitness.
If you’re just getting started and want to become more physically active, you should aim for your own health and fitness zone and then gradually build towards a brisk walking pace to improve your exercise routine and your target heart rate.
So, set your target zone and goals, and begin walking towards improved well-being and fitness, one step at a time.
