Regular cardiovascular exercise offers a range of health benefits tailored to different fitness goals, categorized into specific heart rate zones. Each zone represents a different intensity level, targeting different fitness aspects. Below is a description of each zone and its benefits for runners:

Zone 1: General Health

Much research indicates that consistently staying between 50-60% of your Maximum Heart Rate (HR) for 30 minutes daily reduces the risk of developing many chronic diseases. Low-intensity activities such as walking, gardening, housework, or bicycling are easy ways to accomplish this. If someone does not want to lose body fat and is not training to improve their athletic performance, this may be all they need to do to stay healthy.

Zone 2: Weight Control

If your goal is to reduce body fat and because you have been relatively inactive, you must train at a level between 60-70% of your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate). This intensity is still within your comfort zone and allows you to exercise steadily for long enough to burn many calories.

Zone 3: Aerobic Conditioning / Weight Control

To improve your cardiovascular conditioning, train within a zone between 70-80% of your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate). This zone represents a more vigorous level of physical activity and is also a good zone for fat burning if you are already reasonably fit.

Zone 4: Advanced conditioning

If you are in top shape or training for a sporting event, you may need to include some workouts between 80-90% of your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate). This level of training is both physically and mentally demanding.

Zone 5: Elite Level

This is the highest-intensity cardiovascular training zone, between 90-100% of your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate). You should only train at this level if you are in very good shape. You can use this zone for high-intensity interval training a couple of times a week—you should not try to train in this zone during every training day!

Karvonen Equation

It is a mathematical equation used to calculate the dosage of work intensity according to heart rate.

To calculate the work zone, it would be sufficient to multiply the reserve heart rate by the intensity percentage and add our resting heart rate to this figure.

F.C.Ent = (F.C.Max – F.C.Rep) x (%R.F.C) + F.C.Rep

F.C.Ent: Training heart rate.

F.C.Max: Maximum heart rate.

F.C.Rep: Resting heart rate.

F.F.R.C: Functional heart reserve.

The dosage of the functional reserve of the heart is established as follows:

70% = Aerobic Work
80% = Aerobic-Anaerobic work
90% = Anaerobic

E.g. To perform an aerobic workout, proceed as follows:

F.C.Max = 220
F.C.Rep = 66
R.F.C = 70% (implies 0.7)

F.C.Ent = (220 – 66) x (0.70) + 66 = 173.8 P/M

Advantages of cardiovascular training

The advantages are many. Among the most outstanding are:

• You will achieve an energy expenditure according to your activity: Depending on where you decide to train, you can work your muscle mass for a period, allowing you to burn many calories. According to the intensity, it can be between 300-600 calories per hour, on average.
• Improve your physical condition: By exercising in the cardiovascular area for 30 to 40 minutes daily, the body resorts to fat reserves to obtain the energy required for the effort. You will progressively improve your physical condition if this practice is maintained at least twice or thrice a week.
• Adapt your body to different challenges: As runners, whether you are a beginner or a more experienced runner, adaptation should be progressive. The ideal way to see benefits when training in the cardiovascular zone is to follow different levels of training, stimulating the body through various challenges so that you don’t feel stagnant or that you don’t see improvements according to the goal you have set for yourself. Interval training can help, for example, or add strength training.

Do you want to train using your Heart Rate Zones?

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