This post is part ofFind Your Fit Tech, Lifehacker’s fitness wearables buying guide.
But what heart rate should you expect to see on your fitness smartwatch when youre in zone 2?
Thats where people disagree.
What is zone 2 training?
AsIve explained before, the name zone 2 comes from heart rate training.
In most of the popular systems, there are five zones.
(I havea more detailed guide to the zone system here.)
While zone 2 is the trendiest at the moment, the other zones still have uses.
Butthat’s a story for another time.
Heart rate zones are usually defined as percentages of your maximum heart rate.
Even at an easy effort, I found I was commonly exceeding that limit.
It turns outthatsystem defines zone 2 as 65% to 75% of my max.
Zone 2 isnt a term with scientifically designed boundaries.
Anybody can split up heart rate zones any way they like.
What heart rate percentage counts as zone 2?
(And yes, your max can differ for different types of cardio.
There are other systems to consider too.
(you’re able to choose to set the zones manually, instead.)
you’re able to set your max and your zones manually if you prefer.
Garmin: Depends on your machine and on how you’ve chosen to set up your zones.
As a percentage of max heart rate, zone 2 is 73-81%.
As a percentage of heart rate reserve, it’s 65-75%.
Note that these numbers won’t necessarily line up with each other.
And, of course, you could set your max and/or your zones manually.
Some other fitness platforms have defined heart rate zones to be used with your training.
It uses an industry standard formula to determine your max, which Selfreportsis 208 minus 0.7 times your age.
After youve taken 20 classes, an algorithmwill pick out a new max heart rate for you.
Max heart rate is 220 minus your age unless you adjust it manually in your controls.
Moderate is 64% to 76%.
How do you know which benchmark to use?
(Heart rate changes with the temperature and the length of your workout, a phenomenon calledcardiac drift.)
So trust your body more than your watch.
