Target Heart Rate Zone

When your students are participating in your class, do they enter their target heart rate zone?

-The first thing that you need to do is find your maximum heart rate (MHR) by subtracting your age from 220. Example: I am 25 years old, so I would do : 220-25: 195

So my Maximum Heart Rate is 195 beats per minute.

Next multiply your maximum heart rate by .60 to get your lower end of your target heart rate zone. Example: 195 x .60= 117

You can find this picture at: www.davita.com/UploadesImages/ExerciseArticle-310.jpg

So my lower end of my target heart rate zone is: 117 beats per minute.

Next multiply your maximum heart rate by .90 to get the upper end of your target heart rate zone. Example: 195 x .90= 176 beats per minute.

So my upper end of my target heart rate zone is 176 beats per minute.

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Taking this information I now know what my Target Heart Rate is: 117-176 beats per minute.

For myself to burn calories and benefit from exercise, I need to maintain my heart rate between 117-176 beats per minute. If I am able to achieve this, I will gain maximum health benefits from my exercise.

This is a lesson that I am doing in my fitness unit this week with my 5th graders. They will be able to calculate their target heart rate, and then after exercise, we will take our pulse, and see if we have been participating in our target heart rate zone. They will be able to understand if they are working hard enough to burn calories, or if they need to start giving a better effort during activities to increase their heart rates.

The Target Heart Rate Zone lesson will tie nicely into my cardiovascular endurance lesson when I have my students record their data in their activity logs. This important characteristic of an effective teacher is known as scaffolding!