Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited

Tanaka, Monahan, Seals · 2001 · Journal of the American College of Cardiology 37(1):153-156

What this work gives Aellic

HRmax = 208 − 0.7 × age. Meta-analysis across 351 studies / 492 groups / 18,712 people (r = −0.90), cross-validated in a laboratory cohort of 514 healthy people whose own regression, 209 − 0.7 × age, the authors call “virtually identical”. Individual values scatter about ±10 bpm around the line, so the formula sets a population expectation and not a personal ceiling. The widespread 220 − age formula has no comparable derivation.

Correction of 26 July 2026

The scatter was recorded as “SEE ~10 bpm”. The paper reports it as a standard deviation of individual values around the regression line, not a standard error of estimate — the magnitude is right, the statistic was not. Not to be confused with the 11.4 and 12.4 bpm SEE values that later validation studies report for this formula; those belong to other work.

The entry on the register was wrong. It was not replaced but kept, with what holds instead standing next to it.

Where this sits in the engine

3 declared sites: constants and thresholds in the code that point at this entry.

Training Daily strain: session load, recommended range, weekly corridor 1 site
Training Training load — zones, TRIMP, ACWR 2 sites

Also in Training

To the full register Sites without a source Report an error