How to tell if you're in the zone

So how do you know if you're in your target heart rate zone?

Use an activity tracker to check your heart rate regularly while you exercise.

Or use these steps to check your heart rate during exercise:

• Stop briefly.
• Take your pulse for 15 seconds. To check your pulse at the blood vessel in the neck called the carotid artery, place your index and third fingers on your neck to the side of your windpipe. To check your pulse at your wrist, place two fingers between the bone and the tendon over the blood vessel found on the thumb side of the wrist, called the radial artery.
• Multiply this number by 4 to find out your beats per minute.

Here's an example: You stop exercising and take your pulse for 15 seconds, getting 37 beats. Multiply 37 by 4, to get 148. If you're 45 years old, this puts you in the target heart rate zone for vigorous exercise, since the target zone for that age is between 148 and 162 beats per minute using the HRR method. If you're under or over your target heart rate zone, raise or lessen your exercise intensity.