Find the optimal pulse range

The correct heart rate range when hiking determines positive effects on health and fitness. Here you will find out what you should pay attention to in order to neither under-challenge nor overwhelm yourself.

Hiking is rightly considered a health sport: Studies show numerous positive effects on physical and mental well-being. In addition to the muscles in the legs and torso, outdoor sports primarily strengthen the cardiovascular system and endurance – but only at the right intensity. If you don’t challenge yourself, you can’t expect any training effects. Anyone who overextends themselves may be taking a massive risk, e.g. B. for a heart attack. You can use your heart rate to check relatively easily whether you are in the right intensity range. The optimal heart rate for hiking depends on several factors.

Be careful about overloading when hiking!

Hiking recently experienced a boom during the corona pandemic. Since then, the joy of extensive tours in nature in this country has continued unabated. Even many people who were previously only slightly active find it easy to get started with hiking. What is often difficult for beginners (but also advanced users) is the assessment of individual physical stress. This is crucial if you want to benefit ideally from the health effects and improve your fitness as well as prevent pain during and after the tour.

And if you overestimate yourself or your performance, you may have to expect even more fatal consequences such as sore muscles and minor injuries. According to the DAV accident statistics 2022, cardiovascular failure (13 percent) or falls or circulatory failure (25 percent) are among the most common causes of fatal accidents while hiking. How do you know that you are overloading your cardiovascular system? Alarm signals are in particular:

• sudden drop in performance
• Shortness of breath
• Tightness or pressure in the chest
• Heart palpitations or racing heart
• dizziness

The aim must be to ensure that these clearly perceptible alarm signals do not occur at all, because then in many cases help comes too late. Especially if you are in impassable or remote terrain (forests, mountains), have no cell phone reception or are even traveling alone.

Also interesting: The best time of day for training to extend life

Heart rate as a suitable means of controlling intensity

In order to be able to correctly assess the physical strain, it helps to check your heart rate – for example using a heart rate monitor. Of course, you can also measure your pulse manually on your wrist or carotid artery. However, the digital way via the watch is less complicated and enables continuous monitoring while hiking. In particular, inexperienced (mountain) athletes who have difficulty assessing the intensity of the stress on their bodies, and people with pre-existing health conditions who should not exceed certain limits in order to prevent emergencies, benefit from hiking according to their heart rate.

Basically, the pulse depends on several factors – for example age, training level, disposition or stress. The following guidelines can only serve as a rough guide.

“Fit for hiking”: Download the 12-week training plan for free HERE

Hiking according to pulse for health: Untrained and older people should take it easy

Anyone who goes hiking with the aim of doing something good for their body and health should keep the strain on the cardiovascular system light to moderate. This applies in particular to people new to sports, people returning to sports, people over 50 or people with previous health problems (overweight people, high blood pressure patients, diabetics, people who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke, etc.).

According to the 5-zone model of pulse ranges, you should be in zone 2 (basic endurance 1; 60 to 75 percent of maximum heart rate). At the beginning of hiking training, the heart rate should not exceed “180 beats per minute minus age”. At this intensity, you should be able to have conversations with your hiking partner easily and in complete sentences without getting out of breath.

Example: A 60-year-old should initially aim to stay below the upper heart rate limit of 120 beats per minute while hiking.

Since these heart rate values ​​are only general recommendations, it is advisable to have a medical check and, if necessary, a stress test before starting your hiking career in order to determine your individual values ​​and to train safely and effectively. In order to avoid overloading, untrained and older people should initially not plan on climbing more than 500 to 600 meters per day or tour and choose routes with moderate inclines.

Read more: Tips to prevent knee pain when hiking

Sporty hiking, but without torture: pulse ranges for trained and mountain experienced people

Those who are healthy, already physically active, and also have mountain experience can hike with slightly higher heart rates. Zone 3 of the pulse ranges is also part of the basic endurance range (GA2) and allows for loads of 75 to 85 percent of the maximum pulse. The heart rate of “180 beats per minute minus age plus 10 percent” should not be exceeded.

For our example of the 60-year-old, this means walking at a maximum heart rate of 132 beats per minute.

Even in this pulse range, you should still be able to carry on conversations without major interruptions. While you can easily hike for up to 3 hours in Zone 2, you should plan tours of up to 2 hours in the slightly more intensive Zone 3 in order to optimally benefit from the effect on the heart and skeletal muscles without overloading yourself.

Fit for hiking – the 12-week training plan

Do you want to start the hiking season fit? Then download the training plan PDF “Fit for Hiking” for free in the PDF library.

To do this, you must register once with our media login USER.ID.

Also interesting: Study shows surprising connection between hard running training and life expectancy

Hiking to improve performance: Pulse range for the optimal training effect

If you regularly travel in the mountains and use hiking as training to improve your performance (e.g. for a longer tour or a competition), it is important to avoid both over- and under-challenging. This is crucial for the training effect through strength and endurance performance. It should be possible to cover around 400 meters of altitude per hour here. An exact training recommendation is only possible with the individual pulse ranges.

During a performance-oriented hiking tour, the pulse can rise to zone 4 (development zone) over a short period of time, which means up to 95 percent of the maximum heart rate. However, you should not exhaust this over a longer period of time, otherwise the muscles would quickly become acidic and the hiking tour would come to a painful end. In addition, this intense strain makes breathing difficult and the cardiovascular system is put under enormous strain. Longer, moderate hikes with short, more intensive intervals of a few minutes or shorter hikes of up to 40 minutes with slightly longer, more intensive intervals are conceivable.

Example: Roughly speaking, the pulse should be between 60 and 95 percent of the maximum heart rate during a performance-oriented hike, with peaks only being very measured. For a 60-year-old, this would be between 98 and 154 beats per minute.

Important note: People with pre-existing health problems and older people should under no circumstances undertake this type of training without a doctor’s approval in order to prevent overloading the cardiovascular system on the hike. A medical check-up is also strongly recommended for everyone else before starting intensive training.

Also interesting: 12-week training plan “Fit for Hiking”

The author is a former competitive athlete (alpine skiing and ski cross), certified fitness trainer (B license) and ski instructor.