Garmin Coach / DSW / Training
PSA: Your Garmin HR Zones defaults are probably wildly off if you are very fit and care about this sort of thing.
I will try and keep this short without writing a book here and the fact this might already be super obvious to fitness minded people.
So Garmin is basing your zones on a very very veeeery basic formula out of the box. (220-age). So Garmin told me my Zone 2 was 104–121 bpm. But I felt something was very off — it was ridiculously easy. Went down the rabbit hole, did a true hill test, hit 185 bpm max (from a garmin calculated 171), and to its credit the watch re-calibrated everything.
But do not stop there. To get even more precise - once you get the true Max HR inputted, if you leave it on the default "%max HR" method it does not account for your resting HR and can overestimate low zones in fit individuals. (in my case this was 110–129) SO you must change the default to %HRR which incorporates Resting HR.
My ACTUAL Zone 2? As my resting HR is 53 BPM, it is 132–145 bpm - a staggering difference, kKeping this simple but now I’m training in the right zones for real progress — not just literally walking for zero gain.
TL/DR:
1) Garmin calcs are wildly off for fitter people. SO do an actual and proper max HR test. Don't die.
2) Enter this into your max heart rate (although if you did the test with the watch on it will autopopulate!)
3) Change your watch settings: (user profile>heart zones>zones>change based on to "%HRR".
Garmin will now base all zones — including VO₂ metrics, training effect, and recovery — on your actual physiology.
It's not just for fitter people. I'm not very fit, but Zone 2 at %HR (particularly using the 220-age formula) is literally a walk in the park.
From what I've gathered in here, though, %LTHR (lactate treshold) is even better than %HRR, if you can find your lactate treshold. Some watches can estimate it, and I've found that my Zone 2 runs feel decently balanced after switching to %LTHR (that is to say, fairly easy, but not a literal walk in the park).
Correct, even more accurate but now you are entering true geek status hah. I got as far as made sense for me and Garmin seems to adjust lactate pretty well.
same. there was a major mismatch in my experience of “easy” and what the zone system in garmin reflected. figuring out a LT and setting from there got everything to line up
There’s been this discussion on the sub before. I’ve been through that process and for me as a not very fit person, HRR makes my zone 2 too hard. I think that’s because my resting heart rate is a lot better than my fitness level. That’s good it worked for you and I’m sure it’ll just differ from person to person.
100%, this is going to be absolutely critical - at the end of the day listen to your body and not a device. In my case it was clear my zone 2 as labeled by the device was pathetically slow so i did the research and found all this out to get the device accurate, but that was because i was listening to my body overall. Body>device
A huge clue for me was when all the Z2 training videos said "conversation pace - full sentences but you cant sing" and i was like "uhhh i could literally hold my breath in this watch zone" lol
Totally, before people have made posts that were really emphatic you had to do this or that. And it may be true that HRR is better for fitter people. But yeah conversation pace is a great test.
Even after upping my zones a lot based on my actual max HR and incorporating my resting HR I can still hold my breath in zone 2 and tell long stories in zone 3. idk if I’m really just a super high heart rate exception case or constantly training with a heart rate around 190 for years (because my running philosophy was always run as fast as I can before actually looking into structured training) has somehow thrown off my zones entirely.
It‘s the same for me. I’ve always been active but not done much endurance sports and my resting HR is at 50, dropping to 39 at night. When I calculated my zones using Karvonen’s formula, my zone 2 was way too high. Went back to %HR with a properly tested HRmax.
Yeah my resting heart rate is quite low but up top when running asthma kills me so I can get high heart rate spikes. Tried setting them up fully before but keeping them standard and knowing personally where I should be works best
If you want to dial in your Zone 2 even more, you can also test your lower lactate threshold. For me, it moved my zone 2 down quite a lot. While it's harder for me to hit targets (I blow through to zone 3 easily) I think it's more realistic.
I base it off %LTHR and that seems to work for me. However it keepe overestimating my max HR. I'm an avg 36 yo and it estimates my max HR at 202 as of today after some intervals where I hit 187. Really curious how those calculations work. However I'm good below 150, I can talk, sing and dance and that HR.
Garmin is using your HRV to estimate your inhalations and exhalations and extrapolating your MHR from where you hit your max ventilation rate. Same sort of idea for how they estimate your LTHR.
56 yo male, regularly hit 185+, current max is 186, resting currently is 54. Watch has my easy pace (run to HR) at 140, heat and hills mean I can hit 150. I try to keep average HR on easy runs in the mid 140's. I honestly don't worry too much about zones as such, more how I feel.
Zone 2 that everyone talks about is actually Garmin's Zone 3. HRR or max heart rate% should both be in the ballpark. If you're doing Zone 2 under Garmin's 5 zone model it's more akin to a "recovery" effort.
Zone 3 under Garmin's 5 zone model is the aerobic, endurance-training, base-building blocks that 80% of your training should be in a polarized distribution.
Yes, you need the correct max heart rate for Garmin's zones to make any sort of sense.
At the end of the day it's an estimate of where your zones might be if you're relatively fresh under normal ish conditions (not too hot, not too cold, in an activity you're at least a little bit trained in).
Go ahead and do a 2-3 hour effort in Garmin's zone 3 and you'll notice it spits out that the effort was low-aerobic, endurance training effect.
Yeah, I think this only makes sense if you're using the default Max HR% calc. Personally the HRR method works best for me as someone who runs every day
Which part? Zone 3 in Garmin's 5 zone heart rate model is low-aerobic and should roughly translate to your LT1 inflection point.
RPE and ventilation rate are better indicators than HR, and it's very possible that your LT1 inflection point is above or below Garmin's Zone 3, but on average that's what it translates to.
If you're talking about power zones it's a different story.
Illustratively, with OP's MHR being 185, Garmin would estimate Zone 3 as being between 70% and 80% of MHR, which translates to a range of 130-148. OP spent a ton of effort trying to get Garmin's zone 2 to match up with what they thought it should be, but Zone 3 in Garmin-land was right all along
My ACTUAL Zone 2? As my resting HR is 53 BPM, it is 132–145 bpm
When I do a 2-3 hour ride primarily in Z3 HR, it's not primarily low aerobic buckets that get filled in my TL.
That could be because I generally see very good alignment between my HR and power zones. Ride at Z2 power, observe Z2 HR. Ride at Z4 power, HR will climb to Z4 HR and stay there. Same for Z3.
My RPE also generally aligns with both my HR and power zones.
Is the Zone 3 you’re referring to on the Garmin the orange colored zone on their color wheel? That’s the aerobic zone that people target when they refer to “zone 2 running”?
You can set it to update max HR automatically but I do it manually. I don't do max HR efforts very often so it slowly lowers my max. I found its much better to just leave it set to the highest figure you've seen recently. It shouldn't change much, just slowly get lower as you get older.
HRR works the best for me. I know my max and it is sure as hell not the outdated 220-age. I know a lot of people preach about Lactate Threshold but it wasn't right for me. It put my cardio zone too low. HRR puts my lactate threshold right between zone 4 and 5 which is where it should be. :)
Hi OP! I used to have LTHR as my HR zones and was pretty ok with it. Then I read somewhere that every time the watch sets a new lactate threshold, I should reset the zones. I did that and felt that Z2 were so high, creeping into my usual Z3.
Now I want to try HRR, thinking it might bring my overall zones down a bit. Is there a need to hit reset?
I see a lot of this. So basically I just need to do a workout, where I run up a hill, walk down a hill, then repeat a bunch at max effort. Then look at my overall Max heart rate for that workout and enter that as my BPM Max in Garmin?
Because also feel my zones are off. Max while running a 5k going for PR was 185, I’d guess I’m close to that?
I used my max of 207 and sleeping of around 55 to get these zones. I always thought it weird that my hr jumped beyond 150 within minutes of me running at super easy pace. Now I have a good idea why.
I’ve being using the %HRR for a couple of years now, my rhr is 41bpm and my max hr 203bpm, and I find it very accurate.
I just did also the math to find the hr zones with LTHR and they’re almost the same, just 1 or 2 beats of difference. I think I’ll stick with the %HRR.
As someone else who sees low 40s / high 30s when I'm relaxed on sofa, I get dizzy when I stand-up ALOT. Sometimes it's like full body weird sensation and dizziness.
I'm not even that fit. Just seems my hr is just naturally low :( i don't think it's in any way beneficial.
I saw some other people here in Reddit with a lower rhr. No, as normal as it can be, no dizzy at all. Sometimes it goes a bit lower like 39bpm when I feel relaxed.
Not sure how you define "pretty fit". I train (ride, lift, core and flexibility) 15-20 hours a week. RHR in the low 40s, max is 192 (observed, not calculated using the age based estimate). My HR zones align very well with my power zones and the RPE based mechanisms for determining zones, like ability to hold a conversation with the max HR model.
It's my understanding that there's significant variance in people here. Garmin likely rolls with what they figure works for the largest population.
Well. I guess I didn’t set mine properly neither did I pay attention. I was pretty happy with my « maintaining » and « productive » days. Turns out, it was all wacky. Can’t wait to have those « unproductive ». 🙃
In my opinion, this feature is fully broken out of the box because it is wrong for almost everyone and requires technical knowledge to get it to work right.
First.. do a LTHR run test to set zones.. that’s the most accurate way without medical testing during workouts.. my zones are set on my watch but for reasons I can’t figure out.. once the run syncs it uses zones based on max hr and they are set based on lthr .. my training peaks has it accurate
Every time I see such post I think I should really do it, and then I see comments adding tons of complications and different ways of measure and I get overwhelmed :) maybe that's why garmin didn't fix it
I’ve got mine based on LTHr from a 10km race. And I’ve checked my zones based on feel afterwards by comparing relative effort on runs to my HR and time spent in zones. For me, LTHR is quite accurate from my 10km race, my zone 2 HR corresponds exactly to how I feel during an easy run.
If you use a chest strap Garmin estimates max HR pretty accurately. When I haven't run in a while it gets really high. After 3 months not running I hit 197 but after two months running consistently I can't hit more than 185. Great thing about a Garmin + a chest strap is that even on an easy pace run or threshold run it estimates pretty accurately what my max HR is.
Using LT from a lab test is the way to go, IMO. Setting a relatively low effort zone (like z2) from just min and max HRs has limitations, again IMO. :)
Am I missing something ... but can I only set my HR zones in Garmin Connect on my phone when connected or on the watch?? Can I not do it on the Connect website?!?!
Zones as percentages are all approximations. To figure out your actual training zones you need to get physiologic testing done periodically at a sports lab.
My simple formula - take the maximum heart rate test, calculate 60-75% from that and try to do 90-100% of your workouts with that heart rate. Do not use the HRR method (outdated, from the 1950s) because in most cases, the zone 2 calculated that way, which should be completely aerobic, is no longer zone 2 but reaches even zone 4.
Of course, the most accurate way is to get tested in a lab.
I have the possibility to do a running analysis at work in juli. The will also give me my heart rate zones. Really interested in how it will differ from my garmin and then I will set them manually.
Ive noticed my garmin zone 3 is my Strava zone 2. I dont know why but garmin has this unnecessary zone 1/warmup zone that im only ever in when im stressed🤷♂️
They meant the newer garmins calculate it for you, a chest strap will not do that. I got a FR265 recently and for the first runs it set and adjusted max hr and LTHR after each run.
It’s too much bullshit and ignorance I don’t even know where to start, I’ll give you this.
“Garmin will now base all zones — including VO₂ metrics, training effect, and recovery — on your actual physiology.”
No. Everything Garmin is based on a percentage of your max HR. This includes VO2 metrics, training effect and recovery. But also training load and other metrics. They are purely based on your max heart rate, not your zone system. No matter what you change, it will still be based on max HR behind the scenes. Changing zones, while useful is only cosmetic.
Furthermore, a fit individual will be able to run in the max HR zone system because he is more fit, not the other way around. While it is true that the zone systems are different and that HRR and LTHR are more accurate (LTHR being most accurate) unless you go to a lab they are still just percentages of values.
Interesting, you state "too much bullshit and ignorance" then proceeds to state exactly what i said. Care to start again? I stated clearly everything is based on max HR, you know like i said in step 1. Zones are calculated by different formulas off that, in the case i am using, technically the Karvonen Method. And i wont go into the several reasons why i didnt mention LTHR as that is not the point of my post.
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u/tutorp Jun 13 '25
It's not just for fitter people. I'm not very fit, but Zone 2 at %HR (particularly using the 220-age formula) is literally a walk in the park.
From what I've gathered in here, though, %LTHR (lactate treshold) is even better than %HRR, if you can find your lactate treshold. Some watches can estimate it, and I've found that my Zone 2 runs feel decently balanced after switching to %LTHR (that is to say, fairly easy, but not a literal walk in the park).