New Heart Rate Recommendations for Women

This was stated in the January IDEA Fitness Journal:

According to researchers, the popular formula of 220-Age= HR max may produce numbers too high for optimal female physical health. After studying how HR response to exercise stress testing was associated with age and death rates among 5,437 asymptomatic women over about 16 years, scientists settled on a new calculation:
206-(Age x 0.88) = HR max

So where did the original formula come from? "The definition of normal HR response to exercise stress testing in women is poorly understood, given that most studies describing a normative response were predominately based on male data".

So if you are a woman of 50 years old your HR max would be 162. This is definitely something to think about.