Suunto Stopwatch manual Sports Medicine for exercise prescription

The default heart rates for zones 1-3 are 60-70%, 70-80%, and 80-90% of your maximum heart rate, but if you are following a specially designed training program, enter the zone values that have been tailored towards your individual goals. The benefits of training in each default zone are shown in the following table.

Heart rate	Default setting	Main benefit
zone
Zone 1 (Fit-	60 - 70% of maximum heart	Improves your basic endurance, aerobic fitness, and helps you
ness Zone)	rate	in weight control (fat burning zone)
Zone 2 (Aer-	70 - 80% of maximum heart	Improves your aerobic fitness. This is the preferred zone if you
obic Zone)	rate	are training for an endurance event.
Zone 3	80 - 90% of maximum heart	Improves your maximum aerobic capacity, and lactate tolerance
(Threshold	rate	ability - meaning your maximum endurance will improve and you'll
Zone)		be able to fight fatigue better.
NOTE	The heart rate zone defaults follow the guidelines of the American College
	of Sports Medicine for exercise prescription.

The device alerts you with a beep when you move from one zone to another so you can modify your training accordingly.

The average heart rate is also a useful measure during training where the heart rate levels vary a lot, such as biking in hilly terrain. In these cases, the target zone limits are less practical than the average heart rate.

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