How to: Read Your Heart Rate Session Printout

Related: Calculate my Heart Rate Training Zone

Understanding Your Heart Rate Zones, Training Load & Calorie Burn

At My Movement Medicine, we are lucky enough to be able to provide full session heart rate monitoring for everyone exercising in our face-to-face sessions.

Following each session, you receive a personalised heart rate printout like the one shown below. It might look like a lot of numbers and colours at first, but each section tells a powerful story about your heart health, fitness, and how your body responded to the workout.

Let’s break it all down, step by step, so you know exactly what it means and how to use the information to support your health journey.

🕒 Workout Summary

Example:

• Date

• Elapsed Time

• Active Time

This section shows when the session began and how long you were actively exercising. In this example, the participant was active for almost the entire session – fantastic consistency!

Example of a Heart Rate session printout

❤️ Heart Rate Section

💡 What’s shown:

• High Heart Rate: Example: 111 bpm

• Low Heart Rate: Example: 71 bpm

• Average Heart Rate: Example: 90 bpm

• Graph: Heart rate trends throughout the session (Each colour bar corresponds to a heart rate training zone – more on that next.)

🧠 Why it matters:

Your heart rate tells us how hard your cardiovascular system is working. We want to ensure you’re safely training at the right intensity – enough to improve heart health, but not so much that you’re overdoing it.

This example shows a healthy range of effort, with a steady build-up, some peaks, and a clear taper towards the end – which is exactly what we aim for in cardiac-safe sessions.

📊 Training Load: Time Spent in Heart Rate Zones

This section breaks your session into colour-coded heart rate zones:

Zone	% of Max HR	Meaning
🔵 Recovery	30–60%	Very light activity, warm-up/cool-down
🟢 Endurance	60–70%	Gentle aerobic work, great for base fitness
🟡 Aerobic	70–80%	Moderate intensity, improves heart function
🟠 Anaerobic	80–90%	Higher intensity effort, short bursts
🔴 Maximum	90–100%	Sprint-level, rarely used in rehab

📌 Example:

• 5:00 in Anaerobic Zone (🟠)

• 25:00 in Aerobic Zone (🟡)

• 20:00 in Endurance Zone (🟢)

• 10:00 in Recovery Zone (🔵)

The majority of the workout here took place in the Aerobic and Endurance Zones – ideal for cardiac health, stamina, and fat burning.

⚖️ Training Score & Load Rating

• Training Score: 175 points

• Load: 56% max

• Rating: Moderate

✅ What does this mean?

We use your heart rate reserve and performance to calculate a Training Score. A score of 175 with a moderate load indicates a balanced, heart-healthy workout. You're building endurance and cardiovascular fitness safely.

Over time, you’ll likely notice improvements: more time in aerobic zones, lower average heart rate at the same intensity, and faster recovery. These are all signs of increasing fitness.

🔥 Energy Expenditure

• Estimated Active Energy: Example: 246 calories

• Predicted Afterburn (EPOC): Example: 67 calories

• Total Energy Burned: Example: 313 calories

🍽️ What’s the "afterburn"?

Also known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), afterburn refers to the extra energy your body uses to return to resting state after exercise – a sign that your workout was effective!

Together, the session burned over 300 calories, showing a well-rounded workout that engages both the heart and muscles.

👣 What Should I Do With This Information?

✅ Track your progress: Save your weekly summaries to compare. Are you spending more time in aerobic zones? Is your average heart rate lowering at the same intensity?

✅ Celebrate the effort: Even if the numbers are small to start with, consistent moderate movement makes a big difference to long-term heart health.

✅ Ask questions: Not sure what your graph is showing? Just ask in your next session – we’ll go through it together.

✅ Use the data to adjust: Feeling too tired or not challenged enough? Your heart rate data helps us tweak your plan safely.

❤️ In Summary

Your heart rate printout is more than just data – it’s a snapshot of your heart’s performance and progress. It helps us personalise your program, celebrate your wins, and keep your exercise journey safe and effective.

If you ever want a deeper breakdown or help setting your heart rate goals, just ask during your next session.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions: Heart Rate Printouts

1. What should my average heart rate be during a session?

It depends on your age, fitness level, medication, and recovery stage. In cardiac rehab, we usually aim for 40 – 70% of your heart rate reserve, which often translates to an average heart rate between 90 – 120 bpm for many clients. Your personal target range will be discussed with you.

2. Why does my heart rate go up even when I'm not moving much?

Several factors can influence your heart rate:

• Talking or laughing

• Anxiety or excitement

• Medication timing

• Temperature and hydration levels

  Even small movements, like reaching or turning, can briefly raise heart rate. That’s totally normal!

3. Is it bad if I spend time in the anaerobic or maximum zones?

Not necessarily – brief time in higher zones can happen naturally, especially during dynamic or weighted exercises. However, sustained time in high zones isn’t the goal during most rehab sessions. If it happens frequently, we’ll review and adjust your program to keep it safe.

4. What’s the difference between active energy and total energy burned?

• Active Energy is what you burn during the workout.

• Total Energy includes afterburn (also called EPOC), which is the extra calories your body uses while it recovers. It’s like a bonus burn!

5. Can I improve my training score over time?

Yes – and it’s a great goal to aim for. As your fitness improves, you may see:

• Higher training scores (while keeping intensity safe)

• More time spent in the aerobic zone

• A lower resting or average heart rate during similar sessions

  All of these are signs of progress.

6. What’s a good training load for someone in cardiac rehab?

We aim for a moderate load – enough to challenge the heart but not overstress it. Your printout gives a score like “Moderate”, which means you're hitting that sweet spot. If you see "Low" regularly, we may look at ways to progress safely.

7. How often should I check my heart rate printouts?

Every week! Reviewing them regularly helps you:

• See progress over time

• Spot patterns in energy, heart rate, and fitness

• Stay motivated and informed

  
  

  Bring any questions to your next session – we're always happy to help interpret them with you.

This blog post was written by Jamie Pickett, Clinical Exercise Physiologist, with AI assistance.