HEART RATE ZONES
Heart rate zones from your own data
Your zones are built from you: your own runs, a field test or a lab test. When you sign up, Complete reads the hard workouts already in Apple Health and shows you where your numbers came from. With no usable history yet, it starts from an age formula and replaces it once your own data arrives.
What heart rate zones and threshold heart rate are
Heart rate zones split your heart rate into bands from very easy to very hard, so a plan can tell you how hard a session should be. Zone 2, for example, is an easy effort you could hold a conversation in.
Threshold heart rate is roughly the highest heart rate you can hold through a hard, steady effort of about an hour. Complete sets every zone as a share of that number, so when your threshold is measured again, every zone moves with it. The app shows five zones.
Why not 220 minus age?
220 minus age estimates your maximum heart rate from your age alone. Strava, for example, uses it for its default zones, and customizing zones there takes a subscription.
Any age formula is an average across many people, and your own maximum can sit well above or below it. Every zone built on it moves with that error. So Complete uses a formula only when it has nothing of yours, and uses Tanaka’s formula (208 minus 0.7 times age) rather than 220 minus age.
- Strava help: heart rate zones checked 28 Sep 2026
Where Complete gets your threshold, in order
Complete takes the first source it has, from most to least personal. Your own history replaces any formula, and never replaces a threshold you measured.
Heart rate reserve, in the table, is the gap between your resting and your maximum heart rate. A field test such as the Cooper test sets your maximum heart rate, and only when you ran it at full effort.
| Source | What it needs |
|---|---|
| A measured threshold | A threshold you type in, the in-app assessment, or an imported lab test |
| Your Apple Health history | At least one sustained hard effort in the last 180 days with heart rate recorded. Walks don’t count. |
| Your measured maximum heart rate | With your resting heart rate: 83% of your heart rate reserve. Without it: 88% of your maximum. |
| An age formula | Tanaka’s maximum heart rate, 208 minus 0.7 times age, with your resting heart rate if Complete has it |
| A default | A threshold of 170 bpm, until any of the above arrives |
Your zones keep up with you
Your zones update when you give Complete access to Apple Health, and whenever you tap RE-ANALYZE RUNS, which reads your last 180 days of runs again. If your zones moved, Complete tells you and offers to rebuild your plan around them.
Your zones keep up with you without a retest. Your maximum heart rate is rechecked every day across up to three years of data, and it only ever goes up. Your training paces are rechecked every Monday from the runs you log.
Frequently asked questions
Can I set my own heart rate zones, or am I stuck with the app’s defaults?
You can set them. Type in a threshold heart rate you know, import a lab test, or take the in-app test, and Complete builds every zone from it. The age formula is only the starting point when there is nothing else.
Does Complete use 220 minus age?
No. When it has no data of yours, it uses Tanaka’s formula, 208 minus 0.7 times age, and replaces it once your own data arrives.
Which watches work for this?
Complete reads your workouts from Apple Health, so any watch that writes workouts with heart rate there works, including Garmin, COROS, Polar and Suunto. WHOOP and Oura connect directly for recovery and sleep.
Do my zones change after every workout?
No. They update when you connect Apple Health, when you tap RE-ANALYZE RUNS, and when a newer estimate is ready on the server. Your maximum heart rate is checked daily and only goes up.