Training by Color: Making Sense of Your MyZone Heart-Rate Zones

Gray, blue, green, yellow, red — the tiles on the studio screen are a complete training system, once you know how to read them.

MyZone divides your effort into five colored zones based on your own maximum heart rate — not anyone else’s. Gray and blue are easy efforts, green is steady work, yellow is hard, and red is an all-out push. Because the zones are personal, a beginner and a marathoner can compete on level ground.

The system rewards effort, not fitness. You earn MEPs (MyZone Effort Points) for time spent in each zone, which is why some of the highest scores at the MAC belong to members who started their fitness journey a few months ago.

A smart week uses every color. Most of your training should live in blue and green — conversational efforts that build your aerobic base. Yellow and red are seasoning: an interval class, a hill push on the bike, the last minutes of a hard spin. All-red weeks lead to burnout, not progress.

If you haven’t joined the MyZone board yet, stop by the front desk and we’ll get you set up with a belt and the app. Watching your effort turn into points is strangely addictive — in the best possible way.

Also at Montana Athletic Club: spin classes, Les Mills programs, MAC membership.