Mellerowicz Formula

Estimate maximum heart rate (MHR) with the Mellerowicz formula, which switches its base constant depending on whether the subject is a minor or an adult.

Formula

• Age ≤ 18: MHR = 180 − age
• Age > 18: MHR = 170 − age

Output is in beats per minute. A 16-year-old receives 164 bpm, while a 30-year-old receives 140 bpm — a steeper adult curve than Cooper’s rule produces at the same ages.

Background

Polish sports-medicine literature referenced by Mellerowicz emphasized different cardiovascular ceilings for adolescents versus fully matured athletes. The two-segment model reflects that developmental difference with a simple breakpoint at 18 years.

When to use it

Appropriate for school sports programs, youth-club warm-up planning, or comparing adolescent versus adult MHR estimates side by side with other formulas on this site.

Limitations

A hard cutoff at 18 oversimplifies maturation timing. The formula is unisex and does not adjust for puberty stage, body size, or medication. Published validation data in English-language journals is limited compared with Tanaka or Ball State.

Example

Age 49 under the mellerowicz formula yields a concrete bpm estimate (not a clinical measurement).

This skill is available over A2A JSON-RPC and REST. When you already know the skill id and export, call execute directly—no discovery step required.

REST example

curl -sS -X POST https://toolplaza.app/api/helpers/execute \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"skillId":"heart__mellerowicz-formula","export":"calculateMellerowiczMaxHeartRate","args":[10,20]}'

A2A JSON-RPC example

Send POST https://toolplaza.app/api/a2a with:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": "1",
  "method": "message/send",
  "params": {
    "message": {
      "messageId": "uuid",
      "role": "user",
      "parts": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "text": "ignored"
        }
      ]
    },
    "metadata": {
      "toolplaza": {
        "skillId": "heart__mellerowicz-formula",
        "export": "calculateMellerowiczMaxHeartRate",
        "args": [
          10,
          20
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

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