Max heart rate

[LuciferRising]

I have my first sports watch. I do not understand max heart rates. Is it only age which determines your max heart rate?

When I exercise it sometimes says I go over my max heart rate. Will I drop down dead?

220 minus your age is a crude method of determining yourvmax heart rate.

There are other online calculators that rake into account your resting heart rate as well.

Your maximum HR is the very highest it can go with a maximum effort, so you can't go above your max, as that is the ceiling. You can only accurately measure it doing a proper max test effort. Any 'max' measures on watches etc. use formulas based on different things, so are generally fairly vague.

It does decline with age, but I wouldn't worry about what watch thinks it is.