A treadmill on the cardio setting tried to kill me!

dogladytwo

I used the cardio setting on a gym treadmill this AM (I have been doing so for 4 weeks) and the damn thing tried to kill me! My heart rate was low and it increased the incline to try to get my heart rate elevated. The rate still wouldn't budge but I felt like my heart was about to explode! Normally I'm on my target rate within 5 minutes with a brief time in a medium incline..... I don't know what was different this morning but I finally changed to manual setting and estimated a slight increased elevation from my Wednesday workout. It was a good workout and I am hoping it was the machine and not my heart that was having the issue. I thought I would die with the incline up so high!

Azdak

Another reason why I tell clients to never use heart rate interactive programs. Even when they detect an accurate heart rate signal, they gradually decrease the quality of the workout by reducing workload when heart rate drifts upward.

If for some reason you still continue to use these programs, remember you can manually override the workload (or you can stop altogether) if it is not reading HR properly.

spiriteagle99

I don't find the machines very accurate, and sometimes they are wildly off. The hand grips are useless. My bike will give me a HR of 55 when I've been cycling for half an hour and have worked up a good sweat. (My resting HR is 60.) My TM is no better unless I'm wearing a band.

dogladytwo

I now have select machines that are on my 'get away from me' list ' I love the hm's as they truly are a good indicator of when you are being stupid just trying to get a good cardio workout. If I over extend myself, I am less likely to want to go work out so keeping it at a full but not stressed pace is essential for my success.