My heart rate

DarleneMarie203

Thanks everyone! I have another question. Right now when I do the treadmill I set it to the Manual setting. Should I be using a different setting maybe Fat Burn or Cardio instead?

SingingSingleTracker

dmarie203 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! I have another question. Right now when I do the treadmill I set it to the Manual setting. Should I be using a different setting maybe Fat Burn or Cardio instead?

Manual is fine. That way you control the speed, duration, and the "tilt" of the tread yourself.

If you want to try one of the pre-programmed settings, feel free to give it a try. However, there is no need to do them.

bwogilvie

heybales wrote: »

You might also ask how high the HR got during the stress test - for comparison sake.

Sometimes they use 80% of estimated HRmax to take you up too - so not a true max test - but still - if you found out they saw no issues doing 150 say - then you know you have a good range to go before needing to even think about worrying.

This is good advice, since you have done a stress test. The formulas are pretty bad, even the ones that are more complicated than 220-age. They all tell me that my maximum HR three years ago should have been around 170-178, but I measured it at 192.

blues4miles

bwogilvie wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

You might also ask how high the HR got during the stress test - for comparison sake.

Sometimes they use 80% of estimated HRmax to take you up too - so not a true max test - but still - if you found out they saw no issues doing 150 say - then you know you have a good range to go before needing to even think about worrying.

This is good advice, since you have done a stress test. The formulas are pretty bad, even the ones that are more complicated than 220-age. They all tell me that my maximum HR three years ago should have been around 170-178, but I measured it at 192.

This! My stress test max showed it perfectly to be at my age-prediction, but I wonder if that's why they stopped me. A couple years later and I still see about the same or a little higher here and there on my runs. So pretty convinced mine is a little higher than my age prediction. Some people might be lower. Also, look up the "talk test". It's meant for running, but is a good indication of not pushing yourself too far. You should be able to speak a few sentences without gasping for breath.

Azdak

blues4miles wrote: »

bwogilvie wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

You might also ask how high the HR got during the stress test - for comparison sake.

Sometimes they use 80% of estimated HRmax to take you up too - so not a true max test - but still - if you found out they saw no issues doing 150 say - then you know you have a good range to go before needing to even think about worrying.

This is good advice, since you have done a stress test. The formulas are pretty bad, even the ones that are more complicated than 220-age. They all tell me that my maximum HR three years ago should have been around 170-178, but I measured it at 192.

This! My stress test max showed it perfectly to be at my age-prediction, but I wonder if that's why they stopped me. A couple years later and I still see about the same or a little higher here and there on my runs. So pretty convinced mine is a little higher than my age prediction. Some people might be lower. Also, look up the "talk test". It's meant for running, but is a good indication of not pushing yourself too far. You should be able to speak a few sentences without gasping for breath.

It's been my experience that most places will not push you anywhere close to max on a stress test. Partly it's because there is no need since most people do a nuclear test or stress echo and both of those do not require a max effort to show diagnostic changes. And since exercise physiologists have been pretty much removed from doing these tests, no one cares about looking at functional capacity--they are more interested in avoiding risk.

There is a history of heart valve failure in my family, so I go in for stress echos every couple of years. They always get nervous because I won't hold on to the handrails. The last one I was in pretty good shape and wanted to max out if I could, since I have no idea what my max HR is anymore. I asked them before the test to please let me go as long as I could and let me tell them when to stop (unless, of course, there was some serious issue on the ECG). Things were going great but as soon as I started to push, I felt the belt and incline going down. I looked at the tech and she said "well your heart rate is at 80%, so we stop at that point". I was really ticked off--it was lower than many of my workout HR levels.

So, no, I would not accept a peak stress test heart rate as a "HR Max" number.