Heart rate during cardio

LisaUlrey

Any suggestions on how to keep my heart rate down durring cardio? Mine seems to always be hovering towards my upper end of my target heart rate. I have only been working out for about a month and a half now. Shouldn't my heart rate go down as I do it more often?

jzammetti

I don't think the target heart rate stuff is valid...but I cannot say for sure. My heart rate is nearly 200 when I run but according to the target heart rate stuff it should only be around 160 (which is a fast walk for me). As you get more cardio-fit, it will get lower...but I don't think you should worry about it.

wolfgate

Heart rate is a very individual thing. The target heart rates you'll see in charts are based on the average of the population only, and in real life the spread is pretty wide, so very few people fit that average.

If you really want to set target heart rates, you'll need to find your maximum heart rate. You can't get that from a formula. There are a variety of exertion based tests you can use to get it, but you'd be more effective determining it after you've built a better endurance base. Once you have your maximum heart rate, you can then set you own individual target ranges.

In the meantime, you may want to use the effort test. If you are trying to do a normal, basebuilding cardio workout, you should be able to carry on a conversation speaking in full (perhaps short) sentences. If you are trying to do more intense workout, then being able to speak in short phrases only is a good test. High intensity should be short duration but you won't be able to speak towards eh end.

In time, you'll find you're able to work harder and be at the same effort level. Or in parallel, you'd find that your heart rate for the same workout (running the same distance at the same pace on a treadmill, for example) would go down.