Need help...heart rate vs breathing

amsuraj

What is the connection between heart rate zones and how fast you are breathing? My garmin tells me that I am in the red zone but I don’t feel out of breath. I am trying to make connection between the two. Thanks.

MikePfirrman

I'm not that familiar with Garmin's zones, but yeah, by definition there's a direct correlation between breathing and HR. Your heart rate increases to improve oxygen consumption/needs and breath goes up right along with it.

Do you plug in your HR into Garmin manually? By an age formula, my max should be something like 170. It's more like 195, although I haven't done a true Max HR test in quite a while (I have one coming up this Thursday that I am NOT looking forward to). If your Garmin is assuming a Max HR based on age and your true Max HR is significantly higher, that would explain. I can hold conversations at 150 plus easily. I can hold a tune singing (or I think I can!) working out in the 150s. When I get into the 160s, I'm breathing much harder, 170s, I can't talk except for single words. My guess would be it's assuming an age formula when your true max is much higher.

Tacklewasher

My Garmin would do the same until I picked up a HR strap and then went for a hard 5K run. I guess it doesn't calculate max HR off the wrist, but needed the strap to do the testing.

Anyway I went from 150 being in the solid red to being at the top of the blue. Max HR is about 185 now where it had assumed ~165 (220 - Age).

I've got a Fenix 3HR.

sijomial

Don't assume a calculated maximum HR is your actual maximum attainable HR - can be very different for some individuals which makes your zones inaccurate.

Mine when tested (176bpm) wasn't too far away from predicted (167bpm) but my brother could still hit 200+ at age 60.

jjpptt2

It is, at best, a loose connection. I find my measured HR lags behind my respiration rate most of the time. Also, don't assume your HR zones are correct.

pierinifitness

220 minus age would put me at 156 and I would be under training if I used that number to set training zones.

Based on my experience, I’ve manually plugged 180 bpm as my maximum HR into my Garmin. That seems closer to my cardiovascular truth. A decade ago, I used 185 bpm as my MHR.

There are other formulas out there that calculate a better MHR number for a conditioned person. I’ve wasted tume playing with all of them.

Azdak

The shortcoming of all age-predicted HR max prediction equations is that they all have a fairly large standard deviation—that’s just the way humans are made. So you will always find 10-30 bpm variability is “normal”.

If one sees a relatively high heart rate (per a 220-age reference) and a relatively low rate of breathing, then odds are about 100% that you have a HR max that is substantially higher than the estimated amount. And you are not working as hard as the “zone” indicates.

While the concept of “zone training” is physiologically sound, IMO it has limited practical application to average exercisers. The first reason is the topic we are discussing — the variability of estimated HR max. A second is the fact that most “zone calculators” do not take HR rest into account, which can have a notable effect on your calculated numbers and which can change over time. The third is “cardiovascular drift”, the condition where heart rate increases during an extended workout with no change in workload or breathing. This effect can, on paper, push you up 1 or 2 “zones”, even though you are not changing your actual effort.

Most people will do just fine with “easy”, “medium”, and “hard” levels, based more on breathing and perceived effort more than heart rate, rather than getting caught up in complex “zones”.

spiriteagle99

Go by effort. If it feels easy, and you can breathe and talk in full sentences, then it is easy. Medium means you can still talk, but not full sentences, just short answers. Hard means you don't want to talk at all, you're puffing and panting.

BrianSharpe

amsuraj wrote: »

What is the connection between heart rate zones and how fast you are breathing? My garmin tells me that I am in the red zone but I don’t feel out of breath. I am trying to make connection between the two. Thanks.

Assuming you actually know what your zones are there is a close correlation. The gold standard is to get a treadmill stress test done but there are other DIY tests you can do that will give you a decent estimate of max HR, or simply go on perceived effort.

dewd2

Garmin allows you to set your HR zones a few different ways - % max, % reserve, and % lactate threshold. Depending on how yours is set your zones will vary. Plus, as others have already noted, unless you know your actual max (and min) heart rate, none of these zones will be accurate.

Unless you are training specifically using these zones I suggest you ignore them (and if you are, you need to get your max measured or you are wasting your time). Just run. If you can sing while you run your are doing it right.

Good luck.

heybales

Your effect proves out when an estimated MaxHR is likely off, because indeed breathing should be right up there with high HR.

In fact the science notes on the FirstBeat tech that Garmin used (uses?) in some devices was about looking at the HRV to try to discern if the breathing was matching the HR, and estimating a better HRmax.

Because you could also have stressed or med induced or dehydrated elevated HR which also shows up by breathing rate not matching.

If the training zones are more than idle curiosity, and actually desired for some specific training - the self-test HRmax method could be useful if cleared by Dr.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/466973/i-want-to-test-for-my-max-heart-rate-vo2-max/p1