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Playing with hearts!

msarro
msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
edited September 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Naw, not in the mean way.

Did/does anyone else try to speed up/slow down their heart rate when they first strapped on their heart rate monitor? I know I do. For some reason i think its neat to see the effect that slowing your breathing, and taking deep, controlled breaths can have. Versus exciting your breath to speed it up.

So, yeah, anyone else play with your heart?

Replies

  • msarro
    msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
    Naw, not in the mean way.

    Did/does anyone else try to speed up/slow down their heart rate when they first strapped on their heart rate monitor? I know I do. For some reason i think its neat to see the effect that slowing your breathing, and taking deep, controlled breaths can have. Versus exciting your breath to speed it up.

    So, yeah, anyone else play with your heart?
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    No, but I think my HRM is playing with me, lol. It started giving me really low readings in the 30's and 40's in the middle of a workout! :grumble:

    I could feel my heart pounding but I had to stop to check my pulse just to be sure, lol .. it was basically subtracting by 100 randomly.
  • neurogirl
    neurogirl Posts: 706 Member
    I sometimes do biofeedback, although I don't own the equipment at my current place of employment, and I love seeing how low I can get my heart rate. People who come in with major anxiety don't believe they can slow down their heart that much just through deep breathing and meditating, but it really makes a difference. They even have some that are like computer games, and you can make the balloon go up or down or a black and white scene begin to color in.

    I like playing with that stuff. I really need an HRM. :bigsmile:
  • lyla29
    lyla29 Posts: 3,549 Member
    I also do this just to see how relaxed I can get.
  • rstarks54
    rstarks54 Posts: 163
    Try taking your pulse rate after meditation...you'd be suprised at the difference...Best to you always, Rick
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    When I worked in cardiac rehab, it was even more fun to do it with a telemetry monitor and watch the actual ECG on a screen. The visual was much more effective as slowing down the rate--you could imagine the ECG line between the beats being stretched out longer and longer.

    The irony is that I could only get the rate so low--at that point I subconsciously got caught up in my own internal "competition" to get it as low as possible and that was enough of a stimulus to make it go back up a little.
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