Your Heart Rate is Too Fast---Slow Down Now

Caerith

Are you staying hydrated?

About a year ago, I checked into the hospital with a resting heartrate of 160. Granted, I was checking in because my appendix had ruptured, but when they took my vitals they thought the machine was broken and had to re-check with fingers and a clock. My blood pressure was perfect, my body weight within acceptable bounds, and I have nerves of steel so it wasn't stress or pain causing my pulse to race. I was, predictably, dehydrated. (For three days before I checked in, I thought it was just food poisoning and I wasn't able to keep anything down, so this is less than surprising.)

Since then, whenever I go too long without water, when I sweat too much or whatever, my heart starts pounding. I'm really bad at drinking enough water, so it happens more than I'd like to admit.

YMMV, of course, but there's no harm in drinking more water.

bethelcheryl

That is interesting. I'm bad at drinking water too, and once or twice when I had a nasty stomach virus my pulse started to race. When I first started working out, I would get headaches. I figured out that it was because I wasn't drinking anything before working out. I make sure I do that now. But I still should probably drink more water.

BeautyFromPain

Your max heart rate is 220-your age eg mine would be 201 and then 75% of that is what you should be working towards but can go higher usually as high as 90% if doing really, really intense bootcamp etc

TheNewDoug

The more fit you get, the harder it will be to get your heart rate up.

Gt3ch

That is interesting. I'm bad at drinking water too, and once or twice when I had a nasty stomach virus my pulse started to race. When I first started working out, I would get headaches. I figured out that it was because I wasn't drinking anything before working out. I make sure I do that now. But I still should probably drink more water.

Your pulse would be unusually high if you were dehydrated or your electrolytes were out of balance. The things is, though, your pulse wasn't extremely high according to your report even for your age. You should always be well hydrated but the problem is the machine's settings not your pulse.

I don't really understand comments here that the more fit you are the harder it is to get your pulse high. It's one of those things that manages to be both true and baloney. Yes if you do exactly the same workout over time you will acclimate to it and your pulse & breathing will decrease. But how do you manage to do that? I don't know about anyone else but as I improve I set higher goals for myself. Why would I keep the goals I had when I was de-conditioned if I'm now exercising regularly & more fit? You're not going to get any benefit from phoning it in. Therefore as you acclimate you should be increasing intensity & duration or at least changing the routine. Therefore as you get more fit, if you are training properly, you will be more comfortably raising your pulse higher and can do it longer doing much harder work. You should also find as you get more fit that your resting pulse lowers, your recovery is quicker & more complete between workouts, and also that your pulse returns to resting much quicker after exertion.