Maximum Heart Rate or Am I Overdoing It?

tawnabanana

According to all the calculators and my age, my maximum heart rate should be at 184. Everything I read states that I should exercise at 75% of my maximum which would be 138. I wear a dependable heart rate monitor and I am never seeing a number as low as 138. I have been regularly exercising for almost two years now and I am almost always exercising at my max. The only way to stay at 75% would be to do very minimal cardio. I do a lot of interval training and during the "rest" period it drops to the 150's, but all cardio is around 186. I feel fine while I'm working out and afterwards, but can't help but wonder if I'm overdoing it. I don't know how to tone it down though, because that just feels like I'm not doing much. I'm sure I should ask a doctor, but was just curious as to what others experience.

pietomb00

I presume you're using the standard 220-age kind of calculations and then get a percentage from that? A better formula is the Karvonen formula, which would give you the same max HR but your 75% would be 153 (I calculated backwards to work out your resting HR at about 61, correct me if that's off! ). Which would sound slightly better for you.

However, so long as you are fit and healthy and don't have high blood pressure (may want to check if you don't know it) you're good to exercise at a higher HR especially as you feel fine. Also with intervals you can expect to be higher than 75% on the effort part. There's no point going lower if you wont feel like it's doing anything.

I took a spinning class once and had a fairly fit guy come up to me after who said his max heart rate was meant to be about 190, I'd got him up to over 215, but he was fine, had just had a very good work out. So it's fine to go high you just don't want it too high for too long.
Hope that kinda helps

Edit: I did my maths wrong on your resting heart rate so I won't be surprised if it is well off, but it wont change the 75% value that much

CoachsWife4

That's a very Tawna-esque question! Now that you asked it, I'm curious of the same thing. I do realize now that I am more fit, my heart rate comes down a LOT quicker and it takes more to get it up there...