Heart Rate, how much is too high?

Most of these machines rely on the old 220-your age (if they even ask your age) as your MaxHR and their manufacturers use the so-called "fat burning" zone as the target.

I'm 56 and when I'm running hills my heart rate will spike at 180 (I should be dead according to my HRM).

The only really accurate way to assess MaxHR is with a stress test but if you're feeling fine I wouldn't lose any sleep over it (if your breathing becomes laboured or you're feeling light headed dial it back).

I am a 220 lb, 5"11 male 32 years of age.

When I do cardio my heart rate usually hovers around 150-160 bpm. If I start to push harder it goes up to 170 and the machines start warning me "heart rate too high".

Is it? I don't feel like it is. I feel like I could go harder I don't have any problems breathing at that intensity either, the only reason I slow down is the machine warning me.

I don't know what my maximum heart rate is. Am I even burning fat in that range or does 150+ BPM start to burn muscle?

as said already the warning is telling you your hr is too high for the fat burning or cardio zone, although for your age the fat burning zone seems to be set a little too high. my fat burning zone is around 135-155 bpm and im 31, so more likely to be your cardio zone.

your body burns fat first to do everyday tasks, ramp up exercise and body switches to glycogen stores, you have about 2000 cals worth per day. deplete this and your body will start breaking down protein ie your muscles into glycogen to burn as fuel.

if you're worried about keeping muscle stay at the top of the fat burning zone, there are online calculators for this and working out your max HR etc. this will give u a rough guide try to limit session to 45 minutes max on the bike. if you do it after a weights session maybe limit the bike to say 20 minutes as glycogen stores already depleted somewhat.

I don't know if this helps but from what I've read, a good way to tell if your heart is strong enough to handle high intensities like that is to see how quickly it goes down. So if you're going from 170 to 140 within a minute of changing your intensity, your heart is strong like bull.

the machine count your max hr according to this fomula
max HR = 220- age
it's very inaccurate
some of the machines even turn off when you reach 90% of that
you can avoid this by putting lower age

Test your Vo2max and see how your body utilizes oxygen. I've used this method:

http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/rockport.htm

Rockport one mile test. Easy to do on a treadmill and easier if you have a HRM to go along with. IF you dont have an HRM, make sure to take a FULL MINUTE to read your pulse. Your HR can quickly lower within that minute, and if you take a 10 pulse x 60 sec, you'll get the wrong result.


According to the standard 220-age, my max is 184. I don't reach that often, even if I'm pounding it on the trails my max is around 170. I have a pretty healthy heart and my last Vo2max test scored 'athlete above avg.'

When I run my highest HR is about 173 and that's on a sprint. For my formulation my high should be 176, I don't hit that very often anymore as I've gotten fitter.
Was recently in hospital and was on their heart rate monitor and my resting HR was between 60-64, I was very happy with that!

I've had trainers quote the 'fat burning zone' to me, and many machines at the gym show you right where that is. I know this is one of those things that's open to opinion, but personally I'm not a big believer in this one. This article has some good information on how the body actually works.

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fat-burning-Zone.htm