does your heart rate really matter when working out?

Yes it does. Check out this site. http://www.weightloss-hq.biz/weight-loss-tools/heart-rate-training-zones-calculator.html

I don't believe that high blood pressure has a minimum age or weight. I recommend consulting a doctor just to be on the safe side, especially since your dad has had a stroke.

if your resting heart rate is around 110 that is something you should have checked out.

Looks like the consensus is go to the doctor.

Go to the doctor :sick:

I second talking to your doctor about the resting HR being so high.

At least rule out any major problems.

Everyone is different and many times those machines are in need of calibrations. However I find that on exercise equipment if I am even slightly doing over a casual stroll pace I am getting into the 160+ zones. I don't feel uncomfortable and to me it seems right where I should be, slightly difficult to hold a conversation. Trust your body, listen to how you feel to know when you might need to take it down a notch, or even up a notch.


That being said...... To anyone/everyone if you feel like something is wrong with your heart by all means go to the doctor.... I used to get random moments where my heart would take off. I dealt with it for about 3 years. I went early on to the doctors (we only have military care facilities available to us overseas here) and they wanted me to go to mental health and wrote me off as having anxiety. I would get these spells all the time where I could hardly breathe, my heart was racing out of no where for no reason, I would get light headed, my arms would start to feel numb, and either I would either faint, or have to wait anywhere from a minute to an hour for it to stop. I was always exhausted everyday. One day at work was just walking down the hallway and all of a sudden I felt like I was dying, like everything they tell you a heart attack feels like but worse...called my husband and he took me to the er, took 30 minutes to get there he dropped me off at the front I stumbled in and couldn't even manage to talk because I could hardly breathe. They tossed me right onto a hospital bed and for another almost hour monitored me and kept trying to make me do different things (valve salva techniques) while my heart was registering 220bpm and well above the whole time I was laying there..... They explained they were probably going to have to stop my heart and restart it, which scared the living *kitten* out of me even more then I already was. Luckily I finally came out of it right before they went that route. I was then explained that I had something called PSVT and that I had been hazardously dismissed in my previous concerns at the medical facility. It was explained to me that at any point when I had such an episode my heart could just give out, stop, from the strain. And unless someone was there and able to restart my heart well that would be lights out. Much less that my heart was taking serious risks of damage from the load it was under. It is a disorder where your heart goes into tachycardia due to basically having an extra electrical feedback circuit. the circuit is supposed to make a closed circle but somewhere in mine it had a jumper so out of the blue my heart would send extra signals to beat and send me out of rhythm and racing. For 2 & 1/2 years I had this type of thing happen atleast every other week and sometimes every few days, with no clue just thought I was out of shape (5'2'' 160lbs) and maybe I was just stressed. I had a very active case of this disorder. But I also had two small children and a husband who had been deployed twice in those 2 & 1/2 years and we live overseas with no family around and.... That was a scary realization when I finally learned what was going on. It was correctable with surgery. Finally was able to go have my surgery several months later last November. I could tell the difference immediately. I didn't feel like I needed sleep 3-4 hours into my day anymore within the first week. Made me feel capable again. If you think you don't feel right see your physician and make sure to keep details of the issue so you can get proper care.

My resting heart rate is about 70-80. I was told that during low level activity to shoot for 140-150, and during intense activity 160-170 never to exceed 190.

I'm 21 and my resting heart rate is always around 100 to 110. It's fine. It doesn't mean anything is wrong with you.

110? That seems a bit excessive. My Rest rate is around 75, which is normal.

For losing weight it doesn't matter.

For building fitness it makes a huge difference. Different exercise intensities cause different physiological adaptations in the body.

It all depends on what your goals are.