Heart Rate

HealthyJohn
HealthyJohn Posts: 6
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a question about resting and active heart rate. I am 54 years old, in great shape and work out daily. I swim, bike, run and strength train. My resting heart rate is 44 and my active heart rate is 160-170 and have pushed it to 200 when doing anaerobic exercise. I saw my Naturopath who always gets excited about my resting heart rate. She asked about my active heart rate and I told her. She got even more excited, and by excited I mean concerned. Is this really something to be concerned about? I feel and look great, have lots of stamina. I listen to my body and slow down when I need to slow down. I have been thinking about buying a heart rate monitor rather than use the low end sports watch I have, that way I can get more accurate and spontaneous readings. I am open to anyone's input on the heart rate and what a good heart rate monitor is. I want that I can load software to my laptop versus storing all my personal info on some website.

Replies

  • Turtle003
    Turtle003 Posts: 133 Member
    I had a similar concern and talked to my Dr. about it. I work out 6x a week and my resting HR is 34-42 and when I workout in my cardio zone it ranges from 150 - 170. I have also pushed it all the way up to the low 180s. I was concerned and asked my Dr. and he said as long as I was not light headed, felt faint or dizzy that I was okay. I have never been any of those so I keep going. I do use a HRM to monitor my Heart Rate. The Polar FT60.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    I am 53 and my resting heartrate was 38 the last time I checked. Low resting heartrates are pretty normal for people doing endurance training. For someone that is out of shape though a heartrate that low could indicate major heart problems.

    Max heartrate gets lower by age but is largely genetic. 200 sounds kind of high but is not impossible.

    You have to be careful when pulling your max heartrate off a heart rate monitor. Sometimes the readings spike giving a false high. If you look at the heartrate graphed the false spikes are pretty obvious because the heartrate suddenly jumps real high and shortly thereafter drops back down. Those spikes should be discarded.

    I use my garmin 310XT with the garmin HRM. I had to buy the old, hard, strap and use a homemade electrolye gel to get consistently good reading.
  • pwicke
    pwicke Posts: 29
    I am only 32 but my resting is between 48-55 usually. Has been my whole life. I wear a HRM and my rate gets up to the 140-150s. I use a polar ft4. I also think the ones on my machines at home are pretty accurate!
  • DonnaMO60
    DonnaMO60 Posts: 2
    Maximum heart rate for your age can be calculated. A simple guide is 220- your age. There are more precise ways to work it out, just Google it! Your maximum heart rate has little to do with your at rest heart rate, or your fitness really, it is more about how hard you can push it for your age. You cannot REALLy improve your maximum heart rate it is fixed by your age, whereas your at rest heart rate is affected by fitness. The percentage of your maximum heart rate that you work at depends also on the kind of work out you want. You don't always have to be working at maximum to benefit.

    There is lots of reliable info on this matter. Try Livestrong, or the Mayo Clinic for easy to read, reliable information.
  • Karmarie24
    Karmarie24 Posts: 48 Member
    I've had several Polar brand heart rate monitors and I love them!

    Everyone has a different resting HR and max HR. The more aerobically fit you are, the more they will both come down too. There is an amazing book about exercising in your optimal HR zone. I'm a distance runner and I found the book wonderful! I continue to run faster and faster times with my HR staying in the same optimal range (for me under 145). My trainer loosely bases his training off of this book, with a few exceptions. He did have me add strength training (pretty heavy lifting) once I built up my aerobic base. I really started to lose inches once I figured out the whole HR mystery!

    The book is called, The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing by Philip Maffetone.
  • anothermop
    anothermop Posts: 187 Member
    Holy smokes! Those numbers sound crazy to me. I'm 45 and I've been working out 6 or 7 days/week for over 6 months. My resting hr is about 60 and when I run, it gets up in the 160's.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
    I've had several Polar brand heart rate monitors and I love them!

    Everyone has a different resting HR and max HR. The more aerobically fit you are, the more they will both come down too. There is an amazing book about exercising in your optimal HR zone. I'm a distance runner and I found the book wonderful! I continue to run faster and faster times with my HR staying in the same optimal range (for me under 145). My trainer loosely bases his training off of this book, with a few exceptions. He did have me add strength training (pretty heavy lifting) once I built up my aerobic base. I really started to loose inches once I figured out the whole HR mystery!

    The book is called, The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing by Philip Maffetone.
    I'll endorse that book too. I started training that way 8 weeks ago and have already gotten these benefits:
    - Came out of an overtrained state.
    - Got rid of a myriad of running pains.
    - Gotten 37 seconds faster per mile at my fixed aerobic heartrate.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    You cannot REALLy improve your maximum heart rate it is fixed by your age, whereas your at rest heart rate is affected by fitness.

    Not so.
  • HealthyJohn
    HealthyJohn Posts: 6
    Yeah, I know. I do a lot of aerobic exercise, swim, bike and run and some eliptical 6-7 days a week and sometimes twice a day 2-3 days a week. I lost 100 lb and have kept it off for two years and fitness has become a huge part of my lifestyle now.
  • notthatthis
    notthatthis Posts: 218
    It would be more interesting to establish your VO2 MAX because that is a greater indicator of yoru fitness. Also for you to look at the Borg Scale and see how the heart rate compares to how you feel whilst exercising again this is a great indicator as to the effort you are actually putting in.

    I note the 200 is when strength training, is that 90-95% of 1RM and reps higher than 8?
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I am NOT a medical professional, but do measure heart rate for my research.

    People with excellent cardiac fitness can have very low resting heart rates (I have college aged runners in my study with resting heart rates like yours) but often have normal heart rates during strenuous exercise (150+).

    If you don't want to buy a heart rate monitor, just stop mid exercise and measure your pulse. It is my experience that those sports watches are lousy at measuring heart rate for many folks because they confound strength of pulse and pulse rate. In other words, if your heart isn't pounding, they miss beats. Some people are more prone that than others. I have very low blood pressure and it is hard to get a good pulse/heart rate on me.

    It is actually quite difficult to get good measures. I use a 3 point harness system in my lab.

    If you're concerned, get a stress test. They even did one for me last year where they imaged my heart during activity to check its efficiency. It was actually pretty fascinating. If you are exercising a lot (you are) and getting older (I'm 54 too) you may want to do this check in. It is non-invasive.
  • GoddessG
    GoddessG Posts: 172 Member
    Holy smokes! Those numbers sound crazy to me. I'm 45 and I've been working out 6 or 7 days/week for over 6 months. My resting hr is about 60 and when I run, it gets up in the 160's.

    I'm 62 and though my exercise has only been ongoing to 8 weeks, my resting is 66. Sounds crazy to me too. Perhaps the elevated rate is why meditation is more difficult than it was. (I'm working on getting that back to normal as well)
  • HealthyJohn
    HealthyJohn Posts: 6
    No, the 200 was not during strength training it was during group bike training.
  • moustache_flavored_lube
    moustache_flavored_lube Posts: 849 Member
    You cannot REALLy improve your maximum heart rate it is fixed by your age, whereas your at rest heart rate is affected by fitness.

    Not so.
    Is so!!

    maximum heart rate is genetic pre determined and cannot be changed much if at all.
    Fitness can impact
    resting heart rate
    lactate threshold
    vo2max
  • moustache_flavored_lube
    moustache_flavored_lube Posts: 849 Member
    You have a quite good resting heart rate which indicates good aerobic fitness

    it is safe to work out to close to max heart rate (as long as you do not have underlying cardiac conditions)

    Why are you concerned about storing your heart rate data on a website? Most only require a username / password You don't have to give your real name, what could someone possibly do with this info?
  • krissy_krossy
    krissy_krossy Posts: 307 Member
    My doctor was concerned that mine gets up to 180 while doing cardio. It might be because I also have high cholesterol as well (LDL was at 223 last checked, apparently anything over 160 and they usually start meds.) And I'm still young! (22 years old.) I have a chemical stress test monday and the treadmill test later in the week to make sure everything is okay and was told not to do strenuous exercise until I'm cleared medically.
  • notthatthis
    notthatthis Posts: 218
    No, the 200 was not during strength training it was during group bike training.

    You are right, you said anaerobic I assumed you meant strength training as anaerobic usually is strength training. But anaerobic is anything above 10 seconds and less than 70 seconds under resistance - unless you mean something else?
  • kmorganlfc
    kmorganlfc Posts: 115 Member
    You cannot REALLy improve your maximum heart rate it is fixed by your age, whereas your at rest heart rate is affected by fitness.

    Not so.
    Is so!!

    maximum heart rate is genetic pre determined and cannot be changed much if at all.
    Fitness can impact
    resting heart rate
    lactate threshold
    vo2max

    This^^

    Resting heart rate can be improved/lowered with fitness. Whereas maximum heart rate is a fixed quantity only affected by age, and it gets 'uncovered' as you get fitter. Some people have maximum heart rates way above what any of the equations tell you it should be, which goes to show the eqations are only estimates and not fixed absolutes.

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