HELP!! High Heart Rate during exercise ok?

Hey there. I wouldn't worry too much about it. My HRM reads over 200 often, which is beyond my projected max. Obviously, do not sustain long periods of time pushing your heart to that level. Your body will tell you when you slow down, and as long as you listen to it, you'll be fine.

I'm 29 so my highest is supposed to be 191. When I first started working out hard, I would easily reach 186-190 during high intensity workouts like Zumba. Now the highest it has spiked lately is in the 170s. However, it was spiking the most when I was at my heaviest. The lower my weight goes the less my heart rate spikes.

It will slow down noworries

I go over my supposed maximum all the time too. If you're really concerned about it, I'd check with your doctor.

There is a huge variation in what is "normal" for various people and the 220 minus age is just a rough guide.
Would only be concerned if this is abnormal for you or you feel distressed. Feeling under the weather perhaps?

Despite what some of the HIIT fanatics say there are different benefits from working in different zones - all depends on what your goals are. If you do decide to do heartzone training then a max heart rate test is the sensible place to start to accurately work out your zones.

Are you going all out during these workouts, or just moderate intensity? If you don't think you're working out all that hard and yet you're still hitting high HRs, go see your doctor. It doesn't sound right to me if it happens more often now than before.

I'm 29 so my highest is supposed to be 191. When I first started working out hard, I would easily reach 186-190 during high intensity workouts like Zumba. Now the highest it has spiked lately is in the 170s. However, it was spiking the most when I was at my heaviest. The lower my weight goes the less my heart rate spikes.

I guess this is what worries me though, I have been working out pretty regularly for 8 months now, and its all of a sudden increasing? I started at 175 lbs, now I am at 160. Shouldn't it be decreasing as time goes on? I am a worrier by nature, so maybe I will just give it more time and it will be fine...

But if you are pushing yourself harder, and your muscles are stronger, you might be able to push yourself to your max more often. As others have stated the whole 220 minus age thing is kind of bunk. One (supposed) safe way to find your max would be to run about a 5k and then at the end go all out and whatever heart rate you see there is likely your max. Your muscles in that case should prevent you from pushing it too hard.

But it's also possible your max is a bit higher. And many runners will see their max during high intensity intervals. Better to go based off of perceived effort, breathing and how you feel. Or the old running standby "talk test". You should be going easy enough that you could still talk to someone if they were there with you. But not so easy that you could sing. If it's too difficult to talk, you are probably pushing yourself too hard and should slow down.

I'll bet as you keep working out and getting more fit your "average" heart rate over the workout is getting lower, but it's possible that with more efficient muscles you can still see the max during some intervals.

(British accent) Mine goes to eleven...

My 4-5mile run pace has my heart rate at 176 or thereabouts, at the top of the "peak" range by most HRMs. Since I can sustain that for 45-60mins with no problems, I figure I'm just a special snow flake. It also drops back to the 120s within 5 mins of stopping, with most of the reduction coming in the first 2-3 minutes.

I have a nascent theory that low blood pressure correlates to higher heart rate than "standard" when exercising, but I have nowhere near enough data or science to be sure.

mine has been to around 200 but i just assume that my hrm is messing up. but to what someone said about blood pressure, my blood pressure is also pretty low (usually around 105/60) i think thats low anyway. but yeah its something i get from just running but im usually dripping in sweat at that point

I monitor mine with every workout, average and max and I found out if I don't drink enough water it goes much higher. When you are dehydrated your heart has to work harder to pump.

I use an HRM (Polar FT7) when I exercise. It calculates my zones and all that for me. Recently, just this past week when I have been working out, my heart rate has been sky rocketing up to 191 BPM!! I know the whole 220 - your age to get your suggested Max HR. I am 28, so mine is 192. So, technically I am ok I guess, but that just seems so high to me?? Before this week, the highest it has ever gone is 186. What does this mean?

What is everyone else's BPM, especially those that are around my age? Is there anything you would recommend to get this down?

I trained for a half marathon last year and my heart rate was almost always above 180. By the way, I am 28 years old as well. I tried slowing my pace down to a crawl....but my heart rate always stayed up. I never felt tired or bad when I ran. I actually never researched more as to why my heart rate was higher than the recommended training zone. Maybe I could check to make sure my HRM is accurate.

Also, I don't think going from 186 to 191 is skyrocketing. I noticed my heart rate would fluctuate more than that when I would stop/start concentrating on my breathing. If I really focused on breathing deeply and evenly my heart rate would slow down a bit.

Mine will go into the upper 180s when I am pushng it or doing HIIT. I also have a pretty high resting heart rate. So does my dad... some things are genetic. My RHR has gotten slower as I've gotten more fit, but still higher than the "norm". My blood pressure is also always low... maybe there is a correlation? Interesting...

When I do my Tabata, the max heart rate will shoot up to 186 or so but the average for the whole workout will be around 140. So, I believe it is ok if your HR shoots up, but it needs to recover quickly as well.