Sustaining Max Heart Rate - Pros/Cons

teminowi
teminowi Posts: 17
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone - I'm a bit of a newb to this community but I've had this burning question that isn't being answered by The Google, so I thought maybe you friends could help me out.

I am a balls-to-the-walls work outer. I like intense workouts and I push it hard. When the instructor says go harder? I do. And it's extreme. I finally bought a HRM a few months back out of curiosity and I saw that I'm working at max heart rate almost the entire time...

So now I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should pull my intensity back a bit. Can anybody tell me the pros AND cons of sustaining max heart rate for 40-50 minutes straight? Are there awesome benefits to this or should I be toning it down a touch and saving some of that energy for other things?

Thanks!

Replies

  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
    I doubt you're sustaining your maximum heart rate for 40 - 45 minutes. You'd probably only last about 15 minutes at the max rate before the signals to slow down overcame your mental ability to keep going. The 220 - age formula is just a guesstimate as to what your maximum heart rate will be. It could be higher than this.

    I can keep mine in the 170 - 175 range for about 2 hours but once I start topping 180 I probably only have 30 minutes of functional work. 185 bpm is about the top end from what I've seen and for practical reasons I call this my maximum heart rate. After 10 minutes of this I'm done. This is extremely difficult to maintain.

    You should generally be able to say a few words to someone during exercise. If not you might want to ease back a bit on the throttle. Pushing yourself too hard can result in an injury. Not to your heart but to something else because being that tired and exhausted will cause you to lose form and not complete the exercise properly.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
    Yeah, the formula for max heart rate is just an approximation, it's not absolute. If you can do it for 50 minutes, it's not likely to be at your max HR.
  • manique45
    manique45 Posts: 99 Member
    I would also like to know the pros and cons... I dont keep mine at MAX but doing insanity and even zumba(hour long) my heart rate hardly drops below 150... If it does its not longer than a few minutes then back up to 165-189... Although in Insanity when it reaches up above 180 I start to feel like I'm going to vomit... SO i will get a sip of water and jump back into it...

    I'm 5'3
    CW 162
    GW140
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
    The Pros are that you're working your aerobic system out and making it stronger. The Cons are that if you have that much intensity it might make it difficult to complete the exercise. If you can maintain it for an hour you're probably not outside of your correct workout range.
  • manique45
    manique45 Posts: 99 Member
    The Pros are that you're working your aerobic system out and making it stronger. The Cons are that if you have that much intensity it might make it difficult to complete the exercise. If you can maintain it for an hour you're probably not outside of your correct workout range.

    I guess I am wondering more about is understanding what the body does at certain intensities... I read something before about a fat burning range... or seen it on a treadmill... wondering if there is any truth to this... I sweat like a pig during my work outs and now I am able to sustain an insanity work out after doing it for 5 months among other things... My goal is fitness, endurance, and of coarse fat loss while keeping muscle... Thought insanity would help me out more in that area for me it just gave me more endurance and now I can do push ups... Which is great :o) but was hoping for more fat loss.. I'm on my way now to resistance training as I haven't done much of this on my 6 month journey...
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    This has some info that you might find of interest:

    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    This has some info that you might find of interest:

    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin

    Maybe they just want to be a cardio bunny. Nothing wrong with wanting to be a cardio bunny or having a soft body. Not everyone wants to lift heavy, skip cardio and have abs like mine.

    I agree with everything Waffle said. Waffle knows cardio and heart rate.
  • teminowi
    teminowi Posts: 17
    Well I've never ever seen my heartrate go above 186, and I'll sustain 178-182 for 40-50 minutes.

    The question was what the pros and cons of sustaining max are - not whether I'm doing it or not. I'm not interested in debating. I'm interested in learning facts.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
    The original Tabata was actually designed to get you moving at near maximum heart rate. However, it's also very short at 8 cycles of 30 seconds each. It's generically known as HIIT, and it's proven to increase VO2max faster than regular (steady state) cardio exercises.

    as for long term effect of intense endurance training, read this:
    http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/when-exercise-is-too-much-of-a-good-thing/

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