Exceeding Heart Rate range question

bump! I hope someone answers, I like you I a hard time keeping my hr down with my workouts

I run too high as well, but I feel great! Its not like I am dying or feel like I am about to pass out.

how does that answer the question?..


i want to know the real answer too

When I exercise it is really difficult for me to keep my heart rate within the recommended range - I usually am running too high. Is this a problem? Am I not burning calories as efficiently as if I stay within the recommended range? Thanks for any advise you can give me.

If you're running "too high", you just want to be careful because you could potentially put added stress on your heart, depending on your conditioning. Believe it or not, you can find some articles (scary ones) out there about the stress a marathon can put on your heart. Which is interesting since you'd think Marathon runners are the epitome of healthy.

Men's Health recommends staying at 65%-85% of your max HR. Of course, this might be different for women, but I wouldn't expect much of a difference if there is.

The great thing is that this is an easy topic to find things on, most of which are pretty much saying the same thing. Here's a couple that I've found in the past that could be beneficial for you. The 2nd one is a pretty cool calculator because it actually gives you several "zones" that you might fall in. I think that it may provide a fairly decent answer to your question.

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/healthtool-target-heart-rate-calculator

http://www.changingshape.com/resources/calculators/targetheartratecalculator.asp

http://www.healthyforms.com/helpful-tools/target-heart-rate.php

If I stay in the correct range I don't feel like I am working at all. I think it has something to do with my resting heart rate (usually 90 - 100). I think they should give you a range based on increasing your resting heart rate not based on age.

Here is a good article about the 5 different heart rate zones and how to figure your individual heart rate out.

http://www.howtobefit.com/five-heart-rate-zones.htm

http://www.thewalkingsite.com/thr.html

TRAINING ZONES

Healthy Heart Zone (Warm up) --- 50 - 60% of maximum heart rate: The easiest zone and probably the best zone for people just starting a fitness program. It can also be used as a warm up for more serious walkers. This zone has been shown to help decrease body fat, blood pressure and cholesterol. It also decreases the risk of degenerative diseases and has a low risk of injury. 85% of calories burned in this zone are fats!

Fitness Zone (Fat Burning) --- 60 - 70% of maximum heart rate: This zone provides the same benefits as the healthy heart zone, but is more intense and burns more total calories. The percent of fat calories is still 85%.

Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training) --- 70 - 80% of maximum heart rate: The aerobic zone will improve your cardiovascular and respiratory system AND increase the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you are training for an endurance event. More calories are burned with 50% from fat.

Anaerobic Zone (Performance Training) --- 80 - 90% of maximum heart rate: Benefits of this zone include an improved VO2 maximum (the highest amount of oxygen one can consume during exercise) and thus an improved cardiorespiratory system, and a higher lactate tolerance ability which means your endurance will improve and you'll be able to fight fatigue better. This is a high intensity zone burning more calories, 15 % from fat.

Red Line (Maximum Effort) --- 90 - 100% of maximum heart rate: Although this zone burns the highest number of calories, it is very intense. Most people can only stay in this zone for short periods. You should only train in this zone if you are in very good shape and have been cleared by a physician to do so.

So the real answer is what you are trying to accomplish determines the rate you should attempt. I personally attempt the highest level that I can sustain for about 50 minutes. If it is too high to maintain for any time I'll quit and burn too few calories over all and I'll build up more lactic acid in the muscles than I like. If the intensity is too low and easy then I'm not burning as many calories as I would like and I'm wasting time that I could spend burning more calories.

As long as you are healthy (no heart problems) I believe the heart rate monitor is a good tool but exercising to the highest level that you can maintain for the time you have to work out is the best level of effort to attempt. The monitor can be used over a period of time to determine if your fitness is improving (resting rate dropping and your cool down period is becoming less). Finally, my approach will work even if your monitor is not all that accurate as you are more interested in the trend differences than and "exactly what is my heart rate?"

EXACTLY! Any exercise program should start with a doctor visit first. And as I stated, if I can't maintain it for an extended time (50 minutes in most of my cases) then I slow down to where I can make it. The only time I exceed this is when I'm doing interval training or working out for a very short duration and I've cleared my health with my doctor before starting my exercise program. Dizziness and "starting to pass out" is a sure sign you've passed where you can do the exercise for an extended time duration.