Resting heart rate and fitness

My RHR is generally in the mid 50’s. It will spike up if I’m sick, fatigued, training volume is a little too high, I’m stressed, or I’ve eaten a lot of foods - in unusually high quantities - that cause me to retain a lot of water (carbs, sodium, etc.).

Were any of those kinds of things happening during the week when yours was unusually high?

And as a general thing-yes, it’s connected to fitness but also genetic and individual. Being more fit means that our heart is more efficient so our HR tends to get lower. But there’s a limit to just how low and what is “normal” for you vs someone else - and those tend to be more unique.

My resting heart rate 4 years ago was in the high 80's. I did cardio just about every day for the past 4 years. Now my resting heart rate is in the high 50's.

If you do cardio consistently, your resting heart rate will get lower over time as your fitness level improves. This is because your heart can pump more blood per beat, thus having to beating less times per minute to do it's job.

jelleigh wrote: »

Ok good to know. I went back and checked - it was the week before a big family trip to Disney that I had been obsessively planning and then the first week of the trip. So maybe the stress thing and then a bunch of new foods? Or maybe just being surrounded by a million screaming kids ? Lol.

Your heart rate is associated with your fitness, but even for fit people it isn't fixed. Mine will go up and throughout the month -- different factors may include your training schedule, stress, how much sleep you're getting, your diet, your TOM, etc.

I think of it like my weight -- I'm focused on the overall trend, not any specific week (although if I'm training hard and I see it creeping up, I take that as a sign I need to back off a bit).

Mine goes up every time I have a migraine, sleep poorly, up the weights I'm lifting, have an arthritis flare, overeat (like holidays or vacation).

It's generally in a certain range in the low 60's-high 50's, after being in the low 80's before I started exercising.

Working on getting mine to 50 or a little less. 51 to 53 this week, was 58 to 60 this time last year.

Not too bad for a heart that has been beating for more than 3/4 of a century. LOL

pierinifitness wrote: »

If you have a Gamin or some other unit, wear it to bed and notice what info it provides. Mine provides a last 4 hours snapshot.

Yesterday, for example, mine was 44 bpm. If I’m not overtrained or under-hydrated, my RHR tends to be in the 44-48 bpm range.

As noted, genetics play a factor. Also, I understand women are higher than men. If you take thyroid medicine, your number will be higher.

Out of personal curiousity (i.e., not being adversarial in any way), do you have a source for the bolded?

It scares me a little to think that my RHR, which already set off a bradycardia alarm (pre-sedation) at the local outpatient surgical center, would be noticeably lower if I weren't taking levothyroxine (a moderately high dose, in fact, at 175mcg) . . . and female besides, for that matter. I'm far from an elite athlete, but my surgeon assured me that my HR was "fitness-induced bradycardia".

RHR runs from somewhere in the mid/upper 40s to lower 50s, depending on then-current activity levels, which mostly vary with season.

I was under the impression that thyroid meds normalized us, not accelerated us.


OP, as others have said, RHR is up and down over time. Short run fluctuations would be expected to have short run triggers, and some of the effects of your trip sound like possible triggers. Longer-range general trend is more indicative of your fitness progress.

I used to regard 60bpm as a sign I was at a good fitness level for my 30's and 40's, then I took up cycling seriously in my 50's and over time it reduced by about 20% to 48bpm'ish.
Losing my excess weight probably contributed too.

A bit like weighing I find first thing in the morning is the most consistent time (before eating or drinking). I did a gym assessment after a motorcycle commute across London and my pulse was up 20% just from the stress of the journey. Stress could well be the cause of your high week.

For me a rising trend in my RHR is a good indicator of over-training in an intense pre-event training cycle.

pierinifitness wrote: »

Agree with the previous comment about relationship of elevated RHR and overtraining. Ditto for relationship of elevated HR and being under hydrated.

Wore my Garmin all day yesterday and this is what it reported. Interesting is my maximum HR during a short KB workout was actually a few BPM than what’s indicated; don’t know why.

Mine does that, too. I have a speculation (completely unconfirmed).

My understanding, from what I've read, is that Garmin samples heart rate at more frequent intervals during an activity than during daily life (battery saving, I think).

Since the max HR bpm discrepancy, for me, has been a small number, I've wondered whether the background (daily life) sampling is fully separate algorithmically, and just missed seeing the peak because of longer sampling intervals.

Dunno.