Am I pushing too hard on the treadmill?

dual313
dual313 Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys

First time posting. I've just started to get back into retaking control of my diet, fitness, weight etc.

I've joined the gym and usually host use the treadmill. I use a fitness watch to measure my stats and I was looking at my heart rate. I appreciate they are not 100% accurate but am I pushing myself too hard? I'm 40 and understand my max heart rate should not go over 180bpm. I've attached a screenshot of the bpm. I'm wondering is this safe to carry on like this?

I feel if I don't really exhert myself fully then I'm not getting much benefit.

Thanks for reading

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,846 Member
    Your maximum heart rate is the highest heart rate your heart can reach, not something you 'shouldn't' go beyond. And for that the often quoted formula 220 minus age is very inaccurate, there are huge individual variations.

    Aside from that, pushing yourself is fine, but I would not push to maximum effort every time. High intensity exercise requires more recuperation, so definitely not an everyday thing.
    What benefit are you hoping for? Cardiovascular fitness? Calorie burn?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    pushing maximum effort all of the time is a *kitten* way to train and actually very counterproductive. The formula for max heart rate is a very rough estimate.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    dual313 wrote: »
    I feel if I don't really exhert myself fully then I'm not getting much benefit.

    While that is true for strength training - it totally depends for cardio.

    What's your purpose running on the treadmill?
    Just burn calories?
    Improve cardiovascular system?
    Train for an event?
  • dual313
    dual313 Posts: 4 Member
    Hello all, thanks for your replies. My main aim is weight loss primarily
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,745 Member
    Then your goal should be to go farther and longer, not harder. If you keep your pace easy, you can go farther with less effort and less chance of injury. Burning calories is a matter of weight x distance x .67 and pace doesn't make a lot of difference. Doing some intensity will keep it interesting, but you want to make sure that you don't get injured--so do a good slow warm-up and cool-down--and that you are able to do good workouts in the days following - so not so intense that you wear yourself out. A good rule of thumb is that 80% of your distance should be slow and easy, only 20% harder.

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