Heart rates
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
Heart rates
I run a lot on a treadmill with air cushion deck to protect knees. The built in palm HR monitor is pretty useless. I would stop periodically and manually check HR and it seemed a little high. I recently received a real nice Polar chest HR monitor which is very accurate. It confirms the occasional readings I was getting. usual workout is a 15 minute varying speed/incline warmup and then a set speed at 2% incline for 35 or 60 minutes. During the endurance run HR settles in at about 160. I can easily get it to around 190 with some sprints and back to 160's with the steady run again. Several folks I have spoken with seemed alarmed at this rate. I feel great during the runs and don't feel overly winded or anything. I average about 1200 miles cycling and 400 miles running each year. I'm 48, 6'4" 217 LBS and very fit. The steady run is usually at 6 or 6.5 MPH. last cholesterol was 165. I'm a a Paramedic and check EKG periodically and it is normal. Is there anything I should be worried about?
Re: Heart rates
i don't think so...it's where your heart rate at rest
Re: Heart rates
You may know this, but incase you don't.
Max Heart rate 200-age.
Target Heart rates are thusly.
General training, MHR x 50%
Weight loss, MHR x 60%.
Endurance Cardio, MHR x 70%
Weightlifting, MHR x 80%
Heavy lifting, MHR x 90%+.
Even if you lifted really heavily, for your weight, BPM would be 152.1or higher.
This is something you must consider. In general the 60% figure for fat loss, can be taken, mayhap, with a pinch of salt, but I think you might have an issue if you're somehow getting a THR higher than 152.1 with steady state.
Even if your RHR could go higher than a common 72 BPM, like say the 80-90 BPM range, I would surmise you may be overtaxing yourself, getting a sprint rate of 190 BPM, when the figure for really heavy lifting, is quite a bit less than your BPM when you do sprints.
Perhaps there's something going on to promote excessive Heart rate. Perhaps you drink a lot of Caffeinated drinks, constricting bloodvessels and blocking Iron uptake, which could affect Erythrocyte levels and therefore Oxygenation potential for cells, including muscles, which ultimately could increase Lactic Acid production, the less Oxygen you can provide cells at the end of Glycolysis.
Perhaps your VO2 max isn't sufficient enough yet.if you are restricting Oxygen to cells in some way, that would affect the amount of Oxygen per minute you could use.
You might also be restricting Oxygen to cells, if you have quite a bit of Arterial Plaque, quite a few Atheromas, low Arginine intake in the diet from low Protein and perhaps if you have quite a bit of calcification of the Arterial walls.
I presume there's no underlying problems with the Heart itself like Diastolic dysfunction, Ventricular stiffening, Water Hammer Pulse, Valve incompetence, Stenosis or Prolapse, that might hinder the amount of Blood, exiting the left Ventricle through the Aortic Valve, or an Aneurism or some kind of Murmour, because you did an EKG which by what you said returned a positive outcome.
If you can definitely rule out those and you don't have somethign Chronic Fatigue Syndrome causing a backlog of Blood, or some kind of related Angina, then I don't know what might cause your rapid Heartbeat, but I think you're possibly going too hard, given your weight and age. I suspect perhaps that if you'd been doing this longer, improved VO2 max and assuming it's nothing dierctly Heart or diet related, you would be capable of a more long-term tolerance to high BPM's, than you might currently be.
I suggest switch to intervals, instead of Steady state and don't go above a level 3 for now, to see how BPM reacts, when fluctuating for the same timeframe as normal. Certainly for a week or two, to also assess impact on weight, as it's not as adaptive as steady state and Sprints aren't necessarily what you need to do right now, as promoting serious Fast Twitch Muscle Fibre adaption in terms of weightloss, isn't really necessary I feel. I'd keep Sprints moreso for when you're about 50lb's lighter and you may have more aerobic tolerance levels, because the nature of the Sprints might suit you better by then, if you change the nature of your goals somewhat.
Be aware though if you weren't, that VO2 max drops by 1% a year after 25, so improving it will be a bit of a struggle.
Not trying to sound patronising in any way with comments, as I'm not 100% aware of how much I said, is relevant to a Paramedics understanding of physiology.
Does any of that seem significant or food for thought in any way?
Max Heart rate 200-age.
Target Heart rates are thusly.
General training, MHR x 50%
Weight loss, MHR x 60%.
Endurance Cardio, MHR x 70%
Weightlifting, MHR x 80%
Heavy lifting, MHR x 90%+.
Even if you lifted really heavily, for your weight, BPM would be 152.1or higher.
This is something you must consider. In general the 60% figure for fat loss, can be taken, mayhap, with a pinch of salt, but I think you might have an issue if you're somehow getting a THR higher than 152.1 with steady state.
Even if your RHR could go higher than a common 72 BPM, like say the 80-90 BPM range, I would surmise you may be overtaxing yourself, getting a sprint rate of 190 BPM, when the figure for really heavy lifting, is quite a bit less than your BPM when you do sprints.
Perhaps there's something going on to promote excessive Heart rate. Perhaps you drink a lot of Caffeinated drinks, constricting bloodvessels and blocking Iron uptake, which could affect Erythrocyte levels and therefore Oxygenation potential for cells, including muscles, which ultimately could increase Lactic Acid production, the less Oxygen you can provide cells at the end of Glycolysis.
Perhaps your VO2 max isn't sufficient enough yet.if you are restricting Oxygen to cells in some way, that would affect the amount of Oxygen per minute you could use.
You might also be restricting Oxygen to cells, if you have quite a bit of Arterial Plaque, quite a few Atheromas, low Arginine intake in the diet from low Protein and perhaps if you have quite a bit of calcification of the Arterial walls.
I presume there's no underlying problems with the Heart itself like Diastolic dysfunction, Ventricular stiffening, Water Hammer Pulse, Valve incompetence, Stenosis or Prolapse, that might hinder the amount of Blood, exiting the left Ventricle through the Aortic Valve, or an Aneurism or some kind of Murmour, because you did an EKG which by what you said returned a positive outcome.
If you can definitely rule out those and you don't have somethign Chronic Fatigue Syndrome causing a backlog of Blood, or some kind of related Angina, then I don't know what might cause your rapid Heartbeat, but I think you're possibly going too hard, given your weight and age. I suspect perhaps that if you'd been doing this longer, improved VO2 max and assuming it's nothing dierctly Heart or diet related, you would be capable of a more long-term tolerance to high BPM's, than you might currently be.
I suggest switch to intervals, instead of Steady state and don't go above a level 3 for now, to see how BPM reacts, when fluctuating for the same timeframe as normal. Certainly for a week or two, to also assess impact on weight, as it's not as adaptive as steady state and Sprints aren't necessarily what you need to do right now, as promoting serious Fast Twitch Muscle Fibre adaption in terms of weightloss, isn't really necessary I feel. I'd keep Sprints moreso for when you're about 50lb's lighter and you may have more aerobic tolerance levels, because the nature of the Sprints might suit you better by then, if you change the nature of your goals somewhat.
Be aware though if you weren't, that VO2 max drops by 1% a year after 25, so improving it will be a bit of a struggle.
Not trying to sound patronising in any way with comments, as I'm not 100% aware of how much I said, is relevant to a Paramedics understanding of physiology.
Does any of that seem significant or food for thought in any way?
Re: Heart rates
I assume it's the oxygen. lungs have taken a bit of abuse over the years. I quit smoking 15 years ago, but smoked for 20 years. I've also busted a bunch of ribs, had 3 chest tubes and been intubated a couple of times. I have been doing this same routine 2-3 times a week for over 2 years and feel fine. I'm gonna guess lungs just can't move any more oxygen than they currently do and the heart just makes up for it. I did 900 miles cycling and 300 running last year and thats with 3 months off for cycling injuries. If I lost 50LBS, I'd be a skeleton. I usually maintain 208 LBS. I'll probably go see a cardiologist and have him make sure tickers still OK. EKG doesn't show any signs of enlargement though. Thanks for the info. That steers me in the right direction.