Heart rate During Your Workout

[Danmar]

Just finished a good workout this AM. My max heart rate went to 153 BPM while the average over 45 minutes was 142. This is a little more than usual for me. I was wondering how high your heart rate goes and for how long? I am 63 years old.

 

[Midpack]

Depending on your conditioning, might be a little high but not dangerously so. I wear a chest strap monitor and actively increase/decrease intensity to stay in the 85-90% range when doing cardio, so it never gets too high or too low. You're probably familiar with all the charts/guidelines available, if not...

 

[ls99]

Nice chart, never seen one. Recall some years ago GP wanted to know my heart rate immediately after my hard workout. Several days in a row recorded in high 180 range. I was just past 62 then.

He suggested I backing off my intensity to keep it around 160. Did it a few times, found I did not work up a good sweat. Seemed too slow. Thereafter I ignored taking numbers. Just made sure I was drenched in sweat when done. Still do the same at 66.

 

[razztazz]

I am 56. My, what I'll call, "Primary Workout" is just sets and sets of pushups for 15 to 20 minutes. My HR gets up over 160 some times tickling 170. If I am doing something of an aerobic nature (which nowadays is just going for a walk) between 130 and 140-ish, altho I usually run the last ways home and that spike at the end for a minute or so.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Just finished a good workout this AM. My max heart rate went to 153 BPM while the average over 45 minutes was 142. This is a little more than usual for me. I was wondering how high your heart rate goes and for how long? I am 63 years old.

It could be simple over-exertion but your heart rate is higher than normal and IMHO should be checked out. This might include an exercise Holter study and stress test. Things like paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and atrial fibrillation come to mind.

Maybe it's a false alarm and these issues can be treated if necessary. IF nothing else,you'll get reassurance.

Maximum heart rates are calculated by age. The fancy formulas do a little better than good old "220-heart rate" but that's a good starting place. Other calculations are all over the web.

Let us know what unfolds. My comments are of a general nature as per my signature line.

 

[jetpack]

I was speed training today (running as fast as I can for 100 yards) and got my heart rate up to 195. I'm 41 and slightly overweight. For some reason, all the online stuff says my max heart rate should be 220 - age = 179. For longer tempo runs, I'd try to keep my heart rate about at 165, as fast as I can go with out losing my breath. For easy runs, I try to keep it at 150.

You didn't say if you're male or female or what the activity was.

Studies have shown that HRmax on a treadmill is consistently 5 to 6 beats higher than on a bicycle ergometer and 2 to 3 beats higher on a rowing ergometer. Heart rates while swimming are significantly lower, around 14 bpm, than for treadmill running. Elite endurance athletes and moderately trained individuals will have a HRmax 3 or 4 beats slower than a sedentary individual. It was also found that well trained over 50s are likely to have a higher HRmax than that which is average for their age.

 

[Brdofpray]

Looking back on my bike rides this season, I found that my average heart rate usually fell between 125 and 140 (depending on how hilly the route was.). My max rate averaged at 160-170 consistently. I also have a heart rate monitor sending signals to my bike computer. I have set a max heart rate alarm at 170. If I hit that target, it lets me know, so I can back off a bit. I have been doing this for so long, I now have a pretty good feel for where my heart rate is, even without the monitor.

I am male, about 185 lbs, and 60 years of age.

 

[braumeister]

Nice chart, never seen one. Recall some years ago GP wanted to know my heart rate immediately after my hard workout. Several days in a row recorded in high 180 range. I was just past 62 then.

He suggested I backing off my intensity to keep it around 160. Did it a few times, found I did not work up a good sweat. Seemed too slow. Thereafter I ignored taking numbers. Just made sure I was drenched in sweat when done. Still do the same at 66.

That has been my experience too. We might be unusual, but every chart has its outliers.

My max HR has always been much higher than any chart said it should be. After trying to modify my workouts to conform to the conventional wisdom about training zones based on percents, I had to give up and go back to winging it. The training zones based on standardized charts were always too low for me to feel comfortable.

At 67, I average around 150-155 with peaks between 160-165 on easy runs, and around 175 when I push it. Back in my 40s, I usually ended a hard run in the 185-190 range.

 

[Walt34]

Since I just started consistent exercise about six weeks ago after a too-long layoff I keep it on the low end at ~125 bpm per the recommendation of the staff. I'm 63. The machines start beeping and flashing red lights when I hit 140, breathing hard but not sweating a lot if at all.

And for now I'll leave it at that. I'm not going to injure myself being in a rush on this, the point is just the opposite, and I'm taking this as a years-long project. So I'm going to ease into this slowly taking a "slow-but-steady" approach.

Yesterday the doc cut one of two bp medications in half so apparently this is working. Can't argue with that.

 

[galeno]

1. Anaerobic (strength) exercise over exerts the muscles producing lactic acid e.g. weight lifting, sprinting, intervals, etc. Do not worry about heart rate here. The goal is improved performance.

2. Aerobic (cardio) which exerts but doesn't over exert (no lactic acid) and is mainly done for heart health. E.g. walking, jogging, swimming, etc.

I like the old 220-age = max heart rate to be considered cardio. Go over max heart rate and now you're .

Low level cardio = 60-69% of max heart rate. Moderate = 70-79%. Hard = 80-89%.

 

[H2ODude]

Resting tends to be high, 70 although am in good shape at 62. Average 145 on bike, more on runs. Highest generally 165 although can pass 170.

Interesting story I don't think I told here. When I had a mountain bike crash two months ago was wearing HR monitor as usual. Two days later downloaded. Sure enough, hit high 140's as I raced to my launch. You can see it drop down to resting precipitously (I was unconscious for ~5 minutes). Can see where I got up, started walking out. Then I felt like I was going to vomit so laid down, went to sleep. Woke up and thought, God, that was an awful dream about that bike crash! Then when I felt the broken collarbone I was "Aw Sh_t, this is reality!" That nap was about 8 minutes and my HR dropped down to ~50, way below any resting I've ever seen. I guess I was in shock or something. A tad scary. I'm anxious to return to the bike but I'm turning down the thrill factor. Had surgery, and two months later it's still bothering me. Other collarbone healed right up when I was 19; could being have 62 have anything to do with it? Nah.

In reality, between this difficult recovery and losing my brother at Thanksgiving (67) I feel aging/mortality tapping my shoulder. OTOH, he had lung cancer as my mother did and my father had emphysema. Don't think I'll be taking up smoking any time soon. Smoking took 3 out 4 of our nuclear family.

 

[Danmar]

It could be simple over-exertion but your heart rate is higher than normal and IMHO should be checked out. This might include an exercise Holter study and stress test. Things like paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and atrial fibrillation come to mind.

Maybe it's a false alarm and these issues can be treated if necessary. IF nothing else,you'll get reassurance.

Maximum heart rates are calculated by age. The fancy formulas do a little better than good old "220-heart rate" but that's a good starting place. Other calculations are all over the web.

Let us know what unfolds. My comments are of a general nature as per my signature line.

Thanks for the post. I have a stress cardio gram every year and nothing seems wrong. having another in a couple of months so will watch it. Been doing this type of workout for over 30 years so it isn't unusual for me. Resting HR around 56. This workout was a little higher than some but I think it was because I am back in Canmore which is about 5000 ft in elevation. Spent last month in Arizona. Cheers.

 

[Danmar]

I was speed training today (running as fast as I can for 100 yards) and got my heart rate up to 195. I'm 41 and slightly overweight. For some reason, all the online stuff says my max heart rate should be 220 - age = 179. For longer tempo runs, I'd try to keep my heart rate about at 165, as fast as I can go with out losing my breath. For easy runs, I try to keep it at 150.

You didn't say if you're male or female or what the activity was.

Studies have shown that HRmax on a treadmill is consistently 5 to 6 beats higher than on a bicycle ergometer and 2 to 3 beats higher on a rowing ergometer. Heart rates while swimming are significantly lower, around 14 bpm, than for treadmill running. Elite endurance athletes and moderately trained individuals will have a HRmax 3 or 4 beats slower than a sedentary individual. It was also found that well trained over 50s are likely to have a higher HRmax than that which is average for their age.

thanks for the post. Male. I did 30 minutes on an elliptical then 15 minutes of peaks on a spinning bike. I am in pretty good shape as I do this type of workout every day.

 

[Danmar]

Thanks to all who responded. Looks like several of us have HR's after workouts higher than mine. I will keep the cautionary post in mind. So based on this it is probably OK.

 

[kombat]

Male, 38, 170 lbs. I run 5 miles on a treadmill every day at lunch, and my heart rate hovers around 165 bpm for the majority of the 45 minutes it takes me. If I'm feeling strong, I'll bump up the speed little by little for the last 5 minutes or so, in order to "leave it all out there" and not leave feeling like I still had some left in the tank. In those cases, my heartrate reaches around 185 for the last minute or two, but I couldn't sustain that for much longer. By the end, I'm exhausted and soaked.

 

[jetpack]

For cardio workouts, an easy quick test to see if your breathing is in range. If you can SING a line of a long then your going to slow. If you can't TALK in a complete sentence, you're going to fast.

 

[nash031]

I'm only 36, but I'll run at 175-180 for 30-45 minutes if I'm going very hard. Slower workouts I'll be down around 160.

153 might be a little high for you, but that entirely depends on the intensity of your workout.

 

[Lsbcal]

This is one I haven't checked off after several decades of running. At 65 still running in hilly terrain around 4x per week for 4 to 6 miles. I kind of figure if I'm feeling great and breathing well, no problem. Am I wrong about this?

Maybe I should check out my heart rate but cannot seem to take it seriously enough to do it. I was in Best Buy yesterday and happened to notice they have plenty of nice monitors nowadays.

 

[F4mandolin]

I consider standard HR (220-age for example) to kind of be like BMI. Kind of works for a large sampling of people......but it doesn't do anything for individual differences. I have always considered BMI to be a terrible way to judge body weight...no room in for different body types etc. HR is the same. I "used" to run a lot until the knees started having problems. My HR has always been lower partially because of that. I tried the HR monitors a number of times.....but then "What was the point"? I am going to run/walk/bike etc at the effort that I find correct based off years and years of exercising and can easily tell when I am going hard or easy. Wearing a monitor didn't change anything. I think a lot of people like to "see" data.

 

[Wishing]

I'm 56, female and run for fitness. Resting heart rate is 48 and max heart rate is 198. I did a 6 mile run this morning and averaged 137 BPM. Heart rate is such an individual thing - the charts and age-calculated heart rates are a farce for a lot of people and especially well-conditioned athletes. So many environmental conditions come into play as well (heat and humidity among others). The majority (70%) of runs/workouts should be done in the easy range (60-70% of max heart rate) - as someone said, conversation should be possible at this level. I'm within 10 miles of hitting 2000 running miles for the year!

 

[Lsbcal]

I'm 56, female and run for fitness. Resting heart rate is 48 and max heart rate is 198. I did a 6 mile run this morning and averaged 137 BPM. Heart rate is such an individual thing - the charts and age-calculated heart rates are a farce for a lot of people and especially well-conditioned athletes. So many environmental conditions come into play as well (heat and humidity among others). The majority (70%) of runs/workouts should be done in the easy range (60-70% of max heart rate) - as someone said, conversation should be possible at this level. I'm within 10 miles of hitting 2000 running miles for the year!

I find it easy to converse with the squirrels while running in the park. So I must be OK?

2000 miles -- Wow! I do about half of that.

This article helps me to feel better about keeping the mileage within my current bounds. Of course, I may be biased since it fits my current workouts:

Endurance Sports: Studies on Older Endurance Athletes Suggest the Fittest Reap Few Health Benefits - WSJ.com

What the new research suggests is that the benefits of running may come to a hard stop later in life. In a study involving 52,600 people followed for three decades, the runners in the group had a 19% lower death rate than nonrunners, according to the Heart editorial. But among the running cohort, those who ran a lot—more than 20 to 25 miles a week—lost that mortality advantage.

 

[F4mandolin]

An old statement from somebody (at least 30 years ago...no idea where I heard/saw it)........if you are running more than 3 miles a day you aren't doing it for your health, you are doing for another reason. I always thought that was spot on. Substitute any equivalent exercise/duration for the running and it still fits. I ran 100 miles a week to race. I sure enjoyed it, but I wasn't doing it just for my health. I would still be running 10+ miles a day if my body would let me. If you are racing....then you also have to put in the high stress efforts of speed work to get the most out of your body. This spikes your HR out of "normal" levels. Although one thing I have never really understood about myself.....I can get my HR a fair amount higher on a bike than I can running.

 

[SJ1_]

Just finished a good workout this AM. My max heart rate went to 153 BPM while the average over 45 minutes was 142. This is a little more than usual for me. I was wondering how high your heart rate goes and for how long? I am 63 years old.

I am 61 and I follow the "maffetone method" which is basically 70% my
max heart rate. Had yrs. of injuries and burnouts before and this works for me.

 

[Danmar]

I am 61 and I follow the "maffetone method" which is basically 70% my
max heart rate. Had yrs. of injuries and burnouts before and this works for me.

According to the rule of thumb(220-age) my recent max HR equates to about 97% of max. This seems doubtful. Most of my workouts have me getting into the 145-150 range and this would equate to at least 90%. If I only went to 70% I don't think I would even feel like I worked out? I workout pretty hard, losing around 2 lbs of net liquid during 45minutes. I am always amazed how only 45 minutes of exercise most days can have such a positive impact on your health.

 

[haha]

I am amazed at how hard so many people here work out.

Ha