Is my watch bust or is my fitness that good

andy83

Ok so i have really started upping my ride distance over last few weeks and have felt further distances getting easier.

I have always had a good level of fitness but when i was riding my heart rate would regularlly be around 165

no it seems that the maximum i can get my heart rate is 161 but it is usually stuck at 154 - 155

i just use my heart rate monitor to make sure im not pushing myself too much but a little unsure of whether my heart rate monitor is broke or my heart has just adapted

I suffer from FM so keeping my fitness and health up is priority as my muscles arent the best. i have quite low blood pressure due to this and the meds im on. i have been slowly trying to lose weight and lost 1 stone 9 lbs since april which im over the moon with. I have been watching what i eat a lot more and prob only having one day off from exercise a week, all be it prob 3 days i do a lot and the others just a light 6 mile ride.

At 15stone 7 i am the lightest i have been for years, maybe around 10 and never been doing so much exercise.

So my main question is, has my heart just adapted and improved with my general fitness. or is it my watch? the batteries have just been changed and i actually took my pulse whilst riding today and it said 155 on watch and my count werent far off. Its hard to tell if my watch has knackered cos im finding it hard to get really out of breath lately. When i was riding yesterday it wasnt reading at times but when i soaked it with water it was fine. if i have it on whilst sitting doing nothing it works fine, and all the time when it is staying on a HR like 155 the little heart is flashing on the watch and can also hear the beat of heart through ipod

would it be worth doing another type of exercise with heart rate on to see if i can get it above 160ish, or should i just be happy my hr has dropped??

watch is polar s610i

thanks in advance

AllTheGear

My father was on painkillers - a morphine derivaive - and noticed this dropped his max heart rate by 10-20 bpm or so during a workout. Most opioids would probably do this. So it could just be your meds.

andy83

cheers for that

does make sense, whilst i been riding and exercise more, needed more painkillers

Braking Sucks

andy83 wrote:

cheers for that

does make sense, whilst i been riding and exercise more, needed more painkillers

Using painkillers constantly due to exercises probably isn't the best idea - it may hide a serious injury.

andy83

i need to take painkillers all the time due to my condition, its not hiding anything i just have a chronic muscle fatigue illness