How to properly measure your lowest heart rate?

freehub

Hi.

How do I measure my lowest heart rate and know it's accurate?

I've got a HRM on and when I woke up still laying in bed I put the HRM on, the minimum reading I got was 39, and for a while it sat at 42, but most of the time was around 45, now I was sitting here at the PC and it was around 48-55 but now I've more or less woken up it's going between 50 and 60.

Any ideas?


Thanks
Will.

redddraggon

Your lowest HR will be when you are sleeping

jswba

I think the best way is to take an average reading for the ten mins after you wake up (while lying in bed). So 42-45 seems sensible.

freehub

Is that a good heart rate? My max is only 190. I find I can cycle for ages in the 175 region

ride_whenever

i got down to 42 reading a lance armstrong thread...

redddraggon

freehub wrote:

Is that a good heart rate? My max is only 190. I find I can cycle for ages in the 175 region

How did you determine the max? If you've done a proper ramp test fair enough, but if you haven't I reckon you could be hitting around 210 as your MHR.

If 190 is your max, holding 175 for ages is really good ~ 92% MHR.

Personally I can hold around 175 too for ages, but my MHR is a bit over 200 - around 83%MHR for me.

Does Clifton have a club coach you can about doing a MHR test for you?

jswba

A resting heart rate under 50 is pretty damn good! If you want a comparison, Indurain's was allegedly around 30; anything between 60 and 100 is considered normal for an adult human.

softlad

freehub wrote:

Hi.

How do I measure my lowest heart rate and know it's accurate?

I've got a HRM on and when I woke up still laying in bed I put the HRM on, the minimum reading I got was 39, and for a while it sat at 42, but most of the time was around 45, now I was sitting here at the PC and it was around 48-55 but now I've more or less woken up it's going between 50 and 60.

Any ideas?


Thanks
Will.

the old saying used to be that you measure it as soon as you wake up - the trouble is, as soon as you start to think about it - it increases....

I could never be arsed to go to sleep wearing my HRM, so I would wake up and measure it with my watch - hold your wrist for 10 seconds and then multiply by 6.

39 is perfectly reasonable - mine was around 46-47 when I measured a few days ago, and I'm an old git now..

Some people will have naturally lower BPM than others though, so don't get too hung up on resting heart rates. ALso bear in mind that the heart will have a much easier time pumping blood around your body while you are lying flat. As soon as you sit up, or stand, it has to work harder...

freehub

Ah that's good then!


Redddragon no the club does not, I determined it yesterday, I was going along this road, was down hill for a couple of meters then leveled out, so I pushed as hard as I could, starting to go up this drag at 34mph I was knackered and started to get cramps and extreme lactic build up and it only just touched 190 for a short time.

Last time I used a heart rate monitor was I think last year or begenning of this year, I remember I was getting lactic build up at 155bpm and I only felt I could maintain 145bpm for a long while so I've had abit of an improvement there I think, lactic buildup is around 178ish now.

redddraggon

I doubt 190 is your max then, you need to do a ramp test.

If you are going to do it your self, you need to find a longish hill, not too steep, start off slow at the beginning and slowly start increasing your effort. If you hit max effort straight away you won't reach your MHR

pompeypoppy

I have a HR at rest of 42, but can't get anything more than 181 during an intense sprint. I put it down to not being fit enough anaerobically to prove my MHR, or not being able to hold it long enough for my HRM to measure it.

freehub

Maybe that's why I cant get over 190, cause I'm not anerobically fit enough, I know when I pushed to 190 it really did feel like as hard as I could go, could not maintain it for much more than a couple more seconds.

slunker

I can't seem to get above 175 and thats me nearly dying!!!!!

My resting heart rate is 42 and thats sitting at the computer, midday.

Murr X

Don't be too worried about you're HR, you would be better off training properly if you are not already than fusing over the insignificant TBH.

However if you do want to see you're HR at its lowest then you are best to do a test during sleep. It is entirely true that HR usually rises significantly upon waking even if you do not move a muscle, the calmer you are the lower the HR. The lowest HR I ever saw was going by memory about 38bpm during sleep. For a period of a couple of hours it was at 40bpm but it did vary a fair bit during different stages of sleep and looking at the graph later on it was not an even line but rose and fell slightly.

I have only done the test/experiment once just for fun and I no longer have the data, it could be done again easily however I am not as fit as I once was.

Some athletes have a super low resting HR and are not as fit as others that have a resting HR much higher. I do not believe that Indurain had the lowest HR of anyone alive at 28bpm although he was exceptionally fit.

freehub

I'd say the HRM keeps me in check and stops me going overboard, today I did 25miles @ 19.6mph avg and I got home pretty fresh whilst sometimes I'm abit gone in the eyes and head from overdoing it yet today I maintained pretty much same average speed but was fresher due to me not going over 180, the only time I went over 180 was on this hill where I put some power into it and that got my heart rate to around 186.

It's pointed out the obvious too, I always got annoyed when I slowed down and I wanted to get back up to speed so I always give it a second or two to get back to speed then I have struggle to go any higher but its cause even after I've finished that bit of effort the lactic keeps building up for a short time so my heart rate keeps goign up, so now I wait untill it's around 155 and I can up the power too.

Tomorrow I'm going to keep an eye on my heart rate on the club run and keep under 180 even if it means I get dropped slightly they I'll be able to take them all on the hills :P

It's certainly helping me, all the time I've thought I have being pushing my max I note where I'd have thought that, look at the HRM and I'm only at 155bpm, so there I pushed for a couple hundred meters at 29mph not even hitting 180. I did a sat down sprint on the flat and hit 34mph at about 185bpm where I'd struggle without the HRM to hit 31 and I'm pretty sure if I went all out I could have hit over 34mph, so it's got rid of psychological borders and I guess makes me know I can push harder.

So here is me getting obsessed about another number other than speed and that but I'd say it is useful.

I dont think my V02 MAX or whatever you call it is that great though. The HRM tells me my fitness index is about 43 but I think that's the owners who lent it to me and he struggles to keep up with me now usually but I'm guessing from a little HRM it's not accurate when you get people in labs determining VO2 MAX.

rhyko7

you will be hard pushed to find your max heart rate riding, because its only your legs going your heart doesnt have to work quite as hard as say if your running or on a cross trainer, whatever you get your max heart rate to on a bike add at least 6 BPM to find your max.
i cant get mine over 190 on the bike, but i have hitten high 190's when running on treadmill.

i think the max heart rate test goes along the lines of starting at a very gentle pace, then increase the resistance every 3 minutes whilst holding the same pace, until you reach max resistance, then you up the speed every 3 minutes if you get that far.
this is normally done by inclining a treadmill

gordoncp

slunker wrote:

I can't seem to get above 175 and thats me nearly dying!!!!!

My resting heart rate is 42 and thats sitting at the computer, midday.

Nearly dying would be when your heart rate is approaching 0

freehub

I managed to get 197 today up a hill, I could have pushed allot harder and blew myself up and I'm rpetty sure that'd max my heart rate tbh.

It was weird the last 40ish miles, my was struggling to get anymore speed yet my heart rate was only about 160 when at first I could push the speed up on the flat all the way to 180+

rhyko7

rhyko7 wrote:

you will be hard pushed to find your max heart rate riding, because its only your legs going your heart doesnt have to work quite as hard as say if your running or on a cross trainer, whatever you get your max heart rate to on a bike add at least 6 BPM to find your max.
i cant get mine over 190 on the bike, but i have hitten high 190's when running on treadmill.

i think the max heart rate test goes along the lines of starting at a very gentle pace, then increase the resistance every 3 minutes whilst holding the same pace, until you reach max resistance, then you up the speed every 3 minutes if you get that far.
this is normally done by inclining a treadmill

i take back what i said here, cos i did a treadmill test and my heart rate was onnly 2 BPM higher than i can get it on my bike! i may have been hitting the high 190's few years ago, but its the low 190's now.
resting HR is 41 tho which is quite good i suppose

doyler78

I found the best way of doing the max test for me that worked was to take a hill much like reddraggon suggests however I will start of by spinning up for a few minutes and then rolling back down then turning round this time building the intensity. I keep repeating this until I find the intensity which puts me right on the limit and soon as I reach that point I give it everything. It takes around 6 or 8 climbs before I get to that point.

I've only ever done this twice - these were by and afar the most unpleasant experiences I have ever had on a bike.

If I try to ramp without any rest I find I blow out way before I ever get near my max - that probably says a lot about my fitness but hey that's the way it is for me.

maxHR is sport specific for the reasons someone else pointed out so comparing one sport with another isn't helpful and neither is comparing either lower heart rates or max heart rates between different people though lower heart rates does at least tell you something useful long term as the trend should be downwards as fitness increases and any sudden increase can tell you that you may be overtraining or are getting sick and to possibly back off.

rokkala

Slight change of subject, but what method do you use to calculate HR%? Asking because i was told not to just use HR Max x 0.85 or whatever percentage your after, but to do (HR Max - RHR)x0.85(+RHR). And they do give quite different answers.

Anyone know which is best method to use? Or do you use anything different? Only really asking cos starting to do interval training and good to know what HR theoretically gets me anerobic etc.

freehub

My HRM calculated the %, just you obviously need to get the max heart rate correct.

Soni

ride_whenever wrote:

i got down to 42 reading a lance armstrong thread...

That wasnt my one by any chance was it!

amaferanga

Rokkala wrote:

Slight change of subject, but what method do you use to calculate HR%? Asking because i was told not to just use HR Max x 0.85 or whatever percentage your after, but to do (HR Max - RHR)x0.85(+RHR). And they do give quite different answers.

Anyone know which is best method to use? Or do you use anything different? Only really asking cos starting to do interval training and good to know what HR theoretically gets me anerobic etc.

85% for me worked out using the two methods differs by only 4bpm. I hardly think it matters.

The fact that the zone corresponds to exactly 85% HRmax gives a clue as to just how inexact it all is.

And of course if you're using some formula to guess your HRmax it means approximately 0.

Alex_Simmons/RST

redddraggon wrote:

freehub wrote:

Is that a good heart rate? My max is only 190. I find I can cycle for ages in the 175 region

How did you determine the max? If you've done a proper ramp test fair enough, but if you haven't I reckon you could be hitting around 210 as your MHR.

If 190 is your max, holding 175 for ages is really good ~ 92% MHR.

Personally I can hold around 175 too for ages, but my MHR is a bit over 200 - around 83%MHR for me.

Does Clifton have a club coach you can about doing a MHR test for you?

There is no good or bad about what HR you sustain.

HR is not a measure of fitness, it's simply an indicator of cardiac strain.

If you want to know your resting HR, then do it shortly after waking, when you are not overly fatigued from training or ill or coming down with something - all you need is a pulse and a watch. And do it over the course of a number of days so that you get some consistent readings.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Rokkala wrote:

Slight change of subject, but what method do you use to calculate HR%? Asking because i was told not to just use HR Max x 0.85 or whatever percentage your after, but to do (HR Max - RHR)x0.85(+RHR). And they do give quite different answers.

Anyone know which is best method to use? Or do you use anything different? Only really asking cos starting to do interval training and good to know what HR theoretically gets me anerobic etc.

Your HR won't tell you when you're utilising anaerobic energy metabolism - it is far too much of a lag indicator to provide such guidance. Indeed you could well have used much of your anaerobic work capacity well before your HR has caught up with the fact.

Indeed it is too much of a lag indicator to be useful for guiding hard aerobic interval work, let alone anaerobic efforts.

freehub

Surely HRM is good for training though?

Alex_Simmons/RST

freehub wrote:

Surely HRM is good for training though?

Yes, I didn't say it wasn't. It is a helpful guide to relative intensity levels when training, up to a point. That point being hard aerobic efforts and especially inadequate for anaerobic efforts.

freehub

Just a HRM related question.

I was going through the options on my HRM when I noticed it there is only for body fat, now I've not inputed any data in for that, it reckons my body fat is 42%??? Now I'm sure that's pretty crap?

Bhima

42% is not bad. Looks like your career as a sumo wrestler is going well.

freehub

For 12.5 stone it must be bad though? 42%??? I must be doing well if I can do 19-20mph over 60miles and fly up hills if I am 42%?