Max heart rate on HRM - a bit high??

ashleygreen14

Have been using an HRM for a while now. Checked my numbers after a race today and saw that my max HR was 226bpm! A bit shocked to see that as it's usually about 185 on the same loop, but while just riding and not racing.

Took part in the race today in Mortimer Forest in Ludlow, Shropshire run alongside a fell running race. 9.5 very muddy miles and 550m of climbing. Enjoyed it and put in some serious calorie deficit work in time for Xmas.

I'm 39, ride for 1.5 hours about 3/4 times per week, and weight 12st.

Duff battery? - seems OK for everything else.
Any other thoughts?

weeksy59

I'd think unless you were exceptionally fit, Tour De France fit, that 226 is simply not possible and you'd be lying by the side of the trail clutching your chest by now.

I rekon something is wrong with the HRM to be honest mate.

robertpb

It's probably a glitch, HRM's are failable, my max on a bike is around 184 and once mine recorded a 196 which would be high for for me at 59 years, it drops as you age.

Some people do have a high rate it's not a sign of fitness, it's resting heart rate that gives this.

Lance Armstrongs max is sub 200 now, but his resting is 32, a big pump.

High heart rates are not harmful during exertion, it's when you wake up and it's running at 80 that you need to worry.

Quite happy with mine at 50.

Surf-Matt

Fit people have high max bpms and low resting bpms coupled with a quick recovery rate.

My resting is mid to high 40s, my max ever recorded (on a cycling machine) is 198bpm.

226 does sound extremely high.

rhyko7

max heart rate has nothing to do with fitness, its something thats in the genes, you cant change it, it only gets lower with age, 226 does seem unlikely high for someone of your age as you are supposed to lose a beat a year from 220(average) , however it is possible but its more likely to be a glitch with the HR monitor, mine goes nuts when i go DH over bumps.
i.e the formula 220-your age +/-20
mine haapens to be very close my max is 193, im 25 yrs old and have a resting HR of 40 which gives me 153 BPM to play with

Valy

OP - that is pretty damn high. i don;t think that I've ever heard of one as high as that before. So yeah - most likely a glitch as others said.

Everyone else - damn, I used to swim ~20 hours a week competitively and my resting HR was about... uhh forgot exactly, but ti was something like 44. That was lying in bed with the strap on my chest. What I'm saying is that I'm sort of surprised to see people here having ~ similar HR as I did when I swam.

Dr_Death

you didn't go under any power lines did you?? They send my HRM dolally, Max HR about 254.

EarlofBarnet

rhyko7 wrote:

...you are supposed to lose a beat a year from 220(average) , however it is possible but its more likely to be a glitch with the HR monitor, mine goes nuts when i go DH over bumps.i.e the formula 220-your age +/-20

Just what I would have said. Highest I've ever had mine was 202 ish which was 12yrs ago (when I was 15yrs old) and was hammering it at circuit training. I literally had to sit down for 5 mins until it came back down again.

I've been doing a lot of running training recently and have seen high 170's when doing just over a 6 min mile (for a mile and a half). Must have been a bit more somewher, but think my fitness gave way before my HR maxed.

supersonic

It could be possible for a second or two, depending on how the unit calculates it (ie beats registered and time periods) that your MHR did hit the figure. You won't have been at that for minutes at a time!

It is not unknown for some people to attain 240bpm for short periods.

Skippy2309

my highest was 236bpm when I was 16 at a specialist centre training on a treadmill, at the time they found I had only 3% body fat as well

last check up showed my resting heart rate was 41bpm which was about 3weeks ago now, 2 weeks a go I did a relatively hard session on the exercise bike couldn't get my heart rate above 148bpm I covered 20k in just under 30minutes....

23years of age, 5'10, 78kg and 8% body fat (checked on 16-12-09)

Far from my fittest at the moment tho.


226 does seem a little high, but I have seen people hit 200bpm walking on an incline.

neil²

I have hit 209 on a sprint climb at the start of a TT. Usually I have max rates 180-190 during an XC or CX race.

I usually average 170-180 depending on the course, during a 1 hour race.

Being in a race makes a massive difference. Does your HRM log so you can see the profile later?

antfly

It`s a bit of inteference or a weak signal probably, it happens all the time.

Iwingstein

Just checked mine at 66bpm at rest, which I thought was quite good

steponahen

It might not be equipment failure, could be palpitations. How did you feel at the time?

I'm 35, my resting heart rate is 56. Max is around 190. Last week it went to 223, and stayed there for TEN minutes.

I get heart palpitations every now and then. Sometimes it happens when I stand up too quick or something. Sometimes when I'm exercising. I have to sit down and wait for it to stop before I can carry on. Luckily I've worked out that I can stop it on my own by meditating. Weird, but it works.

Doctor asked me what the BPM was when I had palpitations. I told him I had no idea but it seemed unusually high. Maybe because I was a bit vague he didn't seem concerned, and just told me to avoid caffeine and Diet Coke (don't know why).

Anyway, I'd never caught any palpitatons on my HRM until last week when riding. Doing a downhill technical section, so wasn't pedalling. I'd had a two minute stop letting some motorbikes past, started again but immediately lost balance due to lack of momentum. The adrenaline rush from almost falling triggered palpitations, but I ignored it and carried on.

A little while later, while still going down with no pedalling, the palpitations hadn't stopped. So I got off the bike, did my meditating for a minute or two, and got things back under control.

I analysed the HRM data when I got back and found my heart rate jumped straight from 120 to 223 the instant I almost fell. It stayed there, until I meditated, and again it immediately fell back to 120. Freaky, but at least I have some proof for the doctor now.

Anyway, I must go and write my will.

Valy

OMG, are you the guy from wanted? :shock:

(not sure if it's appropriate, but no offense intended)

steponahen

Heh, no offence taken. I'm not concerned about it. My dad (63) gets them too, and his mum did. She made it to 85, so I'm bound to (is what I keep telling myself).

Valy

steponahen wrote:

Heh, no offence taken. I'm not concerned about it. My dad (63) gets them too, and his mum did. She made it to 85, so I'm bound to (is what I keep telling myself).

Haha...

Sly1

The above comments, whilst well meaning I'm sure, are entirely incorrect and dangerous. Max HR is entirely individual and there are many examples of pro athletes who fall well outside the 'guidelines' for their age on both ends of the scale. You should be careful when saying something like "mine doesn't get to that number therefore the HRM must be broken", pretty flawed logic really. With someone who has a very high max HR this won't do any damage as they will simply undertrain but flip that around and you could be encouraging someone with a very low max HR to be training near their max the whole time.

ashleygreen14 - See the article linked below for a better explanation and good luck with your training at high heart rates compared to your mates.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/max.

antfly

Sly1 wrote:

You should be careful when saying something like "mine doesn't get to that number therefore the HRM must be broken", pretty flawed logic really. With someone who has a very high max HR this won't do any damage as they will simply undertrain but flip that around and you could be encouraging someone with a very low max HR to be training near their max the whole time.

ashleygreen14 - See the article linked below for a better explanation and good luck with your training at high heart rates compared to your mates.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/max.

I don`t understand that logic, interference is unlikely to give a lower reading and your link doesn`t work anyway.

cougie

It will be interference. I've been using HRMs for over 20 years and its happened numerous times to me - usually around 226 bpm strangely - and it annoyingly blows out the real Max HR for the ride.

If your max HR is usually 185 on that loop then theres no way on this earth that you'd not notice a max of 40 beats higher - thats a huuuuuuge leap.

Incidentally - have you ever had a proper Max heart rate test ?

robertpb

Sly1 wrote:

The above comments, whilst well meaning I'm sure, are entirely incorrect and dangerous. Max HR is entirely individual and there are many examples of pro athletes who fall well outside the 'guidelines' for their age on both ends of the scale. You should be careful when saying something like "mine doesn't get to that number therefore the HRM must be broken", pretty flawed logic really. With someone who has a very high max HR this won't do any damage as they will simply undertrain but flip that around and you could be encouraging someone with a very low max HR to be training near their max the whole time.

ashleygreen14 - See the article linked below for a better explanation and good luck with your training at high heart rates compared to your mates.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/max.

As this is your first post I'm going to let you off for insulting the posts above, some of us do know what we are talking about.

You should read the posts more carefully.

specializedone

Interesting reading - I just put my HRM on while sitting at the PC.
My resting heart rate is 60b/pm and at age 60 yrs I think that is pretty good.

My 34 year old GP says he has a higher chance of a heart attack than I do....I nearly fainted (joke).

Going up a tough hill last weekend my monitor beeped at 101% which for me is 160b/pm, does a range of 100 mean anything? I have no idea...

BullFreerider

Your max heart rate should be 163 (202 minus age). 226 would cause you to die, no-one can take that. You need to recalibrate the monitor.

robertpb

BullFreerider wrote:

Your max heart rate should be 163 (202 minus age). 226 would cause you to die, no-one can take that. You need to recalibrate the monitor.

Rubbish, there is not a way of calculating someone's max hart rate with formulas only a rough ball park figure.

Using your figures my max should be 143 it's actually 184 plus there are people that are perfectly OK with rates of 226, there isn't any harm in high heart rates.

Lance Armstrong who is older than the OP has a max of 200.

vikingboy

my experience of this is that its either interference from some electrical source (underground cables, aliens etc) or a battery about to die.
I stopped and checked my pulse when I first noticed this though- I was worried for 30 seconds!

robertpb

I was looking at a book by Sally Edwards/Sally Reed called 'The Heart Rate Monitor Book for Cyclists', their graphs to illustrate the zones peak out at 240 BPM.

So there must be people out there that peak out at these rates.

antfly

There were but they`re all dead.

Jock-Muttley

Years ago I took part in a study undertaken by Newcastle University, they hooked ten of us up to heart monitors on a compeitive event ... most of us were doing 200BMP with regularity with peaks in the region of 220, the average was about 160.

We weren't what you could describe as atheletes either... we were rally drivers and co-drivers. :P The peaks in heart rate coincided with particularly tricky sections of the Otterburn Military ranges where the Rally was being held. Otterburn is notorious for flat out straights and tank swallowing ditches. The researcher noted that on one particular stage there were some awfully high readings from everyone, by figuring out the timings we realised that this was a really hairy descent at a place called Cottonshope with lots of large "airdrops" on the outside of the corners and blind crests that you had totake almost flat out to retain ANY hope of remaining competitive.

As one wag at the time commented,
"It would have been just as easy to attach a microphone to our @rses"

Chaz.Harding

Yeah, as many have said - interference could be the problem, or if you adjust it with your hand, then you could get 2 readings.

My heart rate max is about 185 / 190. No higher. I'm only 21, but I'm realy fit with it. My resting heart rate is mid-to-low 40's.

I put it down to having a big strong heart

cycleNoodle

I would imagine you went under a `power line although maybe your exceptionally fit! Try a max test and see what your true max is, it can be done on a normal turbo trainer using watts to ramp up until your at your max but it isnt pleasant!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

My Aldi wireless odo/hrm reckoned I peaked at 212 while ascending Chalk Hill (~10% gradient for 2Km) on the Pylon8 last summer...

Given my age (35 at time); my weight ((90Kg); the bike's weight (14Kg); my lack of fitness relative to the mid 90s; the feeling that I was on the verge of throwing up from the effort etc. I feel this figure was somewhere in the right ballpark!