heart rate curve when recovering/cooling down

neeb

I've noticed that when I do a fairly intense session on the turbo where I am at 90%+ of HRmax right at the end, and then cool down for 2 or 3 minutes afterwards, my heart rate always falls in a very predictable way each time. First it seems to go steeply down pretty much linearly, then when it hits the low 150s (about 75% - 80% of HRmax) the rate of reduction suddenly slows slightly. I usually keep going until my HR is below 130, and am spinning gently at about the same low power output all of the time, so it's not as if the blip at 152bpm odd represents the HR necessary to sustain the power I am generating.

Just interested what this blip represents, and if it can be used to calculate anything useful about my metabolic variables and/or fitness.

P.S. It's not my threshold HR - that's at least 10 or 20 bpm higher.

Chiggy

Immediately after a very intense workout, you will experience what's called 'blood pooling'. This is where the active muscles still hold a fair amount of blood. The initial relaxation of load will allow the HR to drop fast, but there comes a point where the HR plateaus to flush the blood out of the big leg and butt muscles. This may take a few minutes which will appear as a 'blip' in HR. When the blood is redistributed to the rest of the body, the HR will fall to an appropriate level for the exercise intensity.

neeb

Thanks, that makes sense.

So does cooling down help this, i.e. make it easier to keep the heart going to flush blood (and other stuff) from the muscles? Or would you get the same HR plateau even if you just stopped immediately?