What's up with my heart?

raymond82

Yesterday I was discussing differences in heart rate responsiveness with a friend. In an interval training, I can easily get my HR up to 175 BPM within a 1-minute interval and it will come down below 150 in a minute during recovery. On the other hand, my friend has a lot of difficulty reaching 175 and sometimes doesn't even manage within 2 minutes. During a long climb in the alps my HR would regularly be ~180 for prolonged periods of time, occasionally reaching >190.

I'm mainly interested to know if anything can be said about the flexibility of my heart rate, is it healthy or something to worry about? Or just a normal variation on the many ways hearts beat?

danowat

It means your friend has a larger heart / larger stroke volume.

zammmmo

you are not unusual, nothing to worry about. fwiw when i was in my early 20s I used to see HRs >200. its a function of temperature, fitness, age, genetics, heart size etc etc etc etc.

antfly

It's within normal parameters. How old are you ?

raymond82

Thanks for that info!

I'm 31 years old, my friend is 29. Since we've been biking together under similar circumstances I think the difference is in age and genetics. So I take it I have a smaller heart, does that also explain my relative lack of talent for cycling? My resting heart rate is quite low (~50 BPM), I thought that was a sign of a larger heart/stroke volume.

danowat

raymond82 wrote:

Thanks for that info!

I'm 31 years old, my friend is 29. Since we've been biking together under similar circumstances I think the difference is in age and genetics. So I take it I have a smaller heart, does that also explain my relative lack of talent for cycling? My resting heart rate is quite low (~50 BPM), I thought that was a sign of a larger heart/stroke volume.

Stroke volume is trainable, hence why you have a lower RHR.

A small heart / high heart rate isn't a limitation on your cycling ability.

raymond82

Stroke volume is trainable, hence why you have a lower RHR.

A small heart / high heart rate isn't a limitation on your cycling ability.

Good to know! I guess it means that I should just keep on training. And find out what else is limiting my cycling ability (could for sure loose a couple of kilo's...).

racingcondor

As long as it's not erratic I'd just put it down to genetics.

From the people I've talked to I'm the rare case of someone who's heart rate actually follows the '220 minus your age' formula closely. 10 beats above or below that seems to be very common so I imagine you're well within statistical norms even though your HR max is higher than average for your age.

raymond82

The highest HR I've ever measured was 211, I must have been around 27 years old then. I also remember 206 BPM once on a flat road. I never worried about it then, these were short peaks after intense cycling and I would feel tired at these times but not physically ill or whatever.

The rapid increases and decreased are what puzzles me, the other day I biked up a bridge at full speed and my HR started at 142, peaked at 195 on top of the bridge and returned to 148 after the descent. All of this in one and a half minutes!

In terms of maximum HR, would that be the maximum peak you can observe or can your heart actually go beyond your max HR? That sounds a bit weird but what I mean is if your HR in extreme cases could go beyond the value you would usually use as your max HR (for instance 220-age).

sloppyschleckonds

I'd be more concerned about what my legs were doing

ut_och_cykla

Quick return is said to be a sign of good fitness. your body is taking care of work with less of a struggle, creating less waste products & dealing with them quickly....

imposter2.0

raymond82 wrote:

In terms of maximum HR, would that be the maximum peak you can observe or can your heart actually go beyond your max HR? That sounds a bit weird but what I mean is if your HR in extreme cases could go beyond the value you would usually use as your max HR (for instance 220-age).

220-age is not generally regarded as an accurate way of establishing max HR. By definition, your max HR cannot be exceeded, although it may vary between different types of sport (like running for instance, if that is relevant to you). So if you are seeing numbers higher than your presumed max HR, then the number that you thought was your max HR, is not your max HR.

raymond82

Quick return is said to be a sign of good fitness.

That's what I wanted to hear!

So if you are seeing numbers higher than your presumed max HR, then the number that you thought was your max HR, is not your max HR.

Thanks for clarifying that, it's something that I've asked myself for a while now. This weekend I'll be biking in hilly terrain, I'll try to figure out what my max is then. Related to that, if on a +1 hour climb my heart rate is 175-185, can I safely assume that my anaerobic threshold is around that HR?

imposter2.0

raymond82 wrote:

Related to that, if on a +1 hour climb my heart rate is 175-185, can I safely assume that my anaerobic threshold is around that HR?

Providing that level of effort is the highest that you can practically sustain for an hour or so, then yes. Threshold is typically around 90% +/- of max HR, give or take. That's always been my understanding anyway...

raymond82

Since I bike with a HR belt, 175-185 has been the HR I aim for uphill and I haven't had any problems with lactate building up. I suspect my max HR to be around 195, 90% of that is 175 so that fits nicely!