Max Heart Rate

Brian1
Brian1 Posts: 595
edited March 2019 in Training, fitness and health
I know that 220 minus age is only a rough guide but I am a 59 year old an on a recent ride on a new hilly route my MHR reached 105% Is this something I should be worried about or is it a good thing? I am a reasonably fit cyclist.TIA

Comments

  • shiznit76
    shiznit76 Posts: 640
    varies massively from person to person, there is no hard and fast rule
  • tonysj
    tonysj Posts: 391
    MHR for me at 54 years, a couple of years ago, when I first started road cycling was 182BPM. As I've got fitter I rarely get over 170BPM these days and push myself a lot more also.
    Have a look at this site as it has a few research tests on MHR and has a calculator.
    https://www.brianmac.co.uk/maxhr.htm
    Tony.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Brian1 wrote:
    I know that 220 minus age is only a rough guide but I am a 59 year old an on a recent ride on a new hilly route my MHR reached 105% Is this something I should be worried about or is it a good thing? I am a reasonably fit cyclist.TIA

    If you reached 105% of MHR, then whatever you thought was your MHR - obviously isn't. Use the new number as your MHR and adjust your levels/zones accordingly.

    The '220-age' formula is so irrelevant, it's not even worth discussing.
  • herb71
    herb71 Posts: 253
    What device are you using? My fitbit throws out more then the occasional odd result, in excess of 200bpm. The figures from my chest strap seem much more in line with expectation.
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,473
    105% of your predicted MHR using that questionable formula is perfectly within normal bounds. My MHR is probably a little over 105% of 220-age.

    Basically, there's absolutely nothing to worry about from that observation by itself.
  • MishMash95
    MishMash95 Posts: 104
    Same here, Max HR 207, age 23, so ~105%. So far doesn't seem to have been a problem, just that my HR tends to be comparatively high, but my zones are consistent in enough themselves. Steady-state Z2 is around 155 bpm for me. Resting HR (when not fatigued) for me is currently also around 44.
    Though oddly today, couldn't get the HR up above 200, despite setting a new 3 min power PB :P Probably because i've had 8 days off.
    I do get paranoid about my heart sometimes, though more so when it's lower than normal (I like to hope its fitness improvement, but sometimes its a tad too low. e.g. in the span of two-three months, my power @ top end z2 HR has gone from ~205w to 230w, while I feel great atm, i do also get concerned by it running a fair bit lower than usual, esp at the top end).
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,473
    MishMash95 wrote:
    Same here, Max HR 207, age 23, so ~105%. So far doesn't seem to have been a problem, just that my HR tends to be comparatively high, but my zones are consistent in enough themselves. Steady-state Z2 is around 155 bpm for me. Resting HR (when not fatigued) for me is currently also around 44.
    Though oddly today, couldn't get the HR up above 200, despite setting a new 3 min power PB :P Probably because i've had 8 days off.
    I do get paranoid about my heart sometimes, though more so when it's lower than normal (I like to hope its fitness improvement, but sometimes its a tad too low. e.g. in the span of two-three months, my power @ top end z2 HR has gone from ~205w to 230w, while I feel great atm, i do also get concerned by it running a fair bit lower than usual, esp at the top end).
    I think my MHR was almost 220 when I was in my 20s.. :D (52 now and it's probably about 180 or just under).

    The difference between 200 and 207 (as a maximum reachable in a session) is nothing in terms of the sort of variation you might expect from day to day and with changing fitness and fatigue levels. I wouldn't worry about it..
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Congratulations. You have a new max heart rate !
  • norvernrob
    norvernrob Posts: 1,448
    I’m 42 and regularly hit 195 during sprints. That useless calculation has my max at 178, I can average that for 30+ minutes. :lol:
  • mrfpb
    mrfpb Posts: 4,569
    Ive never believed the formula. My max acheived at the "oh my god, I have to stop" point on hills is 196.

    I often hit 190 - 194 on a Parkrun finish. 220 - age is 169, so Saturday gone my max of 192 was 114% of theoretical max. In fact my target heart rate for most rides and runs is above theoretical max.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    I think the answer hear is it depends. If you had put in a near maximal effort then I would suggest it is simply as others have said that the 'formula' is just a very rough rule of thumb (I suspect based on sedentary people in the same way as BMI) and you just pushed closer to your actual maximal heart rate. If you stayed at it for much more than about 20 or 30 seconds and weren't ready to collapse the actual maximal effort is probably slightly higher). However, if you are getting high spikes at relatively low levels of exertion then in may be faulty equipment or a health issue so I'd say in that instance keep a close eye on it and if it does happen regularly think about getting it looked at. Someone I know from running is a similar age to you and a very good age group runner, he gets an intermittent issue that he can't get diagnosed where his HR suddenly shoots up ridiculously high (we're talking well over 220 here) and he hasn't been told to stop running just to ease up when it happens so a HR in the 160s is unlikely to be an issue.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    This is worth a look https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935487/

Categories