heart rate?

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NeuroRN76

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I know that when you do cardio, you're supposed to have a target heart rate. (I know very little about working out, so bear with me please.) Can anyone tell me why this is necessary... does it mean you're at your optimum "burn" or is it just a way of knowing that you're working hard enough? I'm sorry, I can't word my question to make much sense.

The reason I am asking is that I take a beta blocker (Corgard) to slow down my heart. It's not going to beat as fast as a "normal" person would expect when doing cardio. So does that mean I'm not getting anything out of it, or is that okay?

Sorry if this sounds stupid.
 
why the beta blocker? you can always go on the self perceived rate of exhaustion i.e grading how hard your going with a number from 1 - 10 but without actually having gone at at a full 10/10 you still can't tell
 
swans05 said:
why the beta blocker? you can always go on the self perceived rate of exhaustion i.e grading how hard your going with a number from 1 - 10 but without actually having gone at at a full 10/10 you still can't tell
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I don't understand what you mean.. are you saying that I can judge for myself if I am working as hard as I possibly could?

I take the beta blocker to slow down my heart, it's prescribed by my cardiologist. My heart beats too fast, so it doesn't perfuse my brain. To go more into detail, I am hypovolemic, meaning I don't have enough blood volume. Most adults have 5 liters, I have 3. My body is unable to produce enough blood, so my blood pressure is low. When your blood pressure is low, your heart rate increases to compensate. But when you don't have enough blood circulating in your body, and your heart beats very fast, it doesn't have enough filling time, so it's not actually perfusing anything. So when I don't get enough blood to my brain, I pass out. Luckily I can feel it coming in plenty of time to sit down, so that never happens. It's called a number of things.. autonomic dysfuntion, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, neurocardiogenic syncope... all the same thing. So I take the medicine to slow down my heart, which increases oxygenation, and my brain and muscles are then perfused with enough blood.
 
People taking beta blockers need to judge their workouts by RPE (rating of perceived exertion). As you said, it slows your heart rate. Don't worry about heart rate ranges if you take a beta blocker, it can be unsafe.

RPE is similar to the little charts they put in hospitals to judge pain (you know, the ones that go from 1-10 and have a little smiley face, all the way to a crying face). Except that it measures intensity, not pain. At 1, you are barely moving, and at 10, you are going all out as hard as you can. I would say, given your medical conditions, that you should stay mostly in the middle range and gradually work your way up to 8 or so.
 
Not a stupid question at all - one very relevant particularly due to your taking heart medications. The general formula for figuring out max heart rate is...

220 - Your Age

thus, for me, my maximum heart rate = 220 - 39 = 181 beats per minute (bpm)

Then certain training zones are defined as a percentage of this number - that is 60% (about 109 bpm - with a max heart rate of 181) to 85% (about 154 bpm). Staying within this zone gives training benefits - the lower end tends more toward endurance training, whereas the higher end leans more to strength training. Since your beta blocker alters your heart rate you might want to get a heart rate monitor that measures your own heart rate parameters, and/or see a doctor to discuss what this means for your exercising. Hope this helps.
 
stingo said:
Since your beta blocker alters your heart rate you might want to get a heart rate monitor that measures your own heart rate parameters, and/or see a doctor to discuss what this means for your exercising. Hope this helps.
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Exactly.
With beta blockers, the standard equations pretty much go out the window.
 
Thank you! I am discontinuing this medication and will just use it as needed, so hopefully soon I won't have the guesswork!
 
The target HR they refer to is the fat burning zone, but in truth, the amount of fat you burn during that time is rather negligable, because once you finish, it burns fat for about another 1-2 hours.
 
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