High resting heart rate - too high during exercise?

[HotMomof4]

I am 28yrs old, 5'2" tall, and about 110lb give or take. When I first step onto any machine at the gym my heart rate is can vary between 98-104bpm. At a slow to moderate pace for a short period of time my heart rate goes to 170-180... it easily went to 198 when I had to get off the machine. From what I understand a simple way to measure max heart rate is 220-age, so 220-28=192. I barely went above that but I didn't even break a sweat yet. I want to get healthy as well as toned but I don't know how to control my heart rate. If I continue to work out but trying to not to pass my max rate, will it slowly make my heart stronger and make me be able to work out harder?

Physical history: I have always been skinny, I believe I have never been over 122lb, except for while pregnant. I never had to work to go back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I had twins in 2008 (that pregnancy caused my muscles between my belly button down to split apart, there is a name for it but I don't remember. (Could exercise fix that, or only surgery?) Then I had a second set of twins in 2012 (7mo ago). Once during that pregnancy I went to the ER for something else and they wouldn't let me go home because my heartrate was 118, just sitting there. Later there were complications while I was in the hospital they pumped me with so much fluid (IVs, IV meds, IV antibiotics, etc) and wouldn't allow me to sit up, I was put on oxygen because I couldn't breath well at all.. exams showed fluid in my lungs and around my heart. With the naked eye you could see fluid around my veins even. Could this been the reason?

Help me please, I really want my abs back

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Sorry to hit the last part first, please put getting pretty abs at priority basement for now.
Priority 1, heart health, 2, remedial on core after abdominal separation, 3 and beyond everything else.

The heart is a muscle like anything else and will be strengthened by overload. The stronger it is the lower your resting pulse rate is, this is not an absolute guide, but it's a good benchmark.
Age max related is another good guide, I am close to mine every time I run in or home from work and this is not an issue for me. However I am ridiculously fit, my heart is used to the strain and finds this easy, do not assume you are the same as doing so could be the last mistake you ever make.

Sorry if this is not very nice but your heart is kind of important and abusing it will kill you. I doubt this is news to you, but sometimes people need to be reminded.

There are many reasons for high resting pulse rate, the most common is lack of conditioning, there are others of medical nature. I am not a doctor so take this as advice for someone with issues stemming from condition, if you find it is not, ignore me and get professional medical help.
The heart is designed to work over log duration, in presence of blood flow and tire slowly, this is good news. It’s a pump with a set amount of blood to move, if it’s strong it moves more blood in each contraction so beats less often. When weakened it moves less with each contraction so has to beat more times, the amount of work it has to do at rest doesn't change leaving no choice.

You will hear talk of load and reps regarding resistance work, the heart is one of the ultimate high rep, low load muscles. The way to strengthen it is to make it work a little harder than normal for long periods; usual recognised minimum is 20 minutes. The load is complex, to find your ideal range you need to be taking into account fitness, resting heart rate and max age related heart rate. You also need a very accurate measuring device, I will cover that later. Telling you to work at 60% of your age related max is no good when you are virtually there to start with, so I would say you will be better working with how you feel for the moment, but making sure you’re constantly mindful of how your chest is feeling. Make sure you are breathing freely and totally comfortable, the work should be almost insultingly easy to start with so you can keep going for long durations, ideal activities are in front of the TV on a bike or treadmill.

Accurate measure. I’m not a doctor, but I have recovered from issues and learned how devices can be fooled if you slightly abnormal. For me the issue is with pedometers, which measure around two thirds of my steps as two each, because I had to relearn to walk a few times and have forced my body to move in a way these devices aren’t familiar with. You have fluid around the heart and some of your veins, I think this could be making the measuring devices give false readings, basically meaning they are picking up beats and some echoes in the fluid, there is a very strong possibility that I am wrong but try this just in case. Find the pulse in your wrist or neck, hold it gently so you can just feel it then more firmly to possibly only get genuine beats without any echoes, be careful at the neck. Use two fingers to ensure you are feeling the same beats at the same time. This is likely a waste of time but worth a thought, if you find there is an issue see the doctor and ask how to reduce the fluid issue.

Many aerobic activities engage the core or make it easy to engage while doing it. Working at this low intensity pulling the core tight but not forcing it too much will help repair the separation. You are far from alone here, but need to be aware, repair to such key postural and protective muscles will take a long time and shouldn’t be rushed.