New member

[Clev]

Hi guys.

I'm a 34-year-old desk jockey. I never thought I was particularly out of shape, but I realized I was in trouble when I scoffed at somebody who challenged me to run an 8-minute mile and soon found out I couldn't even complete a quarter mile without dropping to a walk! I'm 5'11" and weighed 212 pounds.

I renewed my club membership and hit the elliptical three times a week starting about a month ago. I recently started supplementing with a 35 minute run/walk (the best I can do) on weekends, and have lost 13 pounds so far. I'm still not up to running a complete mile yet, but I'm making progress, and I've found that I can increase my pace and resistance on the elliptical while staying at a lower heart rate.

But I'm worried about my heart rate. When I'm on the elliptical, I can crank up the resistance to keep my heart rate at 165-170, which shows up as 950-1,150 kcalories an hour. However, when I'm jogging with my Polar monitor, I find myself hitting 190 and 195 BPM while trying to keep up any kind of reasonable pace.

I've been reading the forums here about spinning and HIIT, and I want to up my game, but I'm concerned about my heart rate. Can I cause damage if my heart rate is hitting 190 or 200 BPM for sustained periods? Am I putting myself at risk of a heart attack? I'm breathing hard, but my chest isn't hurting. I'm not getting dizzy or anything. Is it safe to push it as hard as I think I should be? Thanks for your advice.

 

[bodyimagefitness]

If your heart is getting up to 190-200, your pretty close to death. Since 220 BPM is basically bright white lights. I suggest you figure out what your resting heart rate is try to stay inbtween 50-75% intensity. I'm 28 and my Max heart rate is around 188BPM and I usually only hit this when I'm doing sprints such as suicide drills. At your age and your physical ability I would say you should be more around 100-120BPM. So figure out your resting heart rate and maybe your max heart rate, but your goal should be figuring out your resting and working out between 50-75% intensity. For mor info just google: resting heart rate.

 

[g8r80]

If your heart is getting up to 190-200, your pretty close to death. Since 220 BPM is basically bright white lights. I suggest you figure out what your resting heart rate is try to stay inbtween 50-75% intensity. I'm 28 and my Max heart rate is around 188BPM and I usually only hit this when I'm doing sprints such as suicide drills. At your age and your physical ability I would say you should be more around 100-120BPM. So figure out your resting heart rate and maybe your max heart rate, but your goal should be figuring out your resting and working out between 50-75% intensity. For mor info just google: resting heart rate.

I have some thoughts/questions.

1. Max heart rates are very individual. The 220-age number can be off by up to 20 bpm. He could have a max heart rate of over 200.

2. When you use a heart rate monitor, do you get a consistent number? Do the numbers bounce around, suggesting interference? Have you ever tried to measure your pulse the old fashioned way to doublecheck it?

3. If your max heart rate is 200, you should aim for 70 - 85% of it. That will provide benefits of cardiovascular strengthening and fat loss.

 

[Karky]

50-75% of max heart rate is a pretty low intensity and won't cause much adaptations as far as VO2max (which is one of the 3 "primary" deciding components of endurance running) is concerned. You really need some intensity to get quick adaptations in your cardiovascular system. Interval training is good. 4x4 (4 4 min intervals with 3 min rest periods in between) has been shown to work pretty well. the 4 min work intervals is supposed to be at 85-95% of your max heart rate and the recovery bouts 3 min at about 70. If this is really hard at first you can do a smaller number of intervals (like 2), up the rest periods a little, or lower the intensity until you can handle it. Generally speaking, you shouldn't be feeling like you want to die at the end of it. The intervals aren't supposed to be to total exhaustion.

If you want to exercise based on a % of heart rate I suggest you test it. Also, since you're gonna run 8 miles, I would suggest actually running for training, maybe on a treadmil with a bit of an incline since you're pretty heavy and all that impact from running migt not be that good, at least if you're not very used to running.

Unless you have an underlying condition such as heart failure or something like that, then heavy exercise isn't dangeoraus for your heart. The only way to really know that is to tell your doctor you want to start exercising and have him check you out. Everyone always says "check with your physician before starting any exercise program", not a lot of people do it, though, and I don't see a lot of people dying for that reason.

 

[HollyFJ]

You need to know what your resting heart rate is in order to get the real value of what your heart rate should be in your training zone. ( many things tend to forget to explain this to us.), once you know your resting heart rate you can calculate your training zone--if you have a lower resting heart rate you have a higher training zone. But you should be able to get that on line once you figure out your heart rate. Do you have a monitor that will record your heart rate throughout your sleep so it can be a "real" resting heart reading? I must say it shouldn't be that high, however, if you aren't feeling any problem with it, then I don't believe that anyone I have ever worked with has had a problem!