"Max heart rate"

s35pilot

s35pilot

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s35pilot
Kind of related to aviation as it has to do with staying healthy. I've been running to stay fit for 6 or 7 years. I do enjoy the result, and enjoy the running most of the time. Now that heart rate monitors are so prevelant it seems that more attention is on heart rate. Somebody mentioned to me that I should keep my HR down to 85% of max. I'm 62 so I think that's somewhere around .85x158. I looked on the Internet, and that does seem to be a popular opinion. The problem I have is that I routinely exceed my "max" heart rate for pretty long intervals, and pretty much always exceed 85%. I feel like it wouldn't be a good run if I didn't do that. Any other runners or cardiac experts here? What say you?
 
s35pilot said:
Kind of related to aviation as it has to do with staying healthy. I've been running to stay fit for 6 or 7 years. I do enjoy the result, and enjoy the running most of the time. Now that heart rate monitors are so prevelant it seems that more attention is on heart rate. Somebody mentioned to me that I should keep my HR down to 85% of max. I'm 62 so I think that's somewhere around .85x158. I looked on the Internet, and that does seem to be a popular opinion. The problem I have is that I routinely exceed my "max" heart rate for pretty long intervals, and pretty much always exceed 85%. I feel like it wouldn't be a good run if I didn't do that. Any other runners or cardiac experts here? What say you?
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I go until it hurts. Some people couldn't hit that number if they tried, others, like me, would blow right through it. Heart rate is good, but perceived exertion is good too.
 
Formulations for HR max based on age aren’t very good. If you have a monitor, you can self test for your own max. Based on age, mine should be 155. I can hit 150 in a bike race briefly. Can’t imagine 155 and remaining conscious.
 
The rule of thumb for maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. But that is just a vague guess. For instance, at 72 mine calculates to 148 bpm, but I top out near 180 on steep climbs on my bike.

As Hang4 said, the best way is to just hammer to your maximum and see what it is.

As far as where to train, it depends on your goals. Training is specific, so training for sprints is different than training for long slow distance is different than training for general fitness.

To calculate your training range, look up "Karvonen Formula". In short, you determine your Heart Rate Range by taking your resting pulse (best taken on awakening) and subtracting it from your maximum. This number is your Heart Rate Range. If you want to train at 75%, let's say, multiply your range by .75 and add the result back into your resting rate. Most people will target in the range of 65% to 85% for general training. I haven't tried it, but here's a calculator I found online: https://www.topendsports.com/fitness/karvonen-formula-calculator.htm

As an aside, I know something about this because I trained to be a Personal Trainer with the ACSM back in the 1990's, and this was part of the curriculum.
 
No one has mentioned lactate threshold or VO2max yet? Also, it’s extremely refreshing to see a positive health related post in this section vs the common “How do I thwart the FAA?”, “But I wasn’t really that drunk…” and “I’m off my meds, screw the feds!” stuff. :)
 
People with hearts which pump less volume per contraction beat more frequently, or so my doctor told me when I questioned why my heart rate during workouts was much higher than the charts predicted. 15 years ago during intense workouts I would get into the low 200s. I have two points for you: (1) the only way to know for sure your max heart rate is to be tested on a treadmill in a clinical setting. (2) I personally believe it more important to keep track of your HR during exercise overtime and then talk to your doctor about anything that doesn't seem right. For example, I've been tracking my heart rate for well over a decade. During long runs, my heart rate would settle in around 145. Something has changed recently. I'm not in as good a shape as I used to be and I'm thinking there's a good chance I had covid in December '19. During similar workouts, my heart rate now settles in around 20 beats higher.
 
There's no magic formula, days are different, how much sleep, recovery, previous days activity, how hard you went yesterday, how 'fit' you are. There are a lot of variables to consider. We jusst don't fit into a mathematical formula very well.
 
The one other thing I would add is that always training at the same level of effort will hit a plateau of fitness. Mix long steady endurance, faster tempo and some very high intensity intervals on different days.
 
My cardiologist was pleased that I get on the treadmill (or walk) almost every morning. He noted that blood pressure is highest when waking and that exercise relieves the body of stress and helps it awaken. Perhaps that's why grandpa went to milk the cows before breakfast. ;)

During a recent treadmill test he also noted how quickly my heartrate came back to normal after going to my limit on the mill. He noted that was an excellent indicator of heart health. As Mxfarm noted, some days and times things are just gonna be a little different.

Recent threads about bacon, vaping, best alcohol, etc., are fun to read but the truth is that the way you live today decides if you live tomorrow.:)
 
Daleandee said:
Recent threads about bacon, vaping, best alcohol, etc., are fun to read but the truth is that the way you live today decides if you live tomorrow.:)
Click to expand...

Wait, we have people vaping bacon and alcohol ?
 
s35pilot said:
Kind of related to aviation as it has to do with staying healthy. I've been running to stay fit for 6 or 7 years. I do enjoy the result, and enjoy the running most of the time. Now that heart rate monitors are so prevelant it seems that more attention is on heart rate. Somebody mentioned to me that I should keep my HR down to 85% of max. I'm 62 so I think that's somewhere around .85x158. I looked on the Internet, and that does seem to be a popular opinion. The problem I have is that I routinely exceed my "max" heart rate for pretty long intervals, and pretty much always exceed 85%. I feel like it wouldn't be a good run if I didn't do that. Any other runners or cardiac experts here? What say you?
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As a runner, I routinely exceeded my "age based .85XMHR". But, my resting heart rate was very consistently 49-50 bpm.

I could always tell when I was over-training, because my resting heart rate would start to creep up over a day or 2. That's when I'd take a day off and just go for a walk.

I wish I could still run for more than a couple of miles without my knees swelling up like basketballs.
 
If you want to train by heart rate, go out and do some type of HR threshold test (e.g. warm up then 20 mins at max effort) and use the resulting threshold rate to determine training zones. Then follow a training program based on these zones.

OR...you can follow the Maffetone Method and set a cap of 180-age (with some adjustments) and stick to that. Every few weeks, go to a track and do a 3 mile run keeping to this cap. Keep going until your times are no longer improving then start to mix in some faster stuff. Yes, this will feel ridiculously slow. Yes, you may even be forced to walk when adapting. However, eventually, your body adjusts to this and learns to burn fat for fuel, Mark Allen (6x or 7x Ironman champion) used this method. Early each season he would be walking the hills. By his peak he'd be running low 5 min miles at it.

The commonality to these approaches is that they both try to fix the common error of running too hard when you should be going easy and not running hard enough when you should be going hard.

P.S. If you read up on the 220-age metric, the inventor of that formula admits to coming up with it on a plane trip to a conference where he was presenting. He looked at a graph and thought "that looks about right..."
 
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