Hello am I doing enough?

[bambers2015]

Good morning,

I'm 54 and suffered from a heart attack at the end of 2023.

As someone who excericsed 5 times a week, had low cholesterol, no weight issues it came as a shock.

Anyway roll on 7 months and I'm back at the gym, doing my weight training and cardio training which consist of 45 minutes of weights, 4 miles on excericse bike, 3000m on rowing machine ( level 10 resistance?) . I do this 4 times a week.

Rowing 3000m takes me 15 minutes to achieve and I feel great, I get a great sweat, my heart rate goes to around 120 - 130 ( I'm on beta blockers which slow the heart down). I feel a controlled out of breath and recover quickly.

I suppose I'm trying to find out if this seems like a slow time and I should be aiming for a better time?

strange question but I suppose I'm trying to benchmark my heart performance compared to everyone else.

thank you

[MPx]

Well that was bad luck on the heart attack given your risk factor illimination - just shows it can get any of us.

On your performance, its hard to offer comparators for 3k as its not a commonly used distance. If you want to compare, be mindful that its always a bit dangerous to the ego - better to compare the you of today with the you of yesterday to guage your own improvements. Anyway the easiest data to see is held in the C2 rankings https://log.concept2.com/rankings. You can search on your age/sex/weight for any of the ranking pieces - nearest to yours 2k and 5k.

In absolute numbers 3k in 15mins is 2:30 pace. If you're a giant male then that's quite a slow pace, if you're a petite female then not so much.

Also, "level 10 resistence" doesn't really mean what you think it does. Have a search on here for Drag Factor if you want to understand more about it. The 1-10 lever simply controls how quickly the flywheel slows down. If the machine is dirty/dusty then it slows down much less no matter what position the lever is in. If you look on the monitor (Menu/More Options/Display Drag factor) and row a few strokes, you'll get a number. On a clean machine that will vary from about 80 to 220 (1 to 10 on the lever) - on a very dirty machine maybe 60 to 100. Doesn't matter what the number is, the machine measures the work you put in, but most of us prefer a particular feel of a particular number so we set the DF to that regardless of where that means the lever is set.

....and you should always be aiming for a better time, just not on every occasion you use the erg.

[Dangerscouse]

I've not got much to add from what Mike has already said, but imo you really need to be careful in comparison as your circumstances are really different to most people's, nevermind that comparison is the thief of joy in quite a lot of moments.

It's probably best to use intuition at the moment, and it doesn't like you're doing enough. Have you had any medical advice as to what to do and what not to do? It does highly inexplicable as to why you had a heart attack so I'm very hesitant to offer advice that could be highly detrimental. Best of luck with whatever you do.

[JaapvanE]

I'm 54 and suffered from a heart attack at the end of 2023.

As someone who excericsed 5 times a week, had low cholesterol, no weight issues it came as a shock.

Sorry to hear that. Glad you are ok.

Anyway roll on 7 months and I'm back at the gym, doing my weight training and cardio training which consist of 45 minutes of weights, 4 miles on excericse bike, 3000m on rowing machine ( level 10 resistance?) . I do this 4 times a week.

That is a good excercise regime. Please note, damper 10 isn't resistance per se. In combination with your strokerate it decides how heavy a stroke feels. Look at the dragfactor displayed on the monitor, as lack of maintenance can turn a damper 10 into a dragfactor 110 (normally it is 225).

Rowing 3000m takes me 15 minutes to achieve and I feel great, I get a great sweat, my heart rate goes to around 120 - 130 ( I'm on beta blockers which slow the heart down). I feel a controlled out of breath and recover quickly.

I suppose I'm trying to find out if this seems like a slow time and I should be aiming for a better time?

Unless you are aiming for the Olympics, there is no too slow time, as you are doing it for fitness.

I often row in groups online, and my experience is that there are many in your age group who row a similar pace (roughly 2:30/500m) on longer steady state sessions. There are people in the same age bracket who are much faster on those steady state sessions (about 2:10-2:15/500m), but they typically have a history of competitive on the water rowing, so their technique is much better.

So my conclusion is that you are certainly not too slow, and based on your recovery, you are doing the good thing: listening to your body. Going faster probably is possible, but your heartrate will go up, so I'd suggest consulting your cardiologist first. Please note: given your heartrate and breathing, you seem to stay in Heartrate Zone 2, which is a sane approach. Hopping over that HR Zone 2 treshold, my experience is that HR will go up a lot (hitting 140-150), so that might be a consideration for a cardiologist. It isn't bad from a training perspective on an occasional basis (far from it), but it might be problematic from a medical one.

strange question but I suppose I'm trying to benchmark my heart performance compared to everyone else.

I have a decent stamina (VO2 max around 44), and I row long distance (10K to HM) a tiny bit faster (2:25/500m), but I hit the same heartrate (115 at start, 131 at the end). But your body is still recovering and you do it as part of a training, I do it stand-alone.

[bambers2015]

I'm not sure how to add your usernames but thank you for the replies and advice.

I'm 5 foot 7, so not that tall.

Some great notes for me take into consideration and understanding the drag factor was very useful.

My father, his father, basically the men in his side of the family all had heart disease in there mid 30's due to high blood pressure and the over production of cholesterol. So even though my cholesterol was good ,blood pressure good it still got me. So always get these checked regularly.

I suppose I thought I was immune.

Thanks you again and I will listen to my body , stick to the heart rate limits I need to and enjoy the satisfaction of rowing, as it's probably my favourite excericse out the lot.

[JaapvanE]

Thanks you again and I will listen to my body , stick to the heart rate limits I need to and enjoy the satisfaction of rowing, as it's probably my favourite excericse out the lot.

If you like it a lot, one avenue you might persue is to go further, while keeping HR down in Zone 2. This is called steady state training and it has health benefits in the long run.

[Dangerscouse]

It's probably best to use intuition at the moment, and it doesn't like you're doing enough.

I've just re-read this, and it should have said "you are doing enough"

[bambers2015]

Will definitely read up on steady state rowing because as you have understood I'm about keeping the heart rate in Zone 2 , getting the fantastic cardiovascular work out from rowing and getting the max benefits safely.

Yup I had a feeling that was a typo:)

My cardiologist is happy with the heart rates I stick to.

It's so beautiful and fantastic to be back on it.

thank you

[H2O]

"Doing enough" depends on you goals.
4 x 45 mins weights per week seems like a weight lifting centered program while the cardio side is not very extensive.
4 miles bike + 3K row equates to about 25-30 mins, depending on your fitness.
At level 2 intensity this is not enough for dramatic effects but is definitely much better than nothing.
For increased cardio development a mix of intensities may be preferable, where you go for 10K on the rower at level 2,
but then also get into level 4 (e.g. on the bike, where it's easier) on other days for shorter durations.

My experience is that level 4 is still not very intense and even level 5 at the lower end is far from the intensity of a 2K row (which would be a VO2 max workout). I am referring to the heart rates at the various levels that ErgData computes for me.
Some weight lifting can also have cardio benefits, e.g incline press 60+ reps not too slow will definitely get you breathing.