max heart rate

fatboyslim · Post by **fatboyslim** » June 14th, 2007, 4:25 pm

I asked a question on the health and fitness thread, but no replies. Just curious, as you become more fit, your resting pulse drops or so I've been told. What about the max? Are you able to hit higher rates , do more work at the same level, or a combo or both? ...FBS

Storm Petrel · Post by **Storm Petrel** » June 14th, 2007, 7:07 pm

fatboyslim wrote:I asked a question on the health and fitness thread, but no replies. Just curious, as you become more fit, your resting pulse drops or so I've been told. What about the max? Are you able to hit higher rates , do more work at the same level, or a combo or both? ...FBS

A few sites which may be of interest:

The first site below states: "Maximum heart rate is genetically determined.....A few tips about Max HR which you may be curious about. It's altitude sensitive and increases as you go higher and it also is affected by drugs such as beta blocks and even antihistamines. It cannot be increased by training and a high Max HR does not predict better performance."
http://www.sarkproducts.com/sally1.htm
http://www.coachr.org/heart_rate_traini ... proved.htm
http://www.thefinalsprint.com/wp-print.php?p=1289

I think it was covered in another thread here on the forum, that the Max HR is an estimate. Cardiac fitness is measured more by VO2max and lactate threshold plays an important role in performance:
http://www.cptips.com/exphys.htm

fastfinish · Post by **fastfinish** » June 15th, 2007, 4:57 pm

If you consider the heart as a muscle like any other you exercise, it must improve with the rest of your body, no?
if you balance long and slow with fast and short (each method brings its own benefits) your heart will grow bigger, beat slower but shift more oxygenated blood around the growing muscles. result.......more distance/speed for a given heart rate/effort.
Forget maximum heart rate....... only the pro athletes/freaks!! of this world will ever get near it leave alone increasing it (and dont try it....it is dangerous!!)
dont leave out mental toughness as the most important factor. if 1.40/500mtr pace hurts you and you cant get used to it........get used to it 'cos if you dont the rest is just pointless

Hope this helps

Marc

TomR · Post by **TomR** » June 15th, 2007, 8:34 pm

I found that as I got fitter, I was able to push myself to a higher HR, but of course, the fitter I got, the harder I had to work increase HR.

There are protocols for detremining max HR, if you're interested in pushing yourself. (Check w/ your doctor, etc.) As you age, max HR declines. The highest I've seen recently is173 (age 61). I often get close when doing workouts in the final stages of training for a 2k or when doing a time trial. Max HR was three beats higher a few years ago.

fatboyslim · Post by **fatboyslim** » June 19th, 2007, 9:03 pm

for sure I'm no pro/fitness freak just curious. Last couple of runs and rows a little higher heart rate and longer sustained effort. Yes the 140's are hard but not as hard as they use to be! Thanks for the comments,links and info....FBS

Buckiller · Post by **Buckiller** » June 20th, 2007, 8:59 pm

fastfinish wrote:If you consider the heart as a muscle like any other you exercise, it must improve with the rest of your body, no?
if you balance long and slow with fast and short (each method brings its own benefits) your heart will grow bigger, beat slower but shift more oxygenated blood around the growing muscles. result.......more distance/speed for a given heart rate/effort.
Forget maximum heart rate....... only the pro athletes/freaks!! of this world will ever get near it leave alone increasing it (and dont try it....it is dangerous!!)
dont leave out mental toughness as the most important factor. if 1.40/500mtr pace hurts you and you cant get used to it........get used to it 'cos if you dont the rest is just pointless

Hope this helps

Marc

Well... I would consider everyone that rows or ergs a freak... and if you do high intensity stuff on the erg there is no doubt that you can easily reach your max heart rate.

Max heart rate isnt like the rpm's for an engine... its just the limit of your heart, you cant make it go any faster.

kipkeino68 · Post by **kipkeino68** » June 23rd, 2007, 11:09 am

I use a heartrate monitor on some my erg and running workouts. I like to make sure that I'm giving 100% on my hard workouts. I've maxed out at 184.

Land Rower · Post by **Land Rower** » August 6th, 2007, 11:24 am

fastfinish wrote: Forget maximum heart rate....... only the pro athletes/freaks!! of this world will ever get near it leave alone increasing it (and dont try it....it is dangerous!!)

I often read that hitting your max HR is dangerous but don't athletes hit it quite often when competing? When I was bike racing (15 years ago) I used to hit it all the time in training and while racing.

On another note, my max HR (194) is the same today as it was back in my younger fitter times. I thought it was supposed to drop by about a beat per year

Cheers,
Darren

LateinEarlyOut · Post by **LateinEarlyOut** » August 6th, 2007, 1:25 pm

Many athletes hit their max heart rate all the time. Consider all those racers, whether runners, rowers, etc. They should be hitting max heart rate at some point in their race. This goes for people of different ages as well.

Is max heart rate dangerous...well sort of. I have read about this and there is some increased likelyhood of having a cardiac incident when you are working out, with higher incidence occuring at higher intensity levels. That said most heart attacks do not happen during intense exercise and we know exercise is good for preventing that sort of thing.

As you get more fit your heart is able to pump more blood per beat, i.e. increased stroke volume of the heart muscle. This is part of the reason why as you are more fit you can do the same or more work at a lower HR. As you become more fit you are able to maintain a higher percentage of max Vo2 and max HR for a longer period of time. Think about a unfit person racing, they will only be able to maintain a high HR for a short period of time before they are have to quit, but a fit endurance athlete can keep a high HR for hours during long races.

Land Rower · Post by **Land Rower** » August 6th, 2007, 2:28 pm

Cheers Late in.

Does anyone do a 2000m test and not hit their max HR? At what point (meter) do you go all out? I have been waiting until the last 200m to give it everything left in me.

german answer · Post by **german answer** » August 7th, 2007, 10:51 am

Land Rower wrote:Cheers Late in.

Does anyone do a 2000m test and not hit their max HR? At what point (meter) do you go all out? I have been waiting until the last 200m to give it everything left in me.

The maximum heart rate couldn´t be reached in every test race! An important factor is motivation, you could reach the last 1-2 % only on a well trained and high motivated standard.

If you do a lot of UT2 stuff, you aren´t able to reach the max. heart rate because you are not used to the high lactate levels. But UT2 Training is basic training in preparaton period.

The all out answer is an answer, that depends on your race strategy. It is obvious that if you use an even split, you haven´t enough power to do a long (more than 15 strokes) finish. On the other hand, if you use negative split strategy, you can pull the hammer down with more than 300m to go (30-40 strokes).

A last word to max. heart rate: my max heart rate fell from 185 at the age of 20, to 162 nowadays (45). My pb improved from 380 W to 430 W (2.000m) in the same period. So don´t be afraid, if your max. heart rate comes down over the years, the most important part is TRAINING!

Byron Drachman · Post by **Byron Drachman** » August 7th, 2007, 3:33 pm

fatboyslim wrote:I asked a question on the health and fitness thread, but no replies. Just curious, as you become more fit, your resting pulse drops or so I've been told. What about the max? Are you able to hit higher rates , do more work at the same level, or a combo or both? ...FBS

Here is another reference:

http://home.hia.no/%7Estephens/hrttrn.htm

From the reference:

The important thing to remember is: Maximal heart rate does not increase after training. It stays the same (or might even decrease just slightly). However, maximal stroke volume increases. Therefore maximal cardiac output increases in response to exercise. This is the primary reason for the increase in VO2 max!

Byron

Big Fat Fishy · Post by **Big Fat Fishy** » September 12th, 2007, 2:56 pm

I train with heart rate monitor all the time. This has allowed me to compare my HR during various kinds of workouts; running, erging, paddling, circuit training, etc.

I first had my max HR officially tested back around 2001. I topped 193 then. A couple years later I did a flat-out effort druing an Erg race and hit 199! So this may not answer your question exactly, but I think it is possible to hit your maximum HR during a race.

I agree that as you get fitter your HR will drop for any given speed or duration of exercise. I can always tell when I'm out of shape, my heart works too hard for the rate I'm going.

DaveNagy · Post by **DaveNagy** » September 12th, 2007, 5:49 pm

Is there an official way to figure out what one's MHR it is? It seems like you could just exercise "all out" for a while and then note what happens, heart-rate-wise. Is that correct?

I ask because when I use the various formulas that are based on age, I get 175BPM or so as my predicted MHR. But when I did a treadmill stress test at the cardiologist's office, I was able to slightly exceed 200BPM. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health (while advising me to exercise more), so is it okay for me to use 200BPM as my official MHR, and use that number to the calculate the various aerobic and anaerobic "ranges" I want to shoot for while working out?

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