Heart Health

[old] Jim · Post by **[old] Jim** » May 22nd, 2004, 12:00 pm

I am interested in what medical doctors &/or associations that have info relating to increasing your resting heat rate to specific levels. Anyone who can direct me to info associated to this topic is greatly appreciated. My purpose is to train the heart to sustain certain heart rate levels and, using the Concept2 to develop the heart. Thanks

[old] Rogus · Post by **[old] Rogus** » May 22nd, 2004, 1:16 pm

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE (Jim @ May 22 2004, 09:00 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'> I am interested in what medical doctors &/or associations that have info relating to increasing your resting heat rate to specific levels.  </td></tr></table> Are you sure this is what you're looking for? One goal of exercise is to train your heart so your resting heart rate decreases. I've never heard of anyone trying to increase their RHR. For a fit person, isn't lower always better? I know mine has dropped significantly as I have become fitter.

[old] Canoeist · Post by **[old] Canoeist** » May 24th, 2004, 9:18 am

A steady diet of burgers and beer should help you raise your resting heart rate. If you really get serious, add some fries with extra salt and be sure to watch at least 3 hours of T.V. per day whilst letting all exercise equipment gather dust in the corner. Cheers, Paul Flack

[old] rlbusby · Post by **[old] rlbusby** » May 24th, 2004, 10:19 am

Jim: The Concept II is certainly a powerful machine to help you improve heart condition and general fitness, but any specific advice depends upon the specific health/fitness issues you face. I can give you what I am doing, given my situation. I started using the rower to improve my heart health and to improve my fitness and it's worked wonders so far. I do have heart disease (cardiomyopathy), this is what I do/did and would suggest (if appropriate): (1) Consult your cariologist/doctor and have them run a stress test to see how YOUR heart functions under stress especially before you engage in intense exercies. (2) Use a heart rate monitor. My cardiologist has given me an upper limit on my heart rate that he would recommend and I've found that I reach this level at different speeds from day to day. I train at my target pace for as long as I can, and I allow my heart rate to climb, but once I reach my cap rate, I slow down. (3) Don't be in too much of a hurry. Slow and steady will show dramatic improvements over time. Don't incease more than 5% a week in the amount of exercise you are doing, and allow rest days/slower weeks. I started at the low end of the online rankings, and I"ve worked my way up over time. (4) Focus on the longer, slower rows, not the sprints. Walking, for example, is a wonderful heart-healty exercise. The longer, slower rows are a full-body, challenging improvement and supplement to walking. The rower allows you to train at a more challenging level than just walking, and I think that working at a variety of levels (including some sprints) is very helpful. I hope this helps, but you need to provide more information about you before anyone can give specific guidelines.

[old] Chris Tippin · Post by **[old] Chris Tippin** » May 24th, 2004, 6:59 pm

As everyone else has already stated excercise is supposed to lower your resting heart rate. This is done by increasing your heart's stroke volume; the amount of blood pumped from your left venticle during each beat. Ideally that is the only increase you will get when it comes to your resting heart rate. Take Care, Chris Tippin

[old] John Rupp · Post by **[old] John Rupp** » May 24th, 2004, 8:26 pm

Chris, You're #102 so the forum is now over 100 members so far. I agree, since cardiac output is stroke volume X heart rate, the training effect of increased stroke volume results in a lowered heart rate for the same cardiac output, and increases one's potential when the heart rate is the same. There is no reason to have a higher heart rate, with a lower stroke volume, as that would be going backwards. Beware, this is the effect of some blood pressure medications. rlbusby, Very well said. The only thing is if you start at zero and increase by 5% a week for 10 years, you'd still be at zero. I like to pick a daily distance that "feels about right", making sure of feeling good and recovering each day, then keep doing this for a week or a month or two or until it becomes "too" easy. Then at that time it is rather automatic to do a bit more. Most often it just reaches a point where this is a realization rather than any kind of planning. When that happens I just go immediately to the new distance. The body proceeds at it's own rate.

[old] Rogus · Post by **[old] Rogus** » May 24th, 2004, 9:15 pm

How much you should increase in your amount of erging from week to week is an interesting discussion. In running you commonly hear not to increase more than 10% from one week to the next. It's interesting you never hear or read about a similiar recommendation for erging. Certainly John's recommendation of increasing as your body tells you to is the best suggestion, but many of us are either not good at listening to our bodies or choose not to and want to do more than we should. 5% sounds like too little. Even 10% sounds like it might be too restrictive as erging doesn't put the body through the same stress that running does. If I row 50,000 meters in a week that would be an increase of 5,000 for the next week. Say 5 sessions of 10K each would mean an addtional 1k per session. Does that sound like too much of an increase? It doesn't to me, but I'm one of those crazy ergers that has increased my distance 25-40% from one week to the next.

[old] Jim · Post by **[old] Jim** » June 8th, 2004, 4:25 am

Thanks everyone for your reply's. Canoeist, the burger's & beer sound great - well they use too. One Fundrucker's is enough for me once or twice a month. Enough said. Here is the additional requested info. I use a S710 Polar Heart Rate Monitor. My current resting heart rate is roughly 35 which has got my Cardiologist stumpted. Now I used to be quite active physically however, for the past 10+ years I have done little more than my Tia Chi. until 1-1/2 years ago I started a walking program, with an occasional rowing. In 1-year I lost 55 pounds. Well, 6-months into my program, unknown to me, I contracted a virual infection that eventually created a fluid retention problem, adema, which got so bad that I developed Congestive Heart Failure. Medication enable me to loose 38 pounds in 8 days - a lot of fluid, and 50 total pounds in 30-days. My blood pressure went from "through-the-roof to well below normal along with all my other stats. A Heart Cath cleared me of any artery issues. They had to turn off the heart monitor in recovery because my heart rate kept dropping below 40 bpm setting off the alarm. Nevertheless, the fluid retention is still an issue. My cardiologist wants me to increase my heart rate apparently because an increased heart rate, blood flow - volumn, in affect better manages the cells water retention/loss. I obviously do not understand the nature of this whole thing; but that's what the cardiologist is for. Surfice to say, the infection affected my liver, and kidneys which are back to normal and, the adema affected my heart which my cardiologist is trying to restrengthen. Well, there you have it. Probably more than you wanted but, I need to get off these XXX drugs!

[old] Paul S · Post by **[old] Paul S** » June 8th, 2004, 8:01 am

Jim, Is your heart rate that low due to medications. That seems like the resting heart rate of a really well trained athelete. I see no way you could increase it thru excercise. I have an ICD (Implantable Cardiovertor Defibrillator) so I am familiar with excercising with heart problems. I would think a check of your meds is in order. Paul S - Newbie

[old] eurofoot13 · Post by **[old] eurofoot13** » June 8th, 2004, 12:31 pm

If you have a resting HR of 35 without the increased volume per stroke accomodations, I could see how that would be a problem, but I don't think that there is any way to permanently increase HR through exercise - But think - you now have the resting heart rate of a world-class endurance athlete! Although - what you could do would be to train in order to increase your stroke volume to match a 35-40 BPM heart. that would most likely solve your problem, however, that would require a serious training committment.

[old] Carl Henrik · Post by **[old] Carl Henrik** » June 8th, 2004, 4:34 pm

Hm...strange...I think I poste on this this morning...but now it's gone. Must have clicked prewiew instead of add. Anyway. The short version: What you need is higher blood flow, not necessarily higher RHR (?) These are my thoughts: Aerobic excercise will be good as a "cleansing" activity to get the right fluid balance. This will also strengthen your heart wich is what you wanted to do also. If you heart is at a low rate now because of weakness, that means it is pumping less blood than the body wants it to and you are probably constantly rather tired (?). Aerobic excercise will then have a great positive impact on your general energy. Keep it low intensity though and not something your doctor disapproves with. Building some muslces will increase the blood flow needed in everday activities. Keeping physically active during the days will also increase blood flow while being active. This means taking stares in stead of elevators, walking to close by destinations instead of taking the car and so on. Hope this might help.

[old] Alex Carter · Post by **[old] Alex Carter** » June 9th, 2004, 12:54 am

OK here's how to increase your resting heart rate with an erg: Just overtrain! If my info from my bicycle racing days is correct, the way to check if you're overtraining is to check your HR when you wake up in the morning, before you even get up. If it's increased over the usual number, you're overtraining. So, overtrain, and there you have it!

[old] debs · Post by **[old] debs** » June 9th, 2004, 3:40 pm

You can raise your resting heart rate for many hours by doing intervals You can prove this yourself with a heart monitor Day one, do a slow steady 45 minute row and watch your heartrate after you are done. Day two, do a 45 minute row filled with intervals, then watch your heartrate after you are done Intervals boost your resting heart rate for hours after you are done working out

[old] Jim · Post by **[old] Jim** » June 14th, 2004, 3:28 pm

Again, thanks ya'all for your replys! It's great to know that I have the heart rate of a world-class endurance athlete and, it's certainly not because of any med's that I have taken! I HATE MED's!!! My cardiologist has agreed that our goal is to get me OFF of the Med's which are minimual. Neverthelss, generally I do not think a world-class endurance athlete has heart volumn issues with their low HR's. Initially my cardiologist was concerned if the organic supplements that I take could be keeping my heart rate low. The supplements are not the issue although I do not think that I would have gotten the clean-bill-of-health from my Heart Decath without the supplements. Carl, you hit the nail on the head when you described my HR being low because of "low volumn". The impact to my heart from the water retention, edema, did weakened my heart. As a result, my cardiologist wanted me to strengthen my heart with walking or swimming. I do not mind walking, see previous reply, and swimming does not allow for controlling my heart rate like the ERG does. Since my Cardiologist did not want me to row, I started this column to find any medical or rehab information. I would still like to know if any medical doctors or facilities use ERG's for rehabilitation. Althought I am not constantly tired, I will sleep 8-10-12 hours after an active day. Your suggestions Carl along with Debs interval workout suggestion seems to be a good approach. It will enable me to better monitor my HR activity and see the progress I am achieveing. I can then present this information to my cardiologist so he can understand what I have done in addition to educating him about the benefits of ERGing. Thanks again everyone! You feedback is greatly appreciated.

[old] drkcgoh · Post by **[old] drkcgoh** » June 14th, 2004, 5:13 pm

I use the erg all the time for cardiac rehab. I have compared HR between jogging from 6 kph to 8kph on the treadmill on a 0 incline to erging up to 2:30 pace on a 45 yr old cardiac bypass surgery patient (6 mths after 3 vessel bypass). While the HR shot up to 160 on the treadmill after 10min of slow warmup, it stayed below 120 on the erg for over half an hour. The patient ergs 1 hr for over 10K 3 times a week. There are 3 other such patients who regularly erg an hour 3 times a week, & their HR stays consistently low erging. These differences are seen on contnuous HR monitoring using the Polar S810 download. While this does not directly answer your query on raising the resting HR, it does show the difference between one mode of exercise (jogging) and another (erging) while exerciseing at an easy pace (jogging) & feeling exhausted (on the erg). Cardiologists & cardiac rehab staff scoff at the use of these non medical implements, and will never accept them until a thorough well-funded research study is properly carried out and published in a mainstream medical journal. I have introduced the erg to a cardiologist who enjoys it with his endocrinologist wife, but they dare not use it on their patients until it gets accepted in the textbooks & journals. Medical advances may stay hidden until someone gets the courage to try out the unconventional on himself & proves it. Edward Jenner did, inoculating himself with the swmallpox vaccine. So there you have it. Are you willing to be a guinea pig on yourself? KC62

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