Max Heart Rate Curiosity

[JulesV]

Mailed Polar about this a while back and the reply was something to the effect of use the highest recorded HR as your max. At the time I was also using the 220 - age rule.

[eeeek]

All these formulas and guidelines are rubbish, and cannot replace the real deal - a max HR test.

I am 27 and female, my sister's boyfriend is 25, we seconded each other doing treadmill max HR tests.

the formulas say he is younger and male so his max HR should be higher, the test results were:

him 178bpm max, me 204bpm max.

Also your HR max is sport specific, these formulas are more often than not for running, cycling max will be significantly lower.

 

Do the test!

[ChUkKy]

Im 33 and have got mine up to 194bpm on a few occasions recently on maximum pushes...

That 220-age is a load of hogwash.

 

Get on your bike, go balls to the wall for as long as you can and see your max HR, then like Guinness book of records famously says you need to do a return run to confirm it

 

Once you have done that, you have your max HR

 

I know mine is 194bpm and I work on that.

[V12man]

This is something that I was also curious about when I started training with an HRM, I asked the doctor about it, like if you could you weaken your heart if you go over the the maximum, etc, and he said your body will tire out long before you do any damage.

 

That is true if you have no pathology... BUT.... how certain are you?

 

One of my old girlfriends (and my daughters namesake) lost her husband 10 days ago to a massive coronary - age 43, and in reasonable shape (committed mountain biker) or so he thought...

 

My professional opinion is that one should have regular stress tests from the age of 35 (every couple of years) done by a competent cardiologist - even if one is apparently fit and healthy.

[R.D.P.]

_{Years ago when we were racing seriously and heart rate monitors first made their appearance (showing my age here) I had an interesting incident. We used to ride in a group of a few okes and regularly did a hard ride up Fishers Hill in Germiston. One of the chaps who was really one of the strongest in the group and regularly blew our legs and minds over the top of the hill acquired a heart rate monitor. First ride over Fishers Hill he bombs out the back. We waited for him on the other side and asked what happened to which he replies that he was close to max on his monitor so he was obviously riding too hard - had to back off a bit. That was when I decided to never use one - EVER. If you start riding according to what your monitor tells you and lose the ability to know in your head and legs how close you are to blowing - might as well take up jukskei.}

_{Funny - he never was the same rider after that. Sad really.....}

[M L]

Hi,

 

According to the calculation based on my age my max hr is 188. However, I noticed on a few occasions during intense training that my hr spikes to roughly 10% over my mhr. At first I thought this was a one off glitch on the hrm, but it happened again. I then changed to a different hrm and same occured.

 

Is this normal? Is the 220-Age calculation just a guideline? Is this dangerous and should I be concerned?

 

Hoping the mad scientists on this forum can advise...

Sorry for being so blatant but how would a 220-age formula give 7 odd billion people the correct max HR, it's just a stupid formula used by people who are too lazy to test their own sport specific max heart rate, and even then you should add some room cause you can always go a bit harder.

[V12man]

Im 33 and have got mine up to 194bpm on a few occasions recently on maximum pushes...

That 220-age is a load of hogwash.

 

Get on your bike, go balls to the wall for as long as you can and see your max HR, then like Guinness book of records famously says you need to do a return run to confirm it

 

Once you have done that, you have your max HR

 

I know mine is 194bpm and I work on that.

 

Mine is 200 as tested a few weeks ago - and you are young enough to have been born when I was in high school... max HR is often VERY different from the calculations.

[I FLY]

_{Years ago when we were racing seriously and heart rate monitors first made their appearance (showing my age here) I had an interesting incident. We used to ride in a group of a few okes and regularly did a hard ride up Fishers Hill in Germiston. One of the chaps who was really one of the strongest in the group and regularly blew our legs and minds over the top of the hill acquired a heart rate monitor. First ride over Fishers Hill he bombs out the back. We waited for him on the other side and asked what happened to which he replies that he was close to max on his monitor so he was obviously riding too hard - had to back off a bit. That was when I decided to never use one - EVER. If you start riding according to what your monitor tells you and lose the ability to know in your head and legs how close you are to blowing - might as well take up jukskei.}

_{Funny - he never was the same rider after that. Sad really.....}

 

I remember watching Nick Bester running the comrades when HR monitors were the big deal. He did not win that year and afterwards he said he was too busy running according to the watch reading than how he felt.

[ChUkKy]

Mine is 200 as tested a few weeks ago - and you are young enough to have been born when I was in high school... max HR is often VERY different from the calculations.

 

hehehe

I agree with what you say... when I first got a HR monitor and it went over what said was my max, I started praying to whoever would listen to please keep me alive so that I dont die as Im well over the redline.

 

Needless to say I wisened up and learnt that a calculation is not your redline, a proper test is.

 

If you hit 195bpm, that is your max

[R.D.P.]

^{Everything has become too technical, I raced in the era of Greg Lemond and Stephen Roche. Real men, real cyclists. No heart rate monitors or power cranks. Strongest rider wins.}

[kjind]

It differs from person to person. I used to train with a friend that was the same age and we were more or less the same on performance as well. I was constantly 10 beats a minute higher than him. Ave HR and Max

[DJ84]

First time in my life that the calculation is right,

but as soon as its my birthday again it will be wrong.

 

I keep getting the same max time and time again on my ride,

on the run I must double check but I have never reached my max strange enough,

always 2-3 beats lower.

 

It is usually the other way around and I feel a lot more comfortable at max on my bike than a few lower on the run.

 

I only use a heart rate monitor for reference and how hard I trained,

but during training I operate on how I feel.

[Underachiever]

Im 33 and have got mine up to 194bpm on a few occasions recently on maximum pushes...

That 220-age is a load of hogwash.

 

Get on your bike, go balls to the wall for as long as you can and see your max HR, then like Guinness book of records famously says you need to do a return run to confirm it

 

Once you have done that, you have your max HR

 

I know mine is 194bpm and I work on that.

 

Been riding with a HRM for nearly 18 years. I'm on the WRONG side of 40 and my max is also 194. Few years back is was 197

[V12man]

Been riding with a HRM for nearly 18 years. I'm on the WRONG side of 40 and my max is also 194. Few years back is was 197

 

So that would be under 40 then?

[schizo]

That is true if you have no pathology... BUT.... how certain are you?

 

One of my old girlfriends (and my daughters namesake) lost her husband 10 days ago to a massive coronary - age 43, and in reasonable shape (committed mountain biker) or so he thought...

 

My professional opinion is that one should have regular stress tests from the age of 35 (every couple of years) done by a competent cardiologist - even if one is apparently fit and healthy.

Sorry to hear about that, Just going with what the doc told me, Which I guess will also differ from doc to doc..

[Wannabe]

Almost 50 myself, HR easily goes up to the mid 190's when pushing really hard. Some races where I pushed hard my avg is in the mid to high 170's.

If my HR ever goes under 130 on a ride I'm really really taking it slow (maybe on a long descend)