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Is my heart going to pop?


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Hallo All,

I am a 37 yr old male mtb'er and fitness is above average compared to average cyclist. During races it is possible for me to maintain an average heart rate of 185bpm plus for up to 4 hours in duration. Am I damaging my heart and do I need to go see a doctor regarding this?

I do not have any symptoms and recovery after the race is normal in that it will take a couple of minutes for my HR to fall to 115bpm and lower. This has been 'normal' for me for almost a decade now.

Anyone had some experience with similar and know about a sports doctor that at least know the differences in Stress ECG/Fitness Assessments of active vs sedentary.

Regards,
 

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So let me just understand...

 

Are you just worried because your HRmax/racing heart rate does not conform to the typical 220-age thing?

 

In that case, nothing to worry about.  Those formulae are population-based, and was developed on, and for sedentary individuals.

 

I can recommend some sport physicians with a keen interest in athletic heart abnormalities, if that is what you are looking for

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I hear you brother.

My average on Saturday (Hazeldean 40 km) was 187, peaking at 207

I was not out of breath nor did my legs hurt.

It felt as normal as ever. But I have never been to a doctor

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It's probably fine - BUT - consider an excercise stress test at a cardiologist - you GP will refer you to someone local.

 

Some people have differnt max rates, but it's important to check that you don't have any conduction anomalies that create the high HR - a proper stress test will show this up pretty easily.

 

Please do not let a GP or your local gym instructor/biokinetician do it.

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The smaller the person the higher they can normally push their HR.

 

High hr (normal beating) will not create any problems.

 

If you have a fibrillation then yes it is not good, but you will not be able to excersize for longer than 4min if you having that

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Dont stress.

 

I am 32 and my average HR at my FTP for an hour is 191.

 

I did a TT the other day where for the last 20minutes I averaged 202.

 

On a fast race I will have an averge of around 180 over 2h30mins - 3hours

 

I used to have a heart condiction called WPW Syndrome, so I often spend time at a cardiologist and they say there is nothing to worry about with these high HRs, well not in my case at least.

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If you have a family history of heart issues, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, definitely have it checked by a good doctor. If not and you have no other high risk factors like being overweight or smoking, then have a decent check up by the time you turn 40

 

If your general health is good and a stress ecg is fine, then riding for long periods at a high bpm will do you no harm. Your body will slow you down long before any harm is done.

 

Maximun heart rate varies considerably and the 220 - age is just a very rough guideline. The proper way to find out your own max is simply to push as hard as possible for a few minutes and measure it. 

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If you have a family history of heart issues, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, definitely have it checked by a good doctor. If not and you have no other high risk factors like being overweight or smoking, then have a decent check up by the time you turn 40

 

If your general health is good and a stress ecg is fine, then riding for long periods at a high bpm will do you no harm. Your body will slow you down long before any harm is done.

 

Maximun heart rate varies considerably and the 220 - age is just a very rough guideline. The proper way to find out your own max is simply to push as hard as possible for a few minutes and measure it. 

Apparently that is not an issue....unless the bad of the bad type and over 7

:eek:

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The smaller the person the higher they can normally push their HR.

 

This is true across species in general - (so a mouse if faster than an elephant) but we don't normally apply scaling to cardiac measures based upon body size in the adult human population.

 

So to all intents and purposes you can ignore this - unless you are a specialist physician with an interest....

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So let me just understand...

 

Are you just worried because your HRmax/racing heart rate does not conform to the typical 220-age thing?

 

In that case, nothing to worry about.  Those formulae are population-based, and was developed on, and for sedentary individuals.

 

I can recommend some sport physicians with a keen interest in athletic heart abnormalities, if that is what you are looking for

Not worried about the typical HRmax formula. Did a lactate threshold test in 2009 that indicated my max nearer to 197. Just needed to know if it is something I needed to have checked. Please do pm me the contact details. Thanks

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Hey Tim Noaks said it, so it must be true

Tim Noaks is a quack....

 

Timothy D Noakes on the other hand is not..... :)

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The smaller the person the higher they can normally push their HR.

 

High hr (normal beating) will not create any problems.

 

If you have a fibrillation then yes it is not good, but you will not be able to excersize for longer than 4min if you having that

I am 1.82 @ 88kgs and no fibrillation. So I guess all is fine

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Tim Noaks is a quack....

 

Timothy D Noakes on the other hand is not..... :)

Sorry. But you know what / who I meant :-)

 

WRT to the smaller the person, I was generalizing. Most of my friends that weigh 65 can run much higher hr than the ones around 95 KG 

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