Max Heart Rate

Ecoenergy

I wanted to find out my max heart rate so I wore my garmin hrm today for a fairly tough interval session. I ran 12 x 400m and pushed it a bit on the last one to get a max heart rate for the session of 203bpm. I know the rule of 220 - age is a bit rough but I wasn't expecting it to be that far out. I'm 37 so its 20 beats out. Just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of variation?

Cheers.

seamus

Yep, it's totally inaccurate for me. There are a number of calculations for it and generally speaking they will be at least a few beats off for most people.

The 220-age figure is compiled from data which shows that the mean Max HR in a given population is around that figure. So the majority of the population will be either above or below that value.

Having a MaxHR which is way off the average means nothing and has no effect on aerobic ability or capacity.

rom

Ecoenergy wrote: »

I wanted to find out my max heart rate so I wore my garmin hrm today for a fairly tough interval session. I ran 12 x 400m and pushed it a bit on the last one to get a max heart rate for the session of 203bpm. I know the rule of 220 - age is a bit rough but I wasn't expecting it to be that far out. I'm 37 so its 20 beats out. Just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of variation?

Cheers.

Friend of mine has one of 210 and is male 37 measured in the UCC Human performance lab. So that is why those online calculators can not be trusted. BTW it was measured with a garmin then you probably want to be hitting a few times (over different sessions/races) before you know its a trustable accurate just incase its a bad reading. BTW my friend uses motorola motoactv watch and the online portal thing can't plot his HR as its out of the range that they expect

Oryx

Ecoenergy wrote: »

I wanted to find out my max heart rate so I wore my garmin hrm today for a fairly tough interval session. I ran 12 x 400m and pushed it a bit on the last one to get a max heart rate for the session of 203bpm. I know the rule of 220 - age is a bit rough but I wasn't expecting it to be that far out. I'm 37 so its 20 beats out. Just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of variation?

Cheers.

Have you had random spikes using that hrm before? It could have been that. What was your hr on average for the rest of the session? But it can be that high. I know a 45 yo who maxes at 200.

Ecoenergy

Oryx wrote: »

Have you had random spikes using that hrm before? It could have been that. What was your hr on average for the rest of the session? But it can be that high. I know a 45 yo who maxes at 200.

It got gradually higher with each interval and hit 203 on the last one which was probably about 6secs faster than the rest so it wasn't just a spike on the last one. Glad to hear others have similar high heart rates.

littlebug

ya mine was 206 at age 40 (I think... maybe 203- it's a while ago). The % heart rate "zones" didnt work for me at all, I just got to know my own zones and limits if that makes sense.

b.harte

I did a cardiac stress test in the Bon-secours Cork last year.
My max heart rate on their medical grade, calibrated ecg thingy was 207 (as in I had to back off because I couldn't go any harder) while also running on an inclined threadmill. (age 39)

Never felt anything like it before and if I was to guess what my garmin would have been saying I would say up in the mid 200 easily.
I remember seeing 190 on the display and realising that my garmin would have been well into the alarm zones at that point.
I wouldn't rely too much on the heart monitor, not terrible accurate, handy as a guideline only.
Cardiac specialist was a bit of a tech/health guy but reckoned that the best guide is how you feel yourself, if you can hold a conversation you're grand, if you're seeing stars that might be too hard, somewhere in between----be grand. (by the way, that's not medical advice):D

PaulieC

While I usually get a few spikes up into the 200s, it's usually impossible for me to go over 180. Tonight for instance, I did 8 x 250 uphill sprints, 4 of them at 90%, 4 at 100%. Max HR across the 8 was 179. 40 years old.

AntiVirus

My max is about 200bpm at 40 years old.

jfh

cambo_gueno wrote: »

While I usually get a few spikes up into the 200s, it's usually impossible for me to go over 180. Tonight for instance, I did 8 x 250 uphill sprints, 4 of them at 90%, 4 at 100%. Max HR across the 8 was 179. 40 years old.

in your case the formula works, same for me,

ChickenTikka

I guess the "220-your age" is just intended as an average and like other averages like height for instance, many people will be over or under it to varying degrees.

For those whom the zones don't work, are ye using the % of working heart rate rather than a % of max heart rate? Ref http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

In theory a high max heart rate coupled with a low resting heart rate is an indication of capacity since you can increase the load your heart is doing by X, e.g. if resting is 45 and max is 210, you can increase the load by 4.6 times. While if resting is 60 and max is 180, you can increase the load by 3 times.

Ceepo

ChickenTikka wrote: »

I guess the "220-your age" is just intended as an average and like other averages like height for instance, many people will be over or under it to varying degrees.

For those whom the zones don't work, are ye using the % of working heart rate rather than a % of max heart rate? Ref http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

In theory a high max heart rate coupled with a low resting heart rate is an indication of capacity since you can increase the load your heart is doing by X, e.g. if resting is 45 and max is 210, you can increase the load by 4.6 times. While if resting is 60 and max is 180, you can increase the load by 3 times.

how do you mean, for those whom the zone's don't work, ?

Ceepo

Some interesting reading here,
http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2

ChickenTikka

Ceepo wrote: »

how do you mean, for those whom the zone's don't work, ?

Some of the posts indicated the % zones didn't work for them. So just curious if this was using % of working HR added back onto resting HR.