Posted: 7/13/2006 12:24:35 PM EDT
| What is this maximum heart rate of 220 - your age? Does that mean where you can run for an ulimited time or the maximum number of beats you can produce as it LITERAL maximum heart rate? Where do they get this silly figure of 220-age anyway? A 100 year olds heart wont surpass 120 bpm? I doubt that. |
| So noone knows if its the maximum heart rate yo ucan produce or sustain? A few days agao I pushed up to 205 bpm register on a Polar HRM and held it for about 5 min straight. Felt like I might collapse or die or something and like cold water was running thorugh my veins. Still my MINIMUM HR I hold while running is about 190 BPM for extended periods. |
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220-age is just a general, ballpark figure. Individual max heart rates vary by individual and vary greatly depending on fitness level and VO2 max. There are some pretty indepth calculators on some of the heart rate and endurance forums out there. ANother forumla is: 210 - 1/2 your age - 1% of your total body weight + 4 = Predicted Maximum Heart Rate If you're running at 205 for five minutes....your heart is really working, most folks can't even get their HR that high. Running at 190 beats plus is going way into anerobic threshold as well. What is your age, by chance? For me, at 30, my resting HR is around 42-43 and I haven't gotten my max past 202 in the last year. I see you posted from TX; HR will increase with heat and humidty as well. If I run at say a slow 8 min/mile in the summer heat, my HR may be around 180-183. However, that same pace on a cool and low humidty day may be in the low 150s high 140s. If you tell me your age and resting heart rate I can probably help you out a little more. Also, what is extended period for you; 30min, 45min, hour plus? |
Did you even try to look the answer up on your own? Google yields 10 pages of results to the search term "maximum heart rate". The owner's manual of your HRM has some answers as well. If you can run at 190 bpm for "extended periods" you should look to doing some comptetitive middle distance running. How old are you? |
220-age = HR then take that HR x .75 = x . The product is the number of beats per minute a person must excercise for a minimum of 30 minutes to receive any cardiovascular (aerobic) benefit. Any HR above that limit and you are working the body too much and anything below that HR and you are not receiving the aerobic benefit you seek. A good rule of thumb for cardio work is that you should be able to carry on a conversation while working out. If you are too short of breath you are going too hard. Monitoring your HR is crucial to beginning and keeping in a proper excercise rate. |
Depending on what the ultimate goal of the HR training is will determine what zones and times spent in zones should be. If I am running and never exceed the point where I can't hold a conversation, I'll get really good at running at that HR and speed, but I'll never really get that much faster....or more efficient. I think efficiency is really what we are talking about here. If you run at 142 bmp and never any faster, lets say that's a 10min/mile. You'll be at a limit where you'll never be more efficient than that. If you run in different zones, think interval type training, you'll find over time you'll become more efficient. Your 142 bmp will now yield you a 830min/mile. Your running at the same HR, but you increased your speed. This is assuming environmental factors remain the same. HR, V02 max, lactate threshold, there's a lot to this HR and running thing! It gets addicting too...just waint till you're wearing the fuel belt with a couple packs of power gel stuffed in there  |
| I turn 32 this August. My cardio sucks. 30 min is a long run its actually what EVERY run I do is after a 3 min warm up so 33 min total, 8 min mile is a gruelingly fast pace to maintain, I have done a 6 min mile exactly ONCE and could not do it today if I had to. I was a 100m sprinter, not a long distance runner throughout my athletic carrer when I was young and a defensive back in college. I am dieting super hard and am at 210 in bodyweight right now down from 227 about 6 weeks ago, I am 6'2". I have not focused on cardio from a performance standpoint as I have been eating like 1500 cals a day. I have no idea what my resting HR is because I am on a massive amount of ephedrine and caffeine all the time. I dont have the pamphlet for the HR monitor because it was borrowed from a friend and he does not have the watch part. I have to use the monitor on the treadmill at the gym. It seems that my stimulant use and poor conditioning are more the reason my HR is so high and not that I am in any way special after doing som research these past couple days. |
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I am in the minority (or maybe the silent majority) here when it comes to the use of ephedra or other stimulants - not a fan. I do use caffine (in the form of a double espresso) before some races, but not to maintain a constant high metabolism - your body adapts to that. Regarding your HRM owners manual: it sounds like you have a Polar since it is compatible with exercise machines. You can download a new owner's manual here. Please consider backing off the stimulant use. |
DevL, You're right, 1500 calories a day won't get you much in performance, but you will drop the weight. Some of my runs I estimate I'll burn 1500 calories, so before you get into a running program for performance, you'll have to drop the weight and then figure out your caloric needs to sustain your exercise level. I'm estimating your RHR is 75....if you want to drop weight and burn some fat try working out with your HR between 153-166; your body will be burning mostly fat for fuel and your body won't be switching to use glycogen for fuel like it would at higher a HR. At a HR that slow you should easily be able to work out in that zone for about 45 minutes, you could add a 7.5 warm up/down to give you a solid hour of cardio. BTW, what is your overall goal? Just to drop some weight and burn off fat for now? |
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When I was younger I had a RHR of 72. Perhaps 75 is about right right now. I have some federal LE agency physical qualifiers coming up and need to get in shape for them. My bane is cardio but after workin out for almost 15 years straight I took an entire year off. I got fat, well fat for me. My weight used to stay at 220 and 10% bf almost all the time. I have been as heavy as 232 when bulking at around 11-12% and in college I was 8% and 195. I have dropped from 227 to 208 so far. I have lost some muscle but still have 16.25" arms, down from 16.5" at 227. I want to diet another week, then bulk for 5 weeks to put back on lost msucle. After that I just want to be able to max out my 1.5, 2, and 3 mile runs for the various agencies. I wont be concerned with bulking or cutting fat anymore. Example of what I need to do to max em out is my US Marshal PT test which is one of the least strict but has a fast 1.5 mile run to max. 1.5 mile run in 8:45 or less to hit max. I need 12:51 just to qualify for a job. I can barely qualify right now but again I am not eating but half my normal calories. I have no history of cardio training and am just trying to figure out the best training regimine to reach the sub 8:45 1.5 mile run, a sub 12 miunte 2 mile run, and a sub 21 min 3 mile run. Any advice is appreciated. I have just been running at about a 180 bpm average and hitting up to 200+ and never going below 140. So BF% tests are gonna be easy, pushups I can do 58 consecutive on 1500 cals will be a breeze, sit ups will take somework but I have been able to hit the max previously, the shuttle run... I ran a 4.5 40 in college and ran a 11.3 100m in high schoool so I cant see screwing that up unless age has REALLY taken a toll on me, flexibility... shit, I can barely touch my toes so I need some serious work there! But the running is my biggest problem. I need to figure out the most effective way to get my running times where I want em. Progress is slow.  |