excellent news for me from the New York Times

[khedron]

I've always wondered about "standard" max. heart rates vs. individual variation, since even a couple minutes of jogging gets me up to 180. According to the standard, my maximum should be 188, but if I hit 180 without all-out running or going up hill, I wondered, is it bad? This bit out of an NYT article about numeric obsession and exercise made me very happy:

Mr. Guy's monitor came with a chart telling what a person's maximum heart rate should be. Maximum heart rates normally fall by about a beat a minute each year. No one knows why. The formula used for the charts says a person's maximum heart rate is 220 minus age, which would make Mr. Guy's maximum 168 beats a minute.

But exercise physiologists have long known that such charts are not accurate for some exercisers, and Mr. Guy's own experience shows the chart does not work for him. He has raised his heart rate to 175 during a burst of effort.

"There is large variability in the maximum heart rate," said Steven Blair, the president and chief executive of the Cooper Institute, a nonprofit research foundation that studies exercise and fitness. "For one 35-year-old woman 170 might be her maximum heart rate. Her friend the same age might be able to reach 195. That's just genetic variation."

Mr. Guy, however, had a nagging worry: Is it dangerous to push your heart rate too high?

"Nope," Dr. Blair said. "You can't hurt a healthy heart with exercise."

If you get your heart rate close to its true maximum, you feel so depleted that you automatically slow down. Just as you can't hold your breath until you die, you can't drive your heart rate up until your heart gives out.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Grrr, I hate the "standard" heart rate charts! They're pretty far off for me. I look upon them with even more disdain than height-weight charts, since at least most people know where they lie on those. Hooray for the NYT!

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Do you carry this disdain into the issue of heart rate while exercising while pregnant? I tumbled onto an interesting fact recently. According to my friend, standard medical advice to pregnant people is not to exercise too intensely lest your core temp rise too much and harm the fetus. What I stumbled upon is the fact that this is extrapolated from pregnant people having high fevers and there's no research on exercisers to back this up. I was speechless; how many pregnant exercisers have been freaked out by baseless, restrictive advice?

BMI used to include waist measurement, now its just the same old height-weight charts. Sheesh again.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I actually disregarded those entirely -- I asked my doctor, and she said "You can do whatever you normally do as long as you don't push yourself TOO hard", so I try to keep it easygoing.

What I stumbled upon is the fact that this is extrapolated from pregnant people having high fevers and there's no research on exercisers to back this up.

That's ridiculous. Arrrrgh.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's only about fevers. Sources I've seen that are generally sane about other stupid myths advise you not to go hot tubbing too much, because it raises your core temperature. I'd advise you to do more research before you decide that this is baseless restrictive advice.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I was so intrigued that I did just that, going straight to the American College of Obs & Gyns to ask. Did you know that their librarians answer phones, tell you about their publications, and send you reports? Too bad I haven't any need for them because they're great.

There's no actual research that normal* exercise raises core temp. I'm not saying that only fevers can raise core temp, only that there's no basis to believe exercise does. FYI, ACOG also said that the widely-cited bpm restriction (I think my friend said it was 120 bpm) is no longer part of their recommendations and hasn't been for almost a decade. This only encourages my inclination to check the research myself.


* Defined as what's normal for the person before she got pregnant.

[khedron.livejournal.com]

120? Wow, that's low, for me at least. After doing any exercise, it takes so long for me to get back below 120 that I've never been patient enough to see how long it takes.

I realize this doesn't exactly apply to me, but I'm still astonished. =)

Regarding your other comment, I've only worried about pushing the max rate in an abstract way, and have never let it get in the way of exercising. (There are too many other things in the way ahead of exercise; if I actually manage to get past those, worrying about what the machine says my max heart rate is isn't going to stop me...)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

<I>I realize this doesn't exactly apply to me</I>

Weren't we talking about the marvels of modern medicine recently...?

[verin-the-brown.livejournal.com]

After doing any exercise, it takes so long for me to get back below 120 that I've never been patient enough to see how long it takes.

Mine drops back below 120 pretty quick, but generally I agree. 120 isn't even aerobic for me (well, biochemically speaking, it's VERY aerobic, just not very metabolic), it's about as worthwhile an excercise as folding laundry.

[verin-the-brown.livejournal.com]

ACOG also said that the widely-cited bpm restriction (I think my friend said it was 120 bpm) is no longer part of their recommendations and hasn't been for almost a decade.

YES, glad you found that. Someone I trust (a pregnant fitness instructor) told me exactly this) so I paid little attention to my heart rate while pregnant except to gode myself to get it to a respectable aeroboc level, which became increasingly difficult.

I had a baby two weeks ago and I was a workout fiend the whole time. He seems to be doing fine.

The theory I heard behind the not elevating ones core temp was that it would divert blood to the skin and away from the placenta. Don't know if that's actually true, but I can well believe that moderate aerobic exercise wouldn't evelate core temp anyhow.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

My heart rate has always been much higher as well: the max recommended push (80%?) is my usual rate. Since this has been true my entire life, the phenomenon is consistent over time and activity, and I'm healthy, I don't worry about it.