Training & Nutrition - Heart Rate Monitor?

I recently joined the GYM (after being a video game junkie and TV) and have found my hear rate going wayyyy to fast, also when I do challenging rides. I'm probably being paranoid and just need to stop pushing my self to that limit. I want to get heart rate monitor that will alert me when my heart rate is going to fast. Any recommendations?

Heart Rate Monitors (HRM) are great. I have 3 at the moment; and am vaguely considering a fourth.

But... what do you mean by way too fast? I am curious what is going on here.


You don't need a fancy one. After you get one, you may want to make good use of it by using a training program.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=&subcategory=&brand=&sku=21430&storetype=estore&estoreid=1175&pagename=Estore%3A%20Indoor%20Trainers%20%26%20Electronics%20On%20Sale

Too fast? There's not a "too fast." It's impossible to kill yourself by overloading your heart. As you get in better shape it'll slow down. Don't worry, be happy. Sounds like you're enjoying yourself, which is the whole idea. That business about there being a "fat-burning zone" is just nonsense. Anyway, a HRM is a great thing, endlessly entertaining, and will give you a valuable window into what's going on in your chest.

You'll like Portland.

Thanks Carbonfiberboy, I just bough a Sigma P9 from my shop, took a while to program but we'll see.

I am new to the whole HRM scene and am wondering if an expert out here in BFland can tell me if I am doing my math right. I am trying to figure out my heart rate in different zones ex: 10% 50% 80% is my math correct:

Max HR: 220-19=201
Resting: 60
Heart Rate Reserve: 141
10% effort: (141*0.1)+60=74bpm
50% effort: (141*0.5)+60=131bpm
80% effort: (141*0.8)+60=173bpm
100% effort: (141*1)+60=201bpm

For a sprint on a trainer when I am giving 100% it seems like 201 BPM is really high or is that just me? Or have I done the math all wrong please help!

That 220 - age formula is useless. Everyone is different, and many people are way off that formula. My personal max HR is 25 bpm off from that formula.

I base my max HR on what I've seen on the monitor (or is recorded if I'm working too hard to look) after really hard exertions. Really hard, like tunnel vision/puking/ohcrapi'mgoingtodie kind of max effort.

Az

Too fast? There's not a "too fast." It's impossible to kill yourself by overloading your heart. As you get in better shape it'll slow down. Don't worry, be happy. Sounds like you're enjoying yourself, which is the whole idea. That business about there being a "fat-burning zone" is just nonsense. Anyway, a HRM is a great thing, endlessly entertaining, and will give you a valuable window into what's going on in your chest.

You'll like Portland.
This is pretty dangerous advice. It is indeed possible to kill yourself by overloading your heart. In fact it's fairly common, especially among younger and elite athletes. Some people have congenital or acquired anomalies of the valves, chambers or aorta. Others have undiagnosed arrhythmias. People with coronary artery disease also have some risk of dying during vigorous exercise.

The American College of Sport Medicine (http://www.ms-se.com/pt/re/msse/positionstandards.htm;jsessionid=HcKBnsY7FqsH77260bqWz72Y5YWqDrgCxK4nbpPpn11mr4c1d0lv!1122534142!181 195628!8091!-1) and the American Heart Association (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200000) have published a joint position paper called Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease: Putting the Risks in Perspective (http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.181485) (pdf). It gives better advice than anything you're likely to read by me or anybody else on this forum.

This is pretty dangerous advice. It is indeed possible to kill yourself by overloading your heart. In fact it's fairly common, especially among younger and elite athletes. Some people have congenital or acquired anomalies of the valves, chambers or aorta. Others have undiagnosed arrhythmias. People with coronary artery disease also have some risk of dying during vigorous exercise..

I agree with Carbonfiberboy; heart-rate "zones" are baloney. And it is not "fairly common" for younger and elite athletes to kill themselves by overloading their hearts. Actually, it's pretty rare; or else they are dropping like flies and I just haven't noticed.

I agree with Carbonfiberboy; heart-rate "zones" are baloney. And it is not "fairly common" for younger and elite athletes to kill themselves by overloading their hearts. Actually, it's pretty rare; or else they are dropping like flies and I just haven't noticed.

Have you got any sources for that, or are you just going with what seems right to you?

Common and rare are relative terms, but sudden death during competition and training does happen, a few times even in televised games with professional athletes. I don't know why you "haven't noticed" this, but I posted a paper from the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. The actual incidence of cardiac events during vigorous exercise is analyzed in that paper. But maybe whatever seems right to you is more credible to some people.

Please use a little care and caution when you post on a forum that others use for practical advice about important concerns. As for "baloney about 'zones'"--I never mentioned zones. So WTF is that about?

The main point is, if MichelleMachete is experiencing physical sensations that concern her, I think it's a good idea to have it checked out by a physician rather than an internet forum or even an endlessly entertaining HRM. Palpitations or a racing heart beat could indicate some kind of problem, in my non-qualified opinion. Certainly, these sensations aren't mentioned by most people who exercise. Anyway, probably better safe than sorry!

I know that I've never experienced such sensations during exercise, but I have felt them when I'm having PVCs, a heart arrhythmia that's usually harmless.

Sorry to bring the thread back to the subject, but I have question about the heart rate monitor.
I was listening to a podcast today and the host went to an electronic show and they had wrist hrm but in order for it to take your HR you had to touch a finger from the other hand to the watch. Is this the case in most wrist hrms? Are there any that can just be put on your wrist and not touched and work wonderfully without a chest strap or anything?

For any of you who might not have felt like downloading that AHA pdf about how "fairly common" it is for folks to kill themselves through exercise, I thought I'd post the money quote from that paper. Note that their estimate of risk is characterized as "extremely low in ostensibly healthy subjects" not "fairly common."

It is fairly common for those who are starting to exercise and are using a HRM to report very high heart rates, exactly like the OP. I was that way myself and I even went to see a cardiologist, who reassured me with the same words that I passed on to the OP. So to the OP, don't worry and enjoy your new source of fun and fitness. Any HRM will be fine. The kind with the zones are really just an irritation. You'll get the hang of it as you continue to exercise. You sound like you might be young. It is not uncommon for young people to see exercising heart rates of over 200. Women often have higher heart rates than men.

"The absolute risk of an exercise-related cardiovascular event varies with the prevalence of diagnosed or occult cardiac disease in the study population but appears to be extremely low in ostensibly healthy subjects. Because of the rarity of exercise related cardiovascular events, studies examining its incidence are limited by small sample sizes and large confidence intervals. In addition, small changes in the number of events can produce large changes in the calculated incidence. Given these caveats, estimates are available for various patient groups.
Young Athletes
Van Camp and colleagues estimated an absolute rate of exercise related death among high school and college athletes of only 1 per 133 000 men and 1 per 769 000 women. These estimates include all sports-related nontraumatic deaths and are not restricted to cardiovascular events. A prospective, population-based study from Italy reported an incidence of 1 sudden death per 33 000 young athletes per year. The rate may be higher because of the higher mean age (23 versus 16 years) of the Italian athletes, participation in sports with higher levels of exercise intensity in Italy, and the inclusion of all events, not just those directly associated with active physical exertion, in the Italian study.
Healthy Adults
Malinow and colleagues reported only 1 acute cardiovascular event per 2 897 057 person-hours of physical activity among participants at YMCA sports centers. Vander and associates reported only 1 nonfatal and 1 fatal event per 1 124 200 and 887 526 hours, respectively, of recreational physical activity. Gibbons and colleagues reported only 1 nonfatal event during 187 399 hours of exercise, which corresponds to maximal risk estimates of 0.3 to 2.7 and 0.6 to 6.0 events per 10 000 person-hours for men and women, respectively. Thompson and collaborators estimated only 1 death per 396 000 person-hours of jogging or 1 death per year for every 7620 joggers."

Sorry to bring the thread back to the subject, but I have question about the heart rate monitor.
I was listening to a podcast today and the host went to an electronic show and they had wrist hrm but in order for it to take your HR you had to touch a finger from the other hand to the watch. Is this the case in most wrist hrms? Are there any that can just be put on your wrist and not touched and work wonderfully without a chest strap or anything?Not that I know of. And you don't want anything like that anyway. You want your HRM mounted on your bars right in front of your face so you can check it with a quick glance. It's easy to rig a bar mount. Just tape a 1.5" chunk of water pipe insulation over your bar, right beside the stem, and strap the HRM to that. The chest strap is not obnoxious. You won't even notice it.

You may also want a wired computer. I have a wireless and it throws all my reading off if it's to cold out or if the wind is blowing pretty good. I have a Polar, with the strap you put on your chest and a watch type wrist set up.

You may also want a wired computer. I have a wireless and it throws all my reading off if it's to cold out or if the wind is blowing pretty good. I have a Polar, with the strap you put on your chest and a watch type wrist set up.AFAIK there aren't any wired computers, and they wouldn't work anyway for obvious reasons. Buh Bump Cream http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Rate-Monitor-Transmitters-Conductivity/dp/B000BTILEW or smear saliva on the transmitter belt.

AFAIK there aren't any wired computers, and they wouldn't work anyway for obvious reasons. Buh Bump Cream http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Rate-Monitor-Transmitters-Conductivity/dp/B000BTILEW or smear saliva on the transmitter belt.

I meant the computer on the bike. I have a wireless on the bike and the magnetic field of that and the one I have on my wrist/chest get bad readings. On my other bike I have a wired computer and I can use my HRM with no problem.

Now that were back on the subject. Does anyone know of any "user friendly" HR monitor? I just got the Sigma P9, and I set up it worked once now I cant figure the damn thing out.

Polar F1T - large digits, shows HR, calculates average HR, gives total exercise time, and that's about it. Couldn't be much simpler and it's reliable. All you need.

Whats better, a wrist watch or cycle computer HR monitor? I'm considering the Polar CS300 or CS200cad