Training & Nutrition - HR at 220bpm at the gym.. bad?

Just got back from the gym, after measuring 220bpm after an intense exercise on a stationary bike. Isn't that insanely high, and should make me drop to the floor with chest pain?? :p

A little background:
Student, 22 years old. Have been quite inactive for the past 6 years..
Cycled a lot from years 9-16-ish. Did pretty hard off-road tracks almost every day in the summer months.
Started training again about a year ago, stopped in June, started again this January.
RHR is somewhere between 44 and 47. 47 is the lowest I have measured manually while in bed. 44 is the lowest I have measured with a 24h ambulatory blood pressure monitor. 58-ish bpm while in front of computer, 54-52 while watching television.

The stationary bikes at the gym have a heart rate monitor. But every time I use the bike, it beeps out loud and shows "WARNING HIGH HEART RATE" in the display :p This happens at around 178. I usually ignore this, as I feel totally fine. At heart rates above 184 the monitor just says "--"... I'm often exercising well above this level, as it starts measuring my HR again at 184 when I feel it dropping..

Today I was adding interval training to my daily workout, and I measured my pulse manually at 220-230 bpm! just after finishing a hard interval. (started counting when the clock went from :59 to :00, and stopped when it switched from 05 to 06, counted 23 heartbeats). This was after producing 450watt for one minute, after a 40 minute workout with intervals of RPE at 0.8-0.9 at regular intervals.

The HR dropped to 180 bpm after one minute, and down to 150 after two minutes.
Now, two hours later it's at 58.

Am i pushing my heart too hard, or do i simply have a high HRM?
I don't brake a sweat at 120bpm, I feel fine at 180bpm (but like I'm working out hard), 220 didn't give any pain or discomfort of any kind, but it definitely felt like a very intense workout!

(btw, I'm a training noob, so don't be too hard on me, and don't hesitate to explain in detail ;))
I'm hoping to pick up cycling again this autumn again after I get back from "summer school".

Any comments appreciated!

Best regards
Student, Norway

Strange. Perhaps the equipment gave an erroneous reading. At 220BpM just about anyone should be getting little punchy and wondering how long they'll be standing upright.

i'm a med student - buyer beware.

1) it's VERY hard to take another person's pulse accurately (manually) when it's > 180 ... it's even harder to do it yourself with your heart pounding - so i wouldnt take your manual HR at 220 as accurate.

2) it's possible that you have a heart rhythm problem - I suggest you go to a doctor , and get an ECG. ECG at rest may still show a conduction defect (ie it's not totally useless) but an ECG on exercising may be more useful.

3) you're young and young people can maintain HR of around 220 for quite a while without collapsing - this doesnt mean it's healthy though (let alone a good training idea)

The 220 minus your age for maximum heart rate is only a very crude approximation. In practice, people vary widely from this. I have a friend who in his late 40's managed to get over 200 quite often and as I recall even got over 210.

If getting the heart rate high would kill people, we would lose cyclists all the time. I have even seen cyclists crash because they were pushing so hard that they were no longer getting enough blood to the brain to be effective pilots of their vehicles. It is not smart. But it probably does not hurt.

As mentioned above, I would be a little skeptical of the reading unless it was done with a heart rate monitor whose reliability had been checked.

My max heart rate (tested by ECG on a treadmill) is over 220 - and I'm 45. It doesn't help - it just means my heart is beating faster than most when I'm out of breath trying to climb that hill!

I was told by the technician that all the high max means is that my heart is small relative to my body size, so my heart has to beat faster to move the same volume of blood.

JB

I think the measurement is pretty valid, i had no problem counting the beats, and they came at a regular intervals. I counted manually at 180 as well, and got the same result as the hr monitor on the bike.

My resting heart rate at 44 is pretty low right? Isn't that supposed to indicate that my cardiovascular system is in good health and that my heart is large? Now I'm confused, hehe :p

Blah. HR numbers don't matter. It's how fast you race that matters. :D

Some people have hearts that are smaller (ie have smaller stroke volume), and they therefore need to beat faster at higher workout levels.

dude - seriously - go to a doctor.
yeah OK so it's regular (and if you can count it fine) - but that doesn't mean it cant be serious - it's probably fine, but it might not be.

I had the same thing happen to me. I'm in my 50's and have measured a heart rate of 204 while jogging. I thought it was serious and did some research. I found out that it is largely genetic in nature and not necessarily a sign of danger. I also have a resting pulse in the mid 40's. It falls into the 30's when I'm sleeping - found that out in a hospital stay where I had a heart monitor on, and every new nurse on a shift would come in and wake me to see if I was dying. It got to be real annoying after awhile. My father had the same heart rates and he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart, but was told the enlarged heart had nothing to do with his heart rates.

Heart rates vary widely. I'm 50 and 170 is my max heart rate.
When I am hitting 160 (like 94% for me)I am panting like a dog.

If you are 22 I really won't worry about it, unless you are in bad shape