Originally Posted by
rwwff
Not talking about the low resting HR improving by exercise.
I was under the impression that the max HR is generally very rigid with slight decreases occurring as age takes its toll. A few weeks back, my max HR did a step-function like change, and has been stable at the new point since then, it was large enough to shift the numbers that I use to limit how much high intensity sprinting I do.. It was about 175, and now its a good 183-185. Resting has remained at 55 or a bit lower. I don't really mind, as maybe I can pretend to be about 5 years younger??? (i'll be 48 soon)... 1 min recovery remains a respectable 35-40bpm.
Power and endurance didn't seem to change noticeably, just the numbers that I see on the HR monitor's output at different exertion levels. (and no, monitor didn't go nuts, compared it with other monitors, and its fine).
Is this odd, or am I mistaken about maxHR in the general population? I was just really caught by surprise by the change.
I would say that the only thing we know about Max Heart Rate is what we have sampled. We know that it tends to decline with age but we don't know what limits it or why? Are the limits electro-chemical? Or are they mechanical limits? Nobody knows. And equally, we don't know why max heart rate is different in different people of the same age. All we know is: "If you are this old, it tends to be 'this', and it tends to not change (at least it doesn't tend to increase).
Sort of like a weather forecast based on: "It has rained 7 out the past 10 years on this day".
For myself, my speed and and heart rate increased by 10% after I started taking Q10 to offset the effects of aging and the statin I have have taking...
Does that contradict the conventional wisdom that max heart rate can't change? Not really, I changed the chemical equation -- so the result of that equation (my heart rate stats) changed too...