Originally Posted by
GeorgeBMac
This is a technical point, but: Our brains do not control our heart rate (except indirectly via such things as adrenaline or the vagal response). The heart has its own baroreceptors and its own electrical system that control how hard and how fast it beats. And, for some reason not completely understood it does tend to beat slower and slower as we get older and older. For instance, the resting heart rate for an infant of up to 160bpm (with the average being 120-145) can be as high as the maximum heart for an older person.
But that doesn't change your basic point: The heart can beat as fast as it wants...
My (rhetorical) question is: why does it slow down with age? What changes to make it slow down and the max decrease?
Medical science seems to just shrug and say: "It slows down because you are older"... But that avoids the question rather than answers it -- and neither does it answer why some people (like you) are able to maintain their max heart rates as they age.
.... BTW: Good Job!
Well, now is only 1 year later since I started cycling so I am still only 36yr old and max of 182 I have seen during short hard efforts is close to 220-age. I have never tried a max heart rate test as I understand that requires somebody with a gun behind you.
So I assume that when people talk about the heart slowing down with age it is for comparable efforts? So is the oxygen consumption then still the same and can older people somehow bring more oxygen to the muscles with less blood?