Originally Posted by
oilman_15106
Max and resting heart rate have litte to do with fittness. Recovery(time it takes) from max to resting is the measure you wish to improve. I was involved as a subject in a grad school study on this very subject.
Run up an 8 story building stairs as fast as you could then see how long it took to recover to normal resting heart rate.
On some really tough climbs I have seen my hr monitor and thought it was going to blow up!
What are the numbers to aim for in recovery time? Using that method alone I can see where I have improved these past few years. Used to be that when I walked up 1 flight of stairs at work, I was still breathing hard when I got to my office. Now, I can trot up 4 flights and almost recover by the time I arrive at my office.
But what are the numbers to aim for? I remember reading something years ago saying that within 1 minute the HR should be X, and at 5 minutes it should be Y, and by _____ minutes it should be back to normal.