Does alcohol boost HR?
I'm on a business trip right now. For most part I don't care for them. I eat too much, drink too much, work too much, and don't sleep or exercise enough.
Today after dinner, I decided to hit the hotel health club where they had exercise bikes with all the electronic gadgetry and programmable routines. I've never ridden one of those things before in my life.
My basic impression of the gizmo I tried is that you can get a good workout, but they're not nearly adjustable enough and damn I miss my clipless pedals. On these things, default resistance on any routine needs to be boosted considerably, and they seem optimistic when reporting speed and calories burned. Cadence works properly.
What puzzled me was HR. On multiple workout routines I busted 190 and was holding 180+ for decent amounts of time. Normally even breaking 170 requires considerable effort and I have to kill myself to get past 180 for short bursts.
All I had was 2 glasses of IPA with dinner an hour or so before my workout. Could that explain the numbers I was seeing, or is the accuracy of these machines way off what you'd get with a regular HRM?
This cycle measures through the handlebars so there is no chest strap. It was clear that it was having trouble reading, but I was wondering if I really could have taken the HR that high? I was working as hard as I could during peak times.