Originally Posted by
zdrifter
I have this theory that people that are active are in the minority and that 'formulas' that are developed for the general population don't apply to the 'active' group. Seems obvious right? But I just wanted a little data to confirm it. Thus a poll. What we got confirms a general statement ... the average MaxHR of bike enthusiasts is higher than the general population.
I don't think your theory (hypothesis) is correct. MHR is recognized as a physical limitation that you can't really do anything to change up or down, and it certainly does decrease with age. Most of the genpop probably has no idea what their MHR is anyway, and even fewer of them ever come close to seeing it.
The 220-age thing has always been conservative, no one ever took it seriously as anything other than a crude benchmark. I think the only thing you MIGHT consider from the data is that high MHR people tend to go into sports like cycling, or keep cycling until they're older than other people, but I doubt that's true. Possibly at a super-elite level having a high MHR is an advantage but I'd have to see more than anecdotal data for that one too.
For my data point, I'm 50 and see >190 bpm pretty often--- and I don't think it helps... I'd much rather have bigger lungs or arteries or pain threshold.