Road Fan

It looks like what you mean by maximum pulse is what I meant by the maximum rate my heart is physically capable of beating. This year I’ve not seen any numbers above 156, but I would not say that is my maximum. It’s just the highest I remember seeing this season.

fooferdoggie 

yes my apple watch would do that though.

Road Fan

So is it well known that afib is the only risk factor? I don’t deny that it is critical, but there must be more that is also worth worrying about.

I don’t think I used any “philosophy,” but it sure sounds like you are taking what I said in a pejorative sense. I said I find these threads sometimes confusing, and I tried to communicate why. I thought that might be better than just saying it stinks.

DaveLeeNC

On VERY rare occasions my HR will bump up to the 180-200 range (my exercise max is around 170-age 71) for a few minutes at random times (maybe once every 3-6 months for a couple of minutes). I don't sense the HR directly. When this happens I feel a 'bit odd' and very slightly nauseated. If it happened during exercise I don't know if I would sense that or not. In my case the treatment would be an 'ablation' to the heart muscle, but my doc does not feel that this is warranted in my case.

dave

groovykincaid

Hi gang,

I read these forums a lot.

I have been seriously cycling for almost 7 years. My distances vary. Pre-COVID, I would commute back and forth to work. A round trip of 40 km. Weekends I would get out for 70 km rides. COVID days would reduce my riding because of the lack of commuting. I would ride 35 km per day instead of 40 km and ride one day on the weekend to 80 km. I would augment with smart trainer for the days I couldn’t get on the road.

I turned 53 in December. My eating habits, I would classify as loosely healthy. The majority of the week, I would eat healthy but I would let loose when I felt like it.

I have a smart trainer, I am still going through the various Apps to figure out what one will work for me before I drop $$’s on one.

Less than a week ago, I suffered a heart attack while cycling on my trainer. The route was nothing out of the ordinary for me, and I didn’t have a heart monitor on. Generally, I can listen to my body. I spent 5 days in the hospital and had a stent put in. I was deemed a minor cardiac event. I believe that cycling helped me get through this relatively unscathed. But I was left concerned that my cycling career would come to a short end. My initial meeting with my cardiologist, he assured me that it doesn’t have to be that way.

I will be researching heart rate monitors now, try to figure out which one is good for recovering cardiac patients. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Also any stories of any cardiac survivors and continued cycling would be appreciated as well.

Sorry to have “hijacked” this, I thought this would be within topic.

Richard Cranium

Just to make sure everyone gets a little more confused - I wanted to make a point about "heart rate" and "heart beat" .....

Normal heart rates are recorded as a completion of a double pulsing of an atrial AND ventricle muscle. Typically the double-beat is picked by monitors up as a single muscle contraction.

In Afib - the first part of the heart contraction - the atria "beat" or contract prematurely - often in a multiple number of ventricle beats. Heart rate monitors pick up some or most of these beats and display accordingly. In in fact your entire heart starts beating or "fibrillating" - including the ventricles - your would be in pretty deep manure - and not likely to be upright very long.........

In any case - I am suspect of HR monitor displaying heart rates above 180 - either it is classic Afib - or an HR monitor misread - but not true complete rate of a true hear beat.

Having maxed out at 181 when I was 30 - any of you that go over 180 know how hard it is to get there..........

caloso

Are you saying you’re suspect of your HRM reading over 180, or any HRM reading over 180?

Road Fan

I can't really say anything about what's healthy or not, but I want to raise that HRMs can be wacko when your heart is not. My earliest Polar HRM was called an A5 and it did not have a digital or personalized sensor. When I rode under certain power lines it would read 220, and never did so if I was not under a power line. I can't say my later Polar R5 did that and my Wahoo Tickr with Elemnt has not done it, though I don't use it much. So if I see 220 I think the HRM or sensor have some electrical problem. If I saw that kind heart rate on open road with only rural power lines, I would be more concerned.

I don't think I have "secret AFIB." My dad had several cardiovascular issues and I'm a former smoker so I have a few risk factors, but I get sent to cardiac screening and imaging every few years to make sure nothing bad is happening.

So treat the 220 reading as a sign to talk to the doctor, but not necessarily as a sign of serious cardiac problems. Let the docs do their jobs and check you out properly.

Iride01 

This isn't just directed specifically at you. You just gave some concise statements for me to go off on tangents. <grin>

I'm not hitting 180 as much as I used to, but I think I still can surge to 180 briefly. But without knowing your history both health and exercise related, it'd be foolish to tell you that yours is mine, and nothing to bother getting checked.

Some will always have some error in their readings shown as spikes. Might just be static from their jersey in dry air. Usually you can tell and ignore those.

I've read that people that are very active in cardio exercise don't see the reduction in HR that 220 - age will have us believe. Don't ask me to prove it. Those were things I read over eight years ago.

If you are in this sub-forum, personally I don't see that you don't have any excuse not to begin a relationship with a cardiologist. Getting baseline information about you while you are healthy might go a long way to help find stuff when it is going awry.

Our HR monitors are only measuring the heart beat as 1 thing. But a heartbeat is actually composed of the contraction and relaxation of the chambers of the heart happening in a certain sequence for certain period of time along with valves opening and closing. That is why when you go for an EKG they put all those electrodes on you and sometimes do an echocardiogram. There is more to a properly functioning heart than just the start to finish cycle our cheapo or not so cheapo HR monitors provide us.

caloso

Sorry, I didn't mean to be pejorative. I was commenting on your musing that it was logically impossible to know one's true maximum. Logic being a subfield of philosophy.

3Roch

A heads up
1) my cardio doc told me the htm using a chest strap are by far the most accurate. I believe him however
2) last spring on some early cold fast rides I would get some high scary hr numbers, like 200
To make a long story short if the humidity is low,, it's cold so no sweat , you are wearing a "plastic" shirt and going fast enough that the shirt flutters the static elect created screws up the readings. A little water on the front of the shirt eliminates the issue. this is actually mentioned on Polars site

August West

I use a product called "buh bump" HRM electrode cream. I bought a couple of bottles of it in the early 2000's to help with dropouts I was having. Then got away from cycling for a long time. Three years ago when I decided to get back in shape I started hiking w/ a HRM and since I still had the buh bump I used it with my new HRM strap. It is very dry here and I never have problem with dropouts or errant readings hiking or cycling. I hiked about every day for a year and now cycle at least 6 days a week and am still on the first bottle. Apparently it doesn't go bad since it hasn't eaten hole in my HRM or chest yet.

And I agree the strap HRM's are pretty darn accurate. Every time I've checked it by counting beats it is right on. My Fenix 3 w/wrist HRM, not so much.

Richard Cranium

Back to the original post - that creates as much confusion as enlightenment -

No your doctor put you on a portable EKG. The portable EKG is sensitive enough to detect Atrial and Ventricle contractions separately.

Clearly - HR monitors and their users will continue to speculate about "whats" what about pseudo Max HR- since I have worn portable EKGs for weeks at a time - and experienced AFib as well I have no clue about this subject.... sarcasm intended ......

Road Fan

Ok, I think I get it. But I do think it’s impossible to find your max with certainty. I have found a number that I have no desire to go above (it was really uncomfortable!). That is a maximum by choice not an absolute. I hope I’m not missing any training benefit by refusing to go there! I think if it’s gotten that hard, I shouldn’t have to do it.

Iride01 

Just FYI on those little portable EKG monitors that cardiologist like to give you. My total costs for 4 weeks on one of those things including what my insurance paid was more than my implanted cardiac monitor I now have will be after I carry it inside me for it's expected life of 3 years. And that includes the outpatient surgery costs to put it in.

Check your insurance before you walk out of the doctors office with an external monitor as I did not. If I'd gotten a external EKG monitor from the company my insurance recommends, I would have saved the cost of a reasonably nice bike in just the money I had to cover.

Every health insurance provider varies a lot on this. So just be ready and know what they cover.

philbob57

It's one thing when you see a regular progression from a low HR to a high one. You'll see that sort of progression when you do intervals or ride uphill, for example. That probably isn't a cause for worry (but find out what your doc says). I also don't worry when my HR goes above my putative maximum rate of 144, assuming I feel OK when it happens. Late 2 seasons ago I got into the high 150s for several minutes at a time, breathing hard, thighs burning. I was good with that without mentioning it to my doc. Now I can get into the high 140s even with a beta blocker; my cardio is fine with that.
The episodes that I think are being talked about are going along in zone 3 and all of a sudden seeing a HR jump without speeding up or going uphill and without breathing hard. I don;t notice my episodes of afib; my Tickr Fit HR monitor was the first indication. I didn't mention it to my doc, because i though it was an equipment malfunction. Lats Spring he had me wearing a portable EKG machine for 2 weeks. I agreed only because I thought it would show nothing. I was wrong.

I think that's exactly the point of this thread, if you substitute 'unexpectedly high HR' for '220'.

davester

I am continuously surprised that people still use this virtually worthless calculation. There is so much information out there showing that this is a terrible way to estimate MHR and is particularly incorrect for older people. It is based on no real science a tiny data set based on young men. It greatly underestimates MHR for most people.

DiabloScott

Agreed, although the older I get, the closer I think the calc works for me.

caloso

Yeah. I hit a season high on a ramp test last week. If I had gone by the calculation I would have shut things down 30 bpm and 100w too soon. Completely useless.

DaveLeeNC

From what I have read, the formula has proven to be 100% accurate at age 220. dave