Someone please explain to me what we're trying to do with our hearts
 

I read posts about resting heart rates are good when they're down in the 40's/50's. Then I read posts about people trying to increase their max heart rate when pushing it. What're we trying to do with our hearts? Increase their ability to beat faster or increase their ability to operate better at lower bpm? I don't entirely get it.

It's less about the hearts, and more about the vessels.

Lower resting bpm = more efficiency, so your heart can move same amount of blood but requires fewer beats than before.
Higher max heart rate (along with the higher volume per beat) = more blood flow.

They're both good.

People want low resting heart rates because that means their heart, which is a muscle, is very strong and is pumping a lot of blood per beat. People want a high max heart rate just because that makes them a supper mofo. You can't always achieve both though.

Neither number means jack ****, compared to anyone else.

You want to maximize cardiac output (CO)....and this is measured as stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped in one beat = SV) times heart rate (HR)...that is, CO=SV x HR.

The more you train, the higher your SV becomes...so at rest, your heart rate drops because you pump more blood per heartbeat.

So a low resting heart rate is just a side effect of athletic training.

By the way, the formula CO=HR x SV has limitations....if your heart rate goes too high (say more than about 200) the heart does not have enough time to fill between beats, and the CO won't keep going up.

I could go on, but I hope you get the idea.

And just because you have a lower resting HR or higher HRmax than someone else doesnt mean you are necessarily in better shape anyway.

P.S. The oxygen your body can deliver is the most meaningful number for athletic performance, and that depends on cardiac output but also red blood volume...that's why unscrupulous racers use epo etc to get more red blood cells.

In other words: Both, but not JUST both.

low resting BRM...great. more flow with less effort kinda thing.
high max heart rate...great. greater threshold. too high a max heart rate and you start getting inefficiencies.

The point is to be able to be at the same HR and have better performance at the same 'heart exertion level'. This means your cardio fitness is increasing.

Yay!

So then the actual goal is to not have a high max HR in the sense that we want to keep it around or below 200. At that point we want to focus the training on increasing the ability to pump more blood per beat. Can our training focus on improving the blood flow per beat versus max HR?

cold hands, warm heart. warm hands, cold heart.

It's more about volume, not necessarily the beat rate.

Its all about 'how does it really make you feel inside'.

Your LT HR is pretty much a fixed number. As your training gets better and your fitness increases, you'll be able to spend more time at your LT HR and your power at LT HR will increase. You're not changing the beats, you're just able to be more powerful for the same HR.

What is the proper way to get a resting HR reading? I've heard laying down right after waking up is a good method?

Training mainly increases your stroke volume, as suggested above your max HR is not easily changed...but if you increase your SV your CO is that much higher at a given HR.

I've read that you could measure it ten minutes after you wake up, while lying in bed. That gives a nice low number. I've seen a few people in these forums talk about a resting heart rate taken while sitting. That seems more realistic to me. I would assume that it's not so important whether you use one method or the other as long as you're consistent in how and when you take the measurement.

+1 What he said....

<60 bpm as I'm sitting here. In case anyone was wondering.

We are trying to increase cardiac size and strength. Larger heart means greater stoke volume and more blood delivered more rapidly to skeletal muscle. In addition, stronger cardiac muscle equates to more efficient emptying with each contraction. And, I think, just as our skeletal muscles develop with training to contain more mitochondria, more, and more efficient enzyme systems for energy metabolism and dealing with muscle cell waste products, trained cardiac muscle develops similarly.
As a consequence of these changes, resting heart rate decreases because a greater volume of nutrient and oxygen rich blood can be delivered. VO2 max can be reached at a lower percentage of max HR.

The heart is a muscle. Plain and simple. Exercise increases it's fitness, just like weightlifting increases your muscle fitmess in your arms. Exercise increases it's efficiency and ability to pump blood. Unless you have some genetic issues or have bad cholesterol or lots of fat in your system, it should help you live longer. That's what we're trying to do with our hearts.

True resting HR is measured first thing in the AM, just as you awaken and before you have even stepped out of bed. My HR right now is an embarrasing 74 BPM. I hope I can attribute this to hammering my brains out for 4.5 hours earlier today. If not, I think I am about to expire.

Hardly. Just to start, cardiac muscle cells differ significantly enough from skeletal muscle to warrant their own classification. It just gets less plain and more complex from there.