Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 383, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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A Question about my pulse rate

goneawol
goneawol
Posts: 21
Joined: 2004/02/15
United States
2004/05/02, 10:29 PM
Hello everyone, I am a 20 year old male who is slightly overweight and have been excersicing for 4 months.
I have not read anything or seen a personal trainer. This is the first time I have even read about checking your pulse rate. I read that your pulse rate is measured by
220 - your age. Therefor my MAX is 200.
I read somewhere that you need to stay between 60-70% When doing excersise. So that means that I need to have my pulse rate at 120-140 BPM. I have been working my ass off on that treadmill and been getting my pulse rate up to 167! HMMMM is that bad???! Am I reading wrong? What should my target pulse rate be? I feel that I am not reading this correctly. And If my pulse rate needs to stay between 120-140 I would practically be jogging slowly.. Sigh :/ can someone please help?
Thanks!
howdiekat
howdiekat
Posts: 1,345
Joined: 2003/05/22
United States
2004/05/02, 10:33 PM
actually, you want to calculate your target heart rate between 65% and 85% of your maximum. so for you, your target training zone is 130 - 170, so you're good on the treadmill.

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success comes before work only in the dictionary. that's right.
goneawol
goneawol
Posts: 21
Joined: 2004/02/15
United States
2004/05/02, 11:15 PM
Ok I have one more question,
Say I am at a slow jog, I am unfit, my heartrate is about 140, when I get more fit , will my heartrate stay about 140 range still even when I am running? is that how it goes?
howdiekat
howdiekat
Posts: 1,345
Joined: 2003/05/22
United States
2004/05/03, 12:33 AM
as your cardiovascular health improves, the muscles in your heart won't have to work as hard to keep up with your body as you exert yourself. thus, if you're in better shape, your heart rate will not be as high as when you perform the same activities and you're not in good shape. so in theory you could run at the intensity that you're hitting 167 at now after you've been running for a while and only hit 160. did that make sense? your resting heart rate (rhr) will go down as well.

speaking of rhr, if you want a more accurate estimate of your target heart rate, use the karvonen formula, which takes into account your rhr. it can be confusing to try to do without a worksheet or some prior knowledge of how the formula works, so here is a link to a page that will do the calculations for you. hope this helps!


http://briancalkins.com/heartrate.htm

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success comes before work only in the dictionary. that's right.
vickyb
vickyb
Posts: 1
Joined: 2004/05/03
United Kingdom
2004/05/03, 08:12 AM

It is important to take a measurement of your heart rate when you are resting too. The best time to do this is first thing in the morning before you get up. You need to take a measurement in seconds.

Keep an eye on your watch whilst counting the number of beats in 15 seconds. Multiply this figure by four. This allows you to get the number of beats per minute (sixty seconds). The result should be somewhere in between 50-100 beats per minute.

Check the top two tables in link..

http://www.naturalmatter.com/new_page_48.htm

Then take your pulse the same way for 15 seconds after 3 minutes of exercise. For example you could go to the bottom of your stairs at home and step up and down on the bottom step for three minutes or try it at the gym using one of the cardiovascular machines. After you have completed the exercise wait 30 seconds then take your pulse again. Using the same procedure to work out your active pulse. Use the bottom two tables to assess your active heart rate.

same link here..
http://www.naturalmatter.com/new_page_48.htm

This gives you a good idea as to how strong your heart is when you begin your exercise routine. I used it when I first started. Hope this helps.

Vicky