Will Maximum heart rate increase?

[daveinzambia]

I have returned to riding this year after a 20 year gap.

I am now approaching 40, over weight and unfit so not expecting to reach the standards i did when i was 18.

When I started training i was riding on spin bikes in the gym (had to save for a bike) and bought a heart monitor to help gauge my rides and look for improvements. I had not used one before so had no idea of my heart rate range.

My resting heart rate (sat around before a ride) appears to be about 70 (and i have seen posts that imply that this will drop with fitness) but i was confused by the max heart rate registered. No matter how hard i go (including now on the road) i have never registered a heart rate of more than 165. i have seen friends who are far from fit who have that as their average rate on a ride.

I can kill myself up a climb. 165. intervals in the gym 160. this was almost the opposite of what i expected. I was expecting to see 180 when i sat on the bike due to lack of fitness.

guess my question is does anyone know if this is normal? is this something that will change with time? is this because my legs give in before my heart does? is it my breathing technique not getting in enough air (i am gasping at the end of efforts)? like i say this is the only time i have used a heart monitor so have no idea what rates i was registering when i was racing when i was younger. (except when they took my heart rate in hospital after dislocating a shoulder in an accident and commented that 59 was fairly low for someone in that state)

I do take medication for high blood pressure (the reason i got back on a bike) so have no idea if this contributes either.

as i am just looking to train to get fit i guess it does not massively matter what my heart rate is so asking more from confusion than anything else

 

[KnockloftyNomad]

As you have no baseline data about yourself to compare to, I’d say you just have a low maximum heart rate. Various books etc have way of doing a maximal test, but at this stage it may just be prudent to say 165 is your maximum and work with that until the fitness improves.

Alternatively your heart rate monitor may be a little suspect and you could try borrowing one to compare the results.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

When you grow older your max heart rate drops as well..

 

[Polyarmour]

A lot of the issues are addressed in this thread also.
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=14034
By the way Cam Meyer's max HR is 165. It means nothing, it's what you do with what you've got.

 

[daveinzambia]

Thanks Polyarmour. feels better that others see similar numbers. Think I just need to assume my max rate is lower than the 'norm' for my age.

 

[Critter]

I do take medication for high blood pressure (the reason i got back on a bike) so have no idea if this contributes either.

Is it a beta blocker? If so, they work by reducing your heart rate as well as blood pressure.

 

[daveinzambia]

Is it a beta blocker? If so, they work by reducing your heart rate as well as blood pressure.

nope, it works by reducing the 'stiffness' of my veins i believe.

 

[TourLeTour]

As Polyarmour said, max rates vary quite a bit, and you will often find that the fitter guys have a lower max. As you get fitter your heart works better, pushing more blood with each pump, so it doesn't need to go faster.

With regard to the low reading when you did your shoulder, I performed a trick dismount a few months after I started riding with a heart rate monitor. Once I was up off the road and back on the bike I started wondering what peak I would have got to during the crash. I was disappointed on downloading it to see that the value, recorded a tfive second intervals, actually dropped to zero for about 5 minutes. Closer inspection though showed that it wasn't at zero, but below 40bpm, which is where the graph was starting from. For this five minutes my heart rate was in the very low 30s. A bit more thought and I realised that this is shock, the natural response of your body to possible major injury, where it constricts all of your blood vessels and pumps a lot less blood around. It makes people look pale, but has the benefit of slowing down the rate at which they bleed to death if they do actually have big damage...