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Mid-40s man. Is heart rate hitting low 180s during cardio safe, or should this be concerning? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/fitness@lemmy.world
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I'm in my mid-40s and I do cardio 3x weekly, and during my sessions, it's basically HIIT training. I try to keep my HR above 150 during my sessions, but it peaks in the low 180s intermittently.

Is this okay? My doctor noted potential concerns with getting my HR up that high, but it could be fine, she wasn't sure. I don't get any dizziness or anything (generally that happens if I sustain a heart rate above 185 for a bit). I'm not staying at 180 bpm, that's just the peak, I'm targeting an average HR of around 150-155 for my workouts.

In a 60 minute workout, I'll probably spend 10-15 minutes with my HR between 166 and 182 range.

Not sure if I should scale it down a bit or take it easier, or if this is fine.

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[–] 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Wouldn't want to say that it's fine, but it is common in our age range if you're just getting back into exercise. My doctor wasn't worried about it early on and I'm close to your age. Into anecdotal territory, it does feel kinda worrying if you're at that rate after a few years of cardio though. Mine improved quite a bit over a comparatively short period.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    It's with increasing intensity over time, not staying high over the same effort. As it got easier, I pushed harder, as over time I found it harder to get my heart rate up. It's pretty high intensity for the duration. Been heavily focused on cardio for the last year, prior was mostly weightlifting.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    I had been lifting longer too, but it really did almost nothing for my heart rate. Ya know, obvious overlap, but the heart is a muscle and those are different muscles.

    For me, I did the whole trainer thing and got a program with a goal of increasing my cardiovascular health. Mostly running and cycling, but after a few months, I could be going all out and my monitor would show me maxing out in the 140s. If you feel like you're progressing though, it might be fine.

    Do you feel like there's been improvements in your resting heart rate since you started doing more cardio?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago

    Definitely, my resting heart rate used to be much higher, upper 50s to low 60s. It dropped dramatically after I started seriously doing cardio (treadmill work mostly, and more recently the DDR stuff).

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