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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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[–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

How hard would you say this effort was? What kind of an effort was it?

High effort overall, with intermittent lower effort if I need to back off. Workout is a 45-60 minute Dance Dance Revolution session, doing the hardest songs I can, occasionally broken up with some mid-difficulty songs if my HR gets too high. The track list is custom from online stepmania stuff, so longer songs in many cases and harder than a lot of the stuff in the original games.

Heart rate drops fairly quickly between songs, as you can see on the graph I posted in the comments.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    Did you make the call to take a mid-difficulty song because you saw the heart rate number on your watch and got concerned, or did you feel physically unable to continue at the prior intensity?

    If I were you, I would try to figure out what your actual max heart rate is, then tune the watch settings based on that. There are various test protocols you can do to figure that out, and it's possible to do it in lab conditions if you want to be really safe about it.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    It varies. Some of the tracks are really hard, so I’ll take a minute to let my heart rate drop back to between 150 and 160 before starting another track.

    Not fully unable to continue usually, but a bit out of breath after intense effort, so I take maybe 30 seconds to catch my breath before continuing.

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

    You should expect an effort near your maximum heart rate to be the kind of deal where you basically have to lie down and hyperventilate. They are very, very painful to do.

    If you don't feel like that description fits with how it felt to hit 180, then it's quite possible you have a maximum heart rate that is higher than that.

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

    You should expect an effort near your maximum heart rate to be the kind of deal where you basically have to lie down and hyperventilate.

    Gotcha, yeah, it’s not like that. More of the standing, hands on knees heavy breathing for a few seconds while I catch my breath. I’ll be gasping at the end of a really hard track, likely as the difficulty moves toward anaerobic near the end, but never like I need a lie down. My heart rate drops pretty quickly as soon as a song ends.

    Edit - what you’re talking regarding hyperventilate and lie down is what it feels like if I try to push and sustain anything around 188-190. I start getting lightheaded and have to stop. Anything between 175 and 185 bpm is okay for short periods. The highest reading I’ve ever seen on my watch for my heart rate was 192.

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