Help - am I fit or unfit?

Former Member over 5 years ago

Both Garmin and Fitbit think I’m pretty fit - Vo2 max of 43 and 48 respectively and a resting heart rate of 50 or so. So far so good. But when I exercise my heart rate seems to increase very quickly and to a high level - 2 hours of tennis and my average hr (with Garmin chest strap) is 164 and max 193. That’s not good for a 60 year old if I use the 220 - age formula!! I smoked for 35 years but quit 10 years ago. Maybe my heart is good but lungs poor? So anyway am I fit or unfit, can anyone explain the high exercise hr but low RHR and good Vo2 max?

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Daniel_Ilg over 5 years ago +1

I try to :-)

First of all, tennis is requiring a lot of sprints, stops and changes of direction. So tennis is very demanding for your muscular and metabolic system. Additionally, tennis is normally played…

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0 Daniel_Ilg over 5 years ago

I try to :-)

First of all, tennis is requiring a lot of sprints, stops and changes of direction. So tennis is very demanding for your muscular and metabolic system. Additionally, tennis is normally played around anaerobic threshold. This is leading to a phenomenon called heartrate drift. This leads to an increase of your heartrate over time while perceived effort remains the same.

This was the general part. Many athletes develop what is called aerobic deficiency Syndrome (ADS). They train way to much above aerobic threshold which cripples their aerobic endurance system. This leads to very high heartrates when they just go for a walk or a super slow run. Moreover, the aerobic threshold is very low. This means every activity is accumulating lactate (and Hydrogen ions) which is increasing fatigue and therefore increasing HR. I can't really tell from your data that you suffer from ADS, but you have a significant drift there. Do you have data for a steady and flat run longer than 45minutes?

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Daniel_Ilg

Daniel - many thanks. I don’t run, most of my exercise is just walking at pace in the hills. Don’t know if this might help?

0 Elbo over 5 years ago

That’s not good for a 60 year old if I use the 220 - age formula

The formula is only to get an indication of the max heart rate of average Joe.

1. You are not average Joe.

2. There is nothing you can do about your max heart rate. It’s like your shoe size. Doesn’t matter how hard you train, it doesn’t change (although your max heart rate will decline with your age)

Want to know if you are fit? Look at how fast your heart rate drops. The faster the fitter you are. Don’t look at which maximum you reached. It doesn’t say anything.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Elbo

Thanks. What was niggling at me was how I could go from such a low RHR to a high exercise rate but as long as it comes down quickly then that shows it’s working efficiently

0 subra over 5 years ago

From my POV, related to your age your HR is to high. The HR chart shows that you're mostly in and above the 'red zone' for your age.

To be sure that there isn't a serious disease with your heart, I recommend to you to consult a cardiologist.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to subra

I had an ECG In Feb as part of a general health check - everything normal?

0 subra over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

If you've made an ECG at resting only, your rise in HR isn't visible. Rather it must be an ECG with all-out exercise test through a sports physician.

I recommend a heart sonography for looking whether the heart valves work sufficient.

I wouldn't give you a fright or fear, but it may be possible that the muscles require O2 and the heart is not sufficient to bump enough blood to the muscles with normal HR. So the heart must rise the HR abnormally. Please be safe and consult a cardiologist or sports physician.

0 mehmetozturk over 5 years ago in reply to subra

I recommend to you to consult a cardiologist too. I did it before I ran my first marathon. I wear a 24 hour monitor on a day with running. At night my heart rests a few beats, but thats O.K. the doc said.

As a teenager or twinager, Your heart would grow by training and Your overall heartrate would go down. But abow 40 year our muscles, evan the heart muscle decreases.

Go jogging or walking.

0 Elbo over 5 years ago in reply to mehmetozturk

mehmetozturk said:
But abow 40 year our muscles, evan the heart muscle decreases.

Thats true, but! Only if you don’t do anything about it.

If you are active and exercise you can keep muscle loss to a minimum.

If you have never exercised before, you can even gain muscle after 40 when you start exercising.
Don’t only do cardio, but also some strength training.

0 Daniel_Ilg over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Sorry, I can't tell from that picture. But during hiking I would not exceed 120 BPM or more conservative 115 BPM.