Maximum hr

Here's how I deal with this personally.

1) I ignore Garmin's estimate of my MaxHR. I also ignore the "formulas" like 220-Age etc etc, they're garbage.

2) you need to find your own MaxHR and there are procedures for that. For example, <here> will show you an example of how to do it for cycling, treadmill, running outdoor, and swimming. I then hardcode this number in the watch as MaxHR. In your case, if all you do is running, just follow the procedure for running.

3) then you have a few options to go about the bands: fixed % of MaxHR, % of Lactate threshold etc... Personnally I think the fixed % of MaxHR is good enough for me so I don't disturb this. Others prefer % of Lactate threshold etc.

If you're looking for tips about how to generate Anaerobic benefits (well, at least in in Garmin's mind), take a look at this thread <here>, I was given awsome suggestions.

Ok, i will do so.  Thanks for the answer and links to information 

laaria said:

With lactate threshold of 157

Hi laaria,

why you set your zones to %maxHR? You can use your LTHR to set them.

186 seems to be for me a little high too. I don't think garmin can calculate, no, estimate a maxHR precise enough for a some cases (eldery people like us :) ). I'm 60 yo and garmin lowers my maxHR to 176 every week, but on intervals i reach 180-182 on 3th or 4th interval.  But my LTHR remains the same vor a last time, so i simple use it to my zones.

So in the video you linked to, the max HR is the maximum heart rate recorded while doing the exercise they describe? (If I understood it right).   

The thing is when my Garmin FR255 auto detects my max HR it's 155 but whatever I do I can't get my heart rate above 135-139.   

I did a guided LTHR test today and the result was 111. The only way I could get this test to work was to manually set my max HR to 135 .  The previous two times I tried with the Garmin max HR, the test failed to detect a threshold because the last the sections of the test were asking for a hear rate I couldn't reach however hard I try. 

I'm a 66 year old male who runs, swims and does cardio to keep fit in general. I'm not training for anything in particular. 

The LTHR test is not for everyone. You have to be able to run with stable heart rate.

Maximum heart rate is supposed to be reached by the instruction video, but it is also not for everyone. It requires you to be able to push yourself very hard. I struggle  to reach my maximum HR unless I am very scared or super motivated by a competition situation. Just a regular test would not be enough.

6368892 said:

So in the video you linked to, the max HR is the maximum heart rate recorded while doing the exercise they describe? (If I understood it right). 

Yes. This type of tests is designed to get you a "true" MaxHR, if done properly. As in, one you cannot go over under any circumstances, ideally. As ovekvam mentions below, it is not for everyone. It is painful. I am 49m, the last one I did was last year on the rowing machine as that's how I was doing all my cardio at that time, I thought I was close to fainting. BUT, I am confident I got a proper MaxHR. As in, I squeezed every heart beat I could out of the test and left nothing on the table. If I had to do it again, I would probably ask my wife to come stay next to me. The OP said she is 64 and I would have thought as we are a little bit aging, extra caution may be required when doing the test. But, she said she is a runner, so premubably she knows her limit.

May be give it a try and see how you go ?

6368892 said:

The thing is when my Garmin FR255 auto detects my max HR it's 155 but whatever I do I can't get my heart rate above 135-139. 

If you are absolutely certain that your HR has never been above 139, then 155 isn't the highest HR that Garmin has autodetected, but just an estimate. But I want to add that even if Garmin detects a new highest HR during one of your cardio sessions, it will merely be "the highest HR that you have ever achieved so far": it will not be your true MaxHR which again, needs a specific test to get to. If you want Garmin's bands and Training Effects to be correct (well, again, in Garmin's mind at least), you need to populate a proper, true MaxHR in your watch. Otherwise, you will overstimate those Effects.

Before I had a Garmin, I sometimes used to run on a treadmill, one with a HRM built into hand grips .. I noticed then that whatever I did my HR didn't get above 130-139 and that it was a bit low compared to the chart by age on the machine. 

I didn't think anymore about it and then I got a Garmin. The heart rate from the watch pretty much agreed with this except when my current FR255 had wild spikes in heart rate, when I was running or sometimes just walking somewhere.  That prompted me to get a chest HRM. I assume it's more accurate. It has got rid of the erratic spikes when I'm running but it has confirmed that my heart rate is a bit low in Garmin's eyes. 

All in all I am a constant disappointment to Garmin - erratic body battery, poor sleep allegedly, load focus constant anaerobic shortage ..  I've got to the point where I think I was better off using my phone to track my running.

I almost never get any "high aerobic". I think it is because I include 15-30 minutes of warmup and 15-30 minutes of cooldown and stretching in my aerobic workouts. That makes the overall average heart rate too low to qualify. I could fix it, but I don't really care all that much about how Garmin categorize my workouts. I know myself what I have been doing.

laaria, your last message suggests that you have not attempted yet the MaxHR test described in the video, correct ?

If that is correct, then talking about if you are or not above or below your anaerobic threshold, like here:

laaria said:

The recovery time has got to get your HR back to below aerobic ( 2 minutes wasnt long enough for me.. my HR remained aerobic  so i didnt fully recover

is meaningless. The watch needs to know your thresholds in order to give you the feedback that you are looking for from it. As you have not attempted the MaxHR test yet, your bands are - consequently - wrong and the watch overestimates your potential since it is using an unrealistically high MaxHR at the moment. You should ignore the Training Effects the watch is showing you until you have had this MaxHR sorted.

It could very well be that your MaxHR isn't as high as you think it is: the purpose of the test is precisely to show you what it is in reality. Let's assume you find out your MaxHR is "only" 165 (vs the 186 the watch is presently using). Populate 165 in the watch and you should be able to start recording Anaerobic benefits at say 150 roughly, which from your initial post should be doable.

=> proper output from the watch shouldn't be expected if the input data it has been fed with are incorrect.