Maximum Heart Rate

The comment about my high heart rate made me begin to wonder about it, too. I'm not using a heart rate monitor and never have; I've always used the talk test and have figured that when my body gives out, I can't breathe, or I want to puke, then that's the limit. But I've been taking my heart rate for the last couple of workouts during the water breaks out of curiosity, and was surprised to find myself reaching nearly 190. Even during the stretch yesterday in the cardio circuit, I was still at 157 bpm at the end of seven minutes.

My resting heart rate has gone from 60 to about 56 in the last three weeks. Because my resting heart rate is low, I assume I am not overtraining. (One of the signs of overtraining is an elevated resting heart rate.) I still wanted to look into what's safe, though, especially considering my medical history.

If you use the typical maximum heart rate equation you always hear about (220 minus age), my absolute maximum would be 187. Therefore, for me, 85% of maximum that denotes the anaerobic threshold would be 159. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about all of this, and it's hard to know whom to believe. Although there are lots of sources that would support the above (that I should stay below 159), there are just as many that say that equation is not applicable to everyone and that it's not even physically possible to reach your maximum heart rate, so there's nothing to worry about.

I e-mailed my boss, the owner of the fitness center where I teach. He's a chiropractic physician and a professional bodybuilder (and a yogi), and I have always considered him the final word on fitness matters. I then walked around with phantom heart pains until I got his response! Good news:

"... HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is cutting-edge aerobic technology. The program you are on is only one of a multitude of ways to do it, but it's obviously working well for you. The formula you mention for estimating maximum heart rate is just that. Your real maximum heart rate is really what you can bring it up to. Therefore, it's impossible for you to have exceeded it. For a healthy person, the higher you can raise your heart rate, the better -- and that's why HIIT improves our aerobic conditioning so well. Keep up the good work and don't listen to any well-meaning critics."

I haven't had any critics, but I guess that means to avoid the same sorts of "experts" who told me not to lift more than 25 pounds while I was pregnant. It seems logical that our bodies would have their own built-in "stoppers," and I'm sure cavemen weren't running around worried about their heart rates while hunting. So, bring on Pure Cardio tomorrow! It's a good thing today is a rest day. I was up most of the night with a child with a screaming, thrashing ear infection whose ear drum ruptured overnight. He and I are both pretty physically worthless today, poor kid.