I'm around 30 and have never hit 190bpm. Think your HRM is wrong :)

I have no idea what this reply means and I don't think you know either, good luck.

 

Replay from mvenneta should get you thinking about mathematical formulas and how effective they are, especially in situations like the one from original poster.

Ask yourself a question: Does he belong to the group of 80%-90% of general population.... ?

Will mathematical formulas that should apply to general population apply to him, especially in the case where he sees difference from his rather unusual norm ?

If heart issues could be calculated, we would be visiting mathematicians not doctors...or even better we could ask Siri: Siri please tell me what is wrong with my low heart rate :)


Siri would respond: Based on your last Ramp test and Bruce Protocol I have corrected your age in driver licences from 57 to 42 and updated your VO2Max as well, without even checking your VO2MAX

Side note Bruce protocol uses Karvonen method, we can't apply that because OP complains about low max HR, and Karvonen method uses HRmax - HRrest to calculate THR, which would make this mapping totally pointless.

So it is the later, a Bruce protocol does not use mathematical calculation for HR and will measure VO2 as well as CO2 when done with met cart. There is no normalization done when delivered as an open stress test. There are cycling equivalents as well. I only did these for 5 years as clinician in the late 90's, so take my knowledge as dated:)

I had something similar happen last year, and when I went back and looked at my training pattern I believe my problem was not enough recovery, and ramping up volume/intensity too quickly. My inability to get HR up no matter what I did, was coupled with fatigue and feeling generally crappy. I cut training way back to almost nothing for a week, and the small bit I did was at very leisurely pace. That helped to get things back on track.

Without a preceding test to compare to,I doubt Metabolics (O2 and CO2) would provide much insight. VO2max will be "normal to supranormal" given his activity level. Perhaps to evaluate substrate utilization if low-carb is suspected.

Exercise EKG (Bruce protocol or others) could be useful to inspect for conduction abnormalities. (Resting EKG is fairly lame).

In a former life I did this stuff daily. Now I make funny looking clothing for weirdo's on bikes.

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I read through the replies and besides the thyroid issue you are already working on, this one was what I was going to say;

I would not rule out age. The medical estimating tools are general and population based. Max HR decline may not be linear-- it could change in steps. Fact is, you are getting on in years and the medical textbooks would estimate your max HR at 164. Maybe taking a couple years off allowed your HR to catch up with the text books, and now you are looking at your new norm.
IT most certainly is not linear when talking about HR drops with age. I know I did not have any real drop until around my late 40's, then at some point I had a pretty big drop also. And I too have hypothyroid and have to take medication. I was in the low 200's in my younger days, and now it seems to be around low 170's, maybe even high 160's. And the treadmill test others are saying to do with the Bruce protocal, it is really just a way to torture yourself to max HR. I do it once a year actually in a Stress Echo. It can be brutal past the 20+minute range, think I held the record for a 50+ year old at almost 23 minutes one year..
Figure out the thyroid stuff and see if that makes any difference, otherwise as long as performance has not dropped off more than age should dictate, just reset your numbers and move on..