Hi,
I've just gone on calcium channel blockers (Verapamil 40mg 3x a day) for microvascular heart disease; along with atorvastatin and aspirin.
Anyway I seem to be tolerating them fine, unlike previous times on beta blockers, but I'm really finding it limiting my heart rate. I know that's part of what calcium channel blockers do, but my max hr was around 182 and now on the turbo it seems my max is down to 150-ish bpm. Power at that new max hr is only around what was FTP level and i just don't seem to be able to maintain that, or go much harder at all. 150bpm would have been lower sweet spot powers in the past. Really only ~140bpm feels sustainable effort wise on the turbo.
Am I likely to be able to increase my power or muscular endurance with the new heart rate limit, or am effectively going to end up detraining and losing power?
Although the max hr has been 'artificially 'lowered I would assume that working at a high percentage of the new limit would be unsustainable as it would be with my 'natural' max hr? It certainly feels it just now.
Is there an adjusting time with this?
I'm not racing at all, but outside of covid-19 restrictions I like endurance rides, road, gravel, mtb, so still want a reasonable FTP to allow me to work for a longer period without the power being too low, the hr being too high, and not hold my friends up too much.
Any experiences or thoughts appreciated.
Kevin
I've just gone on calcium channel blockers (Verapamil 40mg 3x a day) for microvascular heart disease; along with atorvastatin and aspirin.
Anyway I seem to be tolerating them fine, unlike previous times on beta blockers, but I'm really finding it limiting my heart rate. I know that's part of what calcium channel blockers do, but my max hr was around 182 and now on the turbo it seems my max is down to 150-ish bpm. Power at that new max hr is only around what was FTP level and i just don't seem to be able to maintain that, or go much harder at all. 150bpm would have been lower sweet spot powers in the past. Really only ~140bpm feels sustainable effort wise on the turbo.
Am I likely to be able to increase my power or muscular endurance with the new heart rate limit, or am effectively going to end up detraining and losing power?
Although the max hr has been 'artificially 'lowered I would assume that working at a high percentage of the new limit would be unsustainable as it would be with my 'natural' max hr? It certainly feels it just now.
Is there an adjusting time with this?
I'm not racing at all, but outside of covid-19 restrictions I like endurance rides, road, gravel, mtb, so still want a reasonable FTP to allow me to work for a longer period without the power being too low, the hr being too high, and not hold my friends up too much.
Any experiences or thoughts appreciated.
Kevin