how do people get their heart rates up so high?
i can prob get my heart rate up to around 200 for a short swim RACE, but for tempo runs, which has the hard part at around 155-165 bpm for 20 mins. i feel like i couldn’t get it to go too far above 170 if at all. highest heart rate i seem to have ever had on the bike is in the high 160s. anyone got any comments on this?
Everyone’s different. Khai and I were talking about this on a ride last w/e, his HR is silly high and mine is far far lower than his. His max on the bike is something obscene like 208ish and mine is about 25 beats lower. For a 5k running race I’ll be in the mid 170’s, maybe get close to upper 170’s, max. My heart is very efficient and so will not beat as much as others. However, my VO2Max is crapp-eh, so that’s my limiter, not my heart.
Don’t worry about it. Just think to yourself that your heart is ever so much more efficient than others 
Genetics – your MHR is largely determined by genetics
They are in bad shape – ironically, the better shape you get in, the lower your MHR tends to be. It probably doesn’t really change that much in actual fact, but the difference is that it is quite difficult to put sufficient enough strain on your body when you are in really good shape to max out your HR. Do a MHR test on the treadmill if you really want to see how high you can get it. Normal workouts will rarely get you close to your MHR. Start out at about 3mph at like 6% incline. Then go up 1 mph and 3% every 2-3 minutes. You’ll max it out, provided it isn’t a crappy treadmill.
And I’d be surprised if you can get it up to 200 for a swim. It is much harder to get it up that high swimming since your BP is usually quite low when swimming since your body weight is fully supported. MHR for swimming is MUCH lower than for running.
rappstar i’m an ex swimmer. there is a massive difference between my max swim speed and ironman race pace. (read i’m unfit for swimming). it’s actually not that hard to get your heart rate right up for swimming as you are doing shorter distances and the intensity is prob a fair bit harder (?). a short run for me is 40 mins. a short swim in training is 25metres.
If you’re a (ex)swimmer, then it’s much more likely. Most people don’t have the muscular strength to push their bodies hard enough while in the water to max out their HR – muscular fatigue LONG before CV fatigue.
Your ability to get your HR up in the pool is similar to why you can’t get it up as much on the run – your swim specific muscular strength > swim fitness. On the run, your run fitness > run strength.
Power cleans and squats in the weight room will also tend to spike your HR very high.
heh any race over 50m induces muscular fatigue in me for swimming these days. i can also hold my breath for a fair while as well and the whole body exercise seems to make my hr go higher.
Holding your breath actually drops your HR. It spikes afterwards, but holding it does cause a HR drop. KInd of fun to see how low you can get it when you are at rest before you need to breath (stupid triathlete entertainment…)
holding your breath whilst exercising at a high intensity drops yr hr?
" Holding your breath actually drops your HR. It spikes afterwards, but holding it does cause a HR drop. KInd of fun to see how low you can get it when you are at rest before you need to breath (stupid triathlete entertainment…)"
It actually helps pass the time of day in a boring meeting, but you have to be careful not to be seen glancing at your watch. A bit tough if someone asks your opinion in the middle of it though.
Also you can try meditating quietly and then radiating beams of pure love and compassion to everyone in the room. Who says working in software is boring.
Holding your breath causes your HR to drop, even during exercise. I mean, if you are exercising vigorously, your HR will go up, and holding your breath will only mitigate that (i.e. holding your breath will keep your HR lower than if you did not). I don’t mean that if you hold your breath, you can drop your HR even while exercising. But if you hold your breath, your HR will NOT be as high as if you didn’t. It won’t reverse the effects of exercise, I hope you didn’t think that I meant that…
And if you were at a steady HR while running and you held your breath, you would see it drop even if you ran the same pace… It goes right back up as soon as you start breathing
Heart rate is neither an indicator of performance nor a measure of performance unless one thinks we should have a race of maximum heart rate. Comparing one individuals heart rate data to a different individuals heart rate data is not useful. Compare performance to performance. Split time or interval speed over the same course in the same conditions or average power measured over the same time.