Recently went to the doctor for some tests and really surprised the doctor and nurse with my own resting heart rate(35-40 beats per minute). Also found out I’ve got an enlarged heart, but said this was ok for someone doing endurance sports. I started wondering if this was common for triathletes ?
I know that a low resting HR isn’t uncommon, as far as the enlarged heart goes, I have no idea.
I’ve got a low resting HR (38-42) but it goes way up the second I start doing anything (even standing). So I don’t feel I get any benefit from it, but that’s my n=1.
Low resting HR is considered good/healthy and often correlates with heightened endurance.
I’ve heard people say things along line of “your heart is capable of only so many beats …” and “The candle that burns half as bright…”
I too have a enlarged heart… I went and had a echo done to ensure there were no issues… I’m no expert, but it was explained to me that when it’s the inside of the Left Ventricle thats enlarged is a bad thing… If the chamber space isn’t effected then its just a strong heart. I’m sure someone else here could explain that better though.
I don’t know the exact figures so don’t quote me on this but I seem to remember a study on endurance athletes showing their hearts increased in size yearly with the exertion they put upon them. Its an adaption thing but once the heart gets above a certain size (or the proportions change) that’s when you have to be worried
The 3 lies told most often on slowtwitch: FTP (obviously), VO2 Max, and resting heart rate.
(Not directed at you. )
How do people measure their resting heart rate? I use my Polar v800, which takes an average over 3 minutes. This seems to be more accurate than if I randomly sample 15 or 30 seconds, which often leads to lower resting HR than the 3 minute average method.
Recently went to the doctor for some tests and really surprised the doctor and nurse with my own resting heart rate(35-40 beats per minute). Also found out I’ve got an enlarged heart, but said this was ok for someone doing endurance sports. I started wondering if this was common for triathletes ?
Both normal.
As mentioned above, people with low heart rates when sitting comfortably still (not lying down) generally see it rapidly pick up the moment they stand up and start doing something. From a stroke standpoint, its better not to have too low a rate. As far as enlargement goes, an enlarged atrium is not necessarily a big deal, but an enlarged ventricle needs to be monitored. Of course I’m talking about centimeters larger than a few years ago when it was measured. Some people are born with larger hearts so its not an anomaly for them to have enlarged hearts.
I’ve heard people say things along line of “your heart is capable of only so many beats …” by people whose candle only burns half as bright…"
FIFY.
This past March I needed an EKG prior to a prostate cancer procedure, almost 65yo, RHR was 32.
Have another EKG this coming Wednesday for another PCa operation, curious to see what RHR is since I have not been exercising as much as earlier in the year. Last year an ECHO revealed some minor regurgitation issues with 3 valves and I still have a murmur from infancy.
Recently went to the doctor for some tests and really surprised the doctor and nurse with my own resting heart rate(35-40 beats per minute). Also found out I’ve got an enlarged heart, but said this was ok for someone doing endurance sports. I started wondering if this was common for triathletes ?
Very common. Majority of endurance athletes RHR will scare doctors the first time they take it. I had a new nurse take mine and she was about to say something was wrong until she looked at previous measurements.
When my doctor saw I had an enlarged heart (got a chest x-ray for something else entirely), he first had me reduce exercise volume for a month and did an x-ray again to see if it had reduced in size (it had). Then, just to be safe, he sent me to a specialist to get an EKG to check function. I had thought that must be standard procedure, but I guess not.
Very common. Majority of endurance athletes RHR will scare doctors the first time they take it. I had a new nurse take mine and she was about to say something was wrong until she looked at previous measurements.
5 years ago I was in a cycling accident, long story short, I ended up in an ambulance. Paramedics looked my at HR by placing a pulse oximeter on my finger. They saw it was in the mid 30s and were concerned, they thought that there was something wrong with the device. I told them it was normal and corroborated their measurements by showing them the reading on my Garmin 310 as I was still wearing my chest strap, we all had a chuckle.
After a few months of endurance training, it’s normal for the left ventricle to enlarge, allowing stroke volume (amount of blood pumped to body with each beat) to increase. When the heart pushes out more blood with each beat, then it needs to beat less frequently, as with your resting heart rate.
See:
http://www.hsc.csu.edu.au/...2-1-4/fac2_1_4_2.htm
-DJ
Funny, you guys say its common(i dont disagree) then say Dr’s and nurses who take these readings for a living are shocked because how rare…to funny
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Funny, you guys say its common(i dont disagree) then say Dr’s and nurses who take these readings for a living are shocked because how rare…to funny
Have you seen the people doctors and nurses deal with on a daily basis…
^^^^ LOL
for the OP also worthy of note, RHR can be a good indicator of if your overdoing it, using myself as an example, my RHR when fit ( not that I’m ever that fit…) and fully rested is 48-50 bpm, comonly after a decent hard workput it will be around 55 for a day or two, after an exeptionally hard week with no recovery it can be up around 65,
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I had a similar surprise when I started checking mine. Although it was commonly getting down to 30-32 when resting. Went in for an EKG and a 24hour tape, which confirmed nothing abnormal just very low heart rate. Subsequently had a full ultrasound which was an odd experience. They found one of my vavles regurgitating very slightly but nothing to worry about. Follow up ultrasound a year later to check wasn’t worsening but was fine. Another check up booked in five years to check its not worsening still.
Just put down to fitness and general condition. My advice, get it checked out fully for peace of mind.
I’ve got a low resting HR (38-42) but it goes way up the second I start doing anything (even standing). So I don’t feel I get any benefit from it, but that’s my n=1.
Low resting HR is considered good/healthy and often correlates with heightened endurance.
I’ve heard people say things along line of “your heart is capable of only so many beats …” and “The candle that burns half as bright…”
Those people don’t know how to do math. Googling average resting HR for adults gives answers that say 60-100 BPM, so we’ll use 80 for a non-athlete. Compare that with an athlete with a resting HR of 40.
There are 60247= 10,800 minutes per week. Let’s make the rough assumption that each persons HR is at resting rate when not exercising. Since the non-athlete isn’t exercising their total number of beats per week is 110,800*80 = 806,400.
For an athlete who exercises 15 hours per week at 150 BPM average (which is on the high side by a fair amount I’d say), we’ll do that math like this. 1 week at resting + 15 hours at (150-resting).
10,80040 = 432,000
1560*110 = 99,000 (15 hours * 60 minutes * (150-40bpm)
So, the athlete who exercises 15 hours per week only uses 531,000 beats per week. Almost 300,000 beats per week less than the average sedentary person. Even at 30 hours of exercise per week, the athlete is using 200k less beats per week.
Summary, if this was actually true, the sedentary guy would run out of beats and die long before the athlete.