I have been taking my heart rate as soon as I wake up in the morning for about a week now. Wanted to update what I was using to figure my target heart rate. Last year I was low 60s, this year pretty consistent 53-54 bpm. Would like to get it down to the high 40s by year end. What’s everybody else’s resting hr? I remember Tom D mentioning 41 or something similiar.
I am 56 years old and consider myself to be fit for my age (maybe no one else does though) :~)). I am 5’10", 145#, 5% body fat and have a waking/resting heart rate of 42 or 43. Hope this helps.
Aloha,
Larry
I’m low 40’s.
Ed
Comparing different people is kind of useless, some have higher or lower resting points than others. It’s good to measure trends. If you are fatigued or sick you might see changes which is infinitely more useful than what your low is.
Wolfwood has it right comparing your resting hr to everyone ealse is not useful except just out of interest. HR to a large degree is genetic but is trainable to an extent. It is like comparing your HR training zones to someone ealses they are rarely the same but sometimes close. Like he said your own resting rate and trends up or down are more helpful than comparing resting HR. I’m 59, 6’, 165# with resting HR upper 30’s-low 40’s. If mine gets to 45 I start thinking overtraining or illness.
Agree with the last two posts.
I believe one of the former world record holders for the marathon (Clayton I think his name was) never had a HR lower than 60. Genetics is a large part of it. A lower number does not always mean you’re fitter.
I’m 49, 6-3, 163 lbs with a RHR of 39. My max HR is dropping as I get older. Used to be in the mid 180 area. Now I can hammer up 20 Vilano bridges as hard as I can go and I can’t get over the mid 160’s. I’ll try a running max HR this week and see what happens. Normally the MAX is higher on the run.
I’m 41, and my resting HR is 38-40. My max HR, however, is relatively low also (end of sprint du, pushing it ready to vomit after finish line, max HR is 182). I think everyone has a different range, and as mentioned in a previous post, look for trends. For example, I “know” what running at 155 BPM feels like (perceived effort) and translates into in terms of speed. If I go out for a run, and my perceived effort feels like it does at 155, but my BPM is 140 when I look at my watch, I’m in the “overtraining” zone.
I was concerned that I couldn’t get my resting heart rate below 50 until I talked with a Cardiologist. My HR Max is higher than most everyone I know and I have had to adjust my training zones to reflect that difference.
It is very individual and something that you either have to figure out on your own by destroying yourself on a treadmill or if you are lucky, you have a friend that works at a college lab that can test HR Max, VO2 Max, etc.
I wouldn’t worry if you can’t get your resting heart rate down to where everyone else does. They are probably on EPO anyway.
I am 28 and my resting HR is in the low 50s. It has been high for the past week or so since I had my bike crash. I went in and got X-rayed, and was told it is just because my muscles are still tense and bruised, so it is a little harder for me to breathe right now. If only those dogs would stay out of my way…haha!
------->Trent
I’m 38, 5’6", 140 lbs, with a rest HR of 38-45 depending on how rested/overtrained I am. I would not worry about lowering your rest HR. Once you have achieved a certain level of fitness, it will be what it will be. My max HR was tested at 195 bpm back in 1994, but I have not tested to “failure” in the past decade but have seen 190 bpm in all out sprints at the top of steep 2K climb. I typically race Olympic tri at 170-180 bpm, Half Ironman at 155-175 and Ironman at sub 120-160 bpm if this is any help.
I was just at the Dr’s and during the EKG (laying on the table) HR was 38. Normally just sitting around it would be about 42 to 48. BP is 90 over 68.
Just a note on your BP. It probably isn’t correct. I had the same issue. It’s a “result” of your low HR. Okay, let me explain before I get jumped on. The nurse/doctor is taking your BP too fast; when you have a low HR, they need to slow down with the cuff pressure release, since there is so much time between beats. If they don’t hear the blood gushing through on beat 1 (say, at 130), the pressure drops too far before beat 2 (drops to 90 on the meter before beat 2). They hear the blood get through at 90, and record that as your systolic. If they went slower, and the meter only went to 105 by the time beat 2 happened, they may find that your systolic is really 105.
Just some info that I learned from my company doctor. A great internist, he loved to poke, prod, and treat me like some kind of strange specimen. A little nuts, but really took an interest and gladly fixed road rash (while telling me to stop this madness, and that marriage would ruin my health!).
howdy,
Mine resting heart rate is 34.
I’m 47 and been racing tris for 18 years. My resting HR used to be 38 to 42 till I got sick. Then it dropped to about 25. Had a pacemaker put in shortly after that,(July 1999) and now the pacemaker won’t let it drop below 55. Too low is not a good thing.
Interesting. Question–Could a low HR also cause a false “high” BP reading (esp. on the computerized sphygmomanometers) for the same reason as a false low? In other words, the computer does not wait long enough and shuts down the test at a higher BP?
I more or less asked the question out of morbid curiousity, I am doing my max and min hr to set up my personal training zones. I am curious if anyone knowsif a low hr will give a false bp reading on an electronic reader, which is what i am using. I thought my bp was higher than i remembered.
How about a different but maybe more relevent question? I got a Polar S410 HRM a little over a year ago. It comes with a feature Polar calls “Ownself” which seems to be a blended VO2 max/physical fitness test. I “scored” (read embarassed myself) with a value of 34 initially ( a year ago and 26 pounds heavier). Since then I have upped the value to 55 where it has been consistently for over the last six months. Does anyone else have this monitor or other Polar monitor with the ownself feature (duh!)? Have you gotten higher values?? Do you have an accurate VO2 max value to correlate with your Ownself score??? I’d love it if there was enough data points to plot VO2 max with the Ownself values.
25, 155lbs, 5’10" resting heart rate in the low 40s, can hit 225bpm running and maintain around 200bpm in a 5k, max on my bike is high 190s. hit 196 (highest ever) in a time trial a month ago that ended with a huge climb.
I’m 29 and use to have a resting pulse of 37-38 until I started taking Advair, now it’s artificially raised to 45 bpm.
Dave from VA
PS some of the best athletes I know have resting pulses in the 60’s but max HR’s in the low 200’s.