max heart rate

[dieselrower1k]

When calculating your max heart rate via step test or other max effort, do you use the sustained max or the peak max? I often have peaks for several seconds that are are 20-30 beats higher than what has been sustained during max efforts. For example: 5x5 minute max efforts, max sustained HR is 170ish, but 200ish is hit for several seconds on 1 or 2 of the set. No I don't have AFIB, I've had it checked.

[oldman]

Try a longer protocol. Five minutes is hardly enough time to produce a reliable max. Go for an Eric Murray hour, staying just below bonk and then lighting it up in the last 2K.

[sandor]

6k / 30 min non-rate capped pieces are usually when i start to see my actual max heart rate.

It’s always sustained & a linear progression over the course of the piece.


Over the past 12 years that i have been tracking it, i find that periods of low intensity steady state with little-to-no higher intensity work = about 10-12 bpm lower achievable “max” heart rate until i get some high intensity work over the course of several weeks, then it is back to norm.

[samtaylor]

When I read the original post, what I see is a reading error/data anomaly. 20-30 beats over anything else in the workout is not something to base your info on. The other posters have some good tips- all out 2k will usually produce max HR as well. But when you look at the file after, don't just look at the Max field, look at the graph and make sure there's a ramp to Max HR, not a spike.

Sam

[limegreenspeed]

I'd come down somewhere in the middle here. Your heartrate shouldn't suddenly jump 20-30 beats in unless you're going from relatively easy steady state to close to max effort, in which case if you're fit and well trained, it will jump those 20-30 beats relatively quickly but progressively -- from say 135 to 165. If you do see it jumping that many beats and you are making an increased effort, or you're pushing to sustain the power, then I'd suspect that the max is your max.

Most (all?) people will not be able to sit at their max for very long, if at all. Your max heart rate is the highest heart rate you have seen (adjust down as you age if it's been a few years, I believe we lose roughly a beat a year after we turn twenty -- see this study on Eskild Ebbessen - https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Full ... ic.13.aspx?). So to answer the question you asked, max HR is not your max sustained HR.

[sandor]

I'd come down somewhere in the middle here. Your heartrate shouldn't suddenly jump 20-30 beats in unless you're going from relatively easy steady state to close to max effort, in which case if you're fit and well trained, it will jump those 20-30 beats relatively quickly but progressively -- from say 135 to 165. If you do see it jumping that many beats and you are making an increased effort, or you're pushing to sustain the power, then I'd suspect that the max is your max.

Most (all?) people will not be able to sit at their max for very long, if at all. Your max heart rate is the highest heart rate you have seen (adjust down as you age if it's been a few years, I believe we lose roughly a beat a year after we turn twenty -- see this study on Eskild Ebbessen - https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Full ... ic.13.aspx?). So to answer the question you asked, max HR is not your max sustained HR.

To me that was the amazing thing about Eric Murray holding 97.5% max heart rate for 53 minutes of his hour piece (196 & he hit a max of 201)

[limegreenspeed]

I'd come down somewhere in the middle here. Your heartrate shouldn't suddenly jump 20-30 beats in unless you're going from relatively easy steady state to close to max effort, in which case if you're fit and well trained, it will jump those 20-30 beats relatively quickly but progressively -- from say 135 to 165. If you do see it jumping that many beats and you are making an increased effort, or you're pushing to sustain the power, then I'd suspect that the max is your max.

Most (all?) people will not be able to sit at their max for very long, if at all. Your max heart rate is the highest heart rate you have seen (adjust down as you age if it's been a few years, I believe we lose roughly a beat a year after we turn twenty -- see this study on Eskild Ebbessen - https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Full ... ic.13.aspx?). So to answer the question you asked, max HR is not your max sustained HR.

To me that was the amazing thing about Eric Murray holding 97.5% max heart rate for 53 minutes of his hour piece (196 & he hit a max of 201)

Not to get too into the weeds/pedantic on this, because I agree that what he did is remarkable even from the perspective of what his HR did, but looking it up quickly it looks like he sat on 191/2 with some drift and hit 199 in the final minutes (the final minutes were an ave, so maybe you know more and he did hit 201). About 12-7 bpm from max. Bond was 171 and maxed at 182. https://www.rowingrelated.com/2013/12/v ... urray.html

[sandor]

I'd come down somewhere in the middle here. Your heartrate shouldn't suddenly jump 20-30 beats in unless you're going from relatively easy steady state to close to max effort, in which case if you're fit and well trained, it will jump those 20-30 beats relatively quickly but progressively -- from say 135 to 165. If you do see it jumping that many beats and you are making an increased effort, or you're pushing to sustain the power, then I'd suspect that the max is your max.

Most (all?) people will not be able to sit at their max for very long, if at all. Your max heart rate is the highest heart rate you have seen (adjust down as you age if it's been a few years, I believe we lose roughly a beat a year after we turn twenty -- see this study on Eskild Ebbessen - https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Full ... ic.13.aspx?). So to answer the question you asked, max HR is not your max sustained HR.

To me that was the amazing thing about Eric Murray holding 97.5% max heart rate for 53 minutes of his hour piece (196 & he hit a max of 201)

Not to get too into the weeds/pedantic on this, because I agree that what he did is remarkable even from the perspective of what his HR did, but looking it up quickly it looks like he sat on 191/2 with some drift and hit 199 in the final minutes (the final minutes were an ave, so maybe you know more and he did hit 201). About 12-7 bpm from max. Bond was 171 and maxed at 182. https://www.rowingrelated.com/2013/12/v ... urray.html

i have no knowledge except for what the guy in the video said @ 1:30-1:37

[limegreenspeed]

Coincidentally / funnily enough, I ran into a similar problem on my bike the other day while climb a big hill on a group ride. I have topped out at high 170s / 181 on recent all-out efforts. Maybe 2/3 through the hill I was sitting at 179/180 and my HR spiked to 187/188 pretty suddenly, and I couldn't feel any major change in my HR (usually I can sense where I am at and when its increasing, etc). At the end of the ride my watch had 190 as my peak HR. I am skeptical it was a legit reading but it could have been. I'll have to see whether I see similar numbers ever again or whether that was a one off.

Hard to judge but factors counting against: I haven't ever seen 190 while erging, rowing or running and all three are more 'whole body' exercises that I believe tend to produce higher maxes than cycling. Things that count for: it was a full out effort, 188 isn't out of the question (unlike, say, 205).

[JD]

dehydration/electrolytes may be cause of this.