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Hear rate advice

jeanie59 Posts: 10 Joined: 2003/01/17	2003/02/01, 06:44 AM Could someone give me advice. I've just recently joined a gym. The fitness instructor said to watch my hear rate and keep it down to 130. The stepper and this ski machine have my rate at up to 160. Is this dangerous, I'm not sure how to lower it without not working out as hard which surely is the point of being in the gym. I'm a 58 yr old women. Jeanie
dpking44 Posts: 470 Joined: 2002/08/07	2003/02/01, 10:06 AM Hi Jeanie: Take your age, subtract from 220, i.e., 220-58=162. This is your max heartrate. (It's important to know this max heartrate could be higher depending on your fitness level) You should try to train in the 60%-80% range of that 162 equating to 97-130 bpm. Now this is a general guideline for those just getting started in physical fitness. If you feel you're already in pretty good shape, you can train in the 85-90% range for short periods of time. I think your fitness instructor is telling you to be careful and he/she is correct. If your heartrate is at 160 when you're doing the stepper, you're already very close to your max heartrate for your age. Again, this is all dependent on your fitness level. I'm 43 and I train at the 90% range often myself. On a typical run for me which is about 25-35 minutes, my heartrate will stay around 82-87%. I run 4 miles at about a 7 minute pace or so. When I bike, my heartrate will ramp up into the 90% range. Hope this helped. DP
jeanie59 Posts: 10 Joined: 2003/01/17	2003/02/02, 06:23 AM Spot on advice just what I neaded. You're obviously very fit and have a good all round knowledge of how the body works. Many thanks. Regards Jeanie
dpking44 Posts: 470 Joined: 2002/08/07	2003/02/02, 08:07 AM Thanks Jeanie, glad I could help a bit. Again, good luck.
Carivan Posts: 8,542 Joined: 2002/01/20	2003/02/02, 12:44 PM A little addition that might be important or might not. Jeanie...if you have high blood pressure, keep the heartrate at 100 for the first few months. -------------- Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt! Ivan Montreal Canada
dpking44 Posts: 470 Joined: 2002/08/07	2003/02/02, 12:56 PM Indeed carivan, good point. Overall health and/or fitness level dictates what levels you should train at. Doc's advice is the best.
Carivan Posts: 8,542 Joined: 2002/01/20	2003/02/02, 01:11 PM My wife had hypertension, and now the bp is normal,( no meds) that was the docs advice last year. -------------- Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt! Ivan Montreal Canada
Lonegirl Posts: 446 Joined: 2002/11/13	2003/02/03, 10:58 PM A more exact way of finding out your heart rate should be is by first taking a resting heart rate. Target HR+(MaxHR-RestHR)*Range (percentage)+RestHR ie: a 40yr female with resting HR of 68 with a goal of 60% max HR would be ~135 (180-68)*0.6+68 112*0.6+68 67.2+68 135.2bpm THis is confusing at first but will take into consideration each person's fitness level. PAT
kristiann26 Posts: 1 Joined: 2006/01/31	2006/01/31, 04:24 AM im a little less than 240 lbs. It was my second time on the treadmill in yrs. and my heartrate was about 140 but then i sped up to only a brisk walk only 2.9 and an incline of 1.5, suddenly i felt a light palpatation and my heartrate began to climb rapidly to 180... i was very scared amd hit the stop button... i started feeling so very hot and nauseous. i got off and drank some water and sat down - in a short time, i felt alot better but it still scared me.... is this normal for a beginner? how slow should i take it?