Show me your heart rate?

Due to my long COVID, I bought a heart rate monitor to see what’s going on. Mainly so I can try to keep it down where possible. But I don’t really know what’s normal, as I never had one before COVID.

Here’s this evening. It’s at 124 because I had been stood up for half an hour, washing the dishes and tidying the kitchen, and then trudged upstairs. What’s not particularly obvious: a 600m walk to a nearby cafe. The walk home is probably the grey splodge in the middle. The 137bpm peak? Absolutely no idea. Possibly hanging out some washing, but equally it might just have been getting out of a chair. No recollection at all.

What’s yours like? Generally, or today in particular. How much would it spike if you washed the dishes or walked to the shop or went upstairs?

Mine would spike massively if I washed the dishes.

Not long back from a club ride and hovering around 54 at the moment. When resting can go below 40.

I’ve always had a low resting HR, genetic rather than fitness I think.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>The optical HR can be a bit dodgy so wouldn’t trust it entirely. 124 seems fairly high for dishwashing, but not ridiculous – mine can go up quite a bit just contemplating going for a ride! The 137 might just be a blip in the optical sensor. Wear a HR chest strap if you want to accurately track it. Here’s mine – the high bit is climbing a virtual Sa Calobra in the garage.</p>

Cycled to work sat at desk, cycled to park for lunch. Cycled home. Total cycle around 14 miles. Had dinner, chilled then went for 5 mile run which gave the 172 high heart rate. The cycling was much  easier going. 44 at lowest probably sat at desk, 72 now = recovering from run.

<p style=”text-align: right;”>I generally hit about 110 pushing the hoover or lawn mower about. Dont know about the dishes because we have a dishwasher.</p>

Ah – connect gives you more detail. Here’s my day in more detail. I did do some dishes at about 8.45 am – seemed to get up to about 100bpm.

We’re all different with different “normal” resting and max heart rates.

This is mine from today, resting HR of 46 which is typical for me. Peaked at just below 120 at work, then 175 riding tonight but felt like more at the time!

Garmin seems to do a good job of levelling it out.

42 resting, generally mid 50s if I’m dossing around the house. Highest today was 108 but I’ve not even been out for a walk so not surprising.

The optical HR can be a bit dodgy so wouldn’t trust it entirely. 124 seems fairly high for dishwashing, but not ridiculous

Yeah I wouldn’t want to bet on the accuracy, but it seems to get the general trend. At the point I took that pic at 124, I had just started feeling pretty rough and needed to sit down for a bit (as is common when my heart rate goes up). It had been showing about 130 a few moments before that.

It’s good to see other people’s stats – I am envious of all your ability to get out and exercise! (Serious note) Remember to be thankful because it can be whipped away from you without warning!

Lowest would be high 40s, sitting around about 60, doing regular stuff 70s, and hard work or proper exercise up around 140s, max 160s in max effort climbing/sprinting on the bike. Anxiety more than effort is what spikes mine.

What is the broader picture, hard to know how (ab)normal that HR is.
How old are you to get a sense of possible max HR, and what range of heart rate you have
Does that 124 feel abnormal for you, or were you feeling dandy

Different people have different physiology,
I am 58yrs, RHR 48ish, maxHR 173
My wife same age is RHR 65, max 195, but all her family are high-beaters.

Worth tracking over a week or so to see how things look over an extended period, and doing different activities

This is Wednesday. Not sure that the Garmin optical wrist HRM is that accurate (seems to read a bit under during activity) but it does seem to be consistent.

RHR average is usually around 58/59. Bits of tonight’s club ride felt tougher than 157 though (max HR is currently around 175-180 as far as I can tell).

From what I’ve read the new generation Garmin optical sensors are pretty good. Mine seems to match my chest strap, except when occasionally it’s way out whilst riding downhill fast where I think the wrist position is suboptimal.

I know how you feel Doris!

At the age of 50, my resting heart rate was around 58-60, just three years ago. Then came the cancer diagnosis and successful treatment, then the subsequent pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis. I now have a resting rate in the mid to high 80’s and seem to max out / pass out, around 160.

Who needs recreational drugs when nowadays, standing up from the kitchen table is such a rush! :-)

Take it easy buddy and if you’re really worried, go see a doc. They’re pretty good at finding out if you’re okay or not!

B.

I have a really broad HR range. Normal ‘hard’ exercise, I’m pushing 170, but if I really push I can hit 190. I’m 44 and this max HR doesn’t seem to be coming down with age. Resting is 41 when asleep, low. 50’s if in the office or just sitting down

Heart rate numbers are highly personal and comparisons are pretty meaningless.

A steady run for me is typically 110-120 (yesterday 50 mins av 115 max 130 according to my garmin). Racing I can barely break 160 (last weekend’s minor 10k was av 153 max 160, I was first in my age cat). Lying in bed typing this on my phone, my pulse is all the way up to 38 from the overnight 36.

I’m no superstar, just got a large heart apparently. Maybe it will go pop one day but I’m already far too old to die tragically young from an undiagnosed defect.

As others have said, its a personal thing and doesnt always lend itself to comparison. I have ran competitively for over 40 years so although my fitness has dropped off a lot (I am 58) my resting rate is still very low and i always had a low maximum. I could race at <5 min milling and my HR didnt go above about 160. My max was only around 175. My lowest resting measure was around 30 so its crept up slightly.

Last 7 day average

From an easy run yesterday

Walking the dog at a steady pace, mine will be 90 bpm. That was my resting HR when I had covid first time around. Resting now is about 50-55. Before covid it was 42-45.

I’ve given it a hard time on recent club rides and it seems to still get up to my max of 187. I’m 55.

Apple Watch 6 matches my Garmin chest strap (and Tickr) very well. It records most of my exercise.

<p>Doris – I’ve also got long covid and having a HR sensor on all the time has really helped me pace well. I also find the sleep monitor useful so something to look into. I believe the LC pacing advice is to keep within 55% of your max heart rate. For me, I knew my historical max is 209 from various FTP tests over the years. So I’m working within 55% of 209 = 115 bmp. This does seem to work quite well as I’ve not been crashing when sticking to this. </p><p>Unfortunately, it’s very easy to exceed 55% of your max – walking uphill, aggressive cleaning of pots, cleaning etc so you’ve got to be careful. </p><p>There isn’t much point comparing between two people as it varies so much – some people will have a naturally low HR – say max of 150 and, therefore, lower numbers all the time. Where as, you sound more like a humming bird like myself… (The 220 minus age thing thing is a lot of crap.)</p><p>One thing I’ve noticed is that the temperature can have a massive effect. Hotter = higher bmp. Quite confusing if you can do a certain walk route successfully one day when it’s cooler but then the next day your HR is way over the 55% on the same route.</p>

I’m not quite normal. I used to have a resting of about 45, then I had my massive hole in my heart fixed.

For extra info if useful:

My resting HR is around 53 just now. Used to be in the mid 40s when I was fit.

108 average, 132 max on a 50 minute stroll around the local park yesterday.

Max used to be 209 a couple years back before covid. I’m going no where near that just now to test…

Yesterday for me.

Resting was 44 and highest was 143 (lunch-time gravel ride of 17m & 1150ft for 1.5 hours, averaged 112), but, on a non-riding day I won’t break 90.

Highest now for me is 170 as I find if I push it higher it bollox’s me for the following day or so, so I don’t.

Age 58.

Optical heat rate can be confused by liquid so it might be the washing up raising your rate that way.

My resting is high 30s or low 40s, max is 188. Normal pottering about the house would be 60ish

I’m not sure absolute numbers are particularly useful here tbh. For the first six months of long covid for me, my heart rate would hit 135bpm walking up the stairs and just sat down it would be in the 80s. As I gradually improved, my HR dropped markedly. I never knew what my walking HR was before, but during recovery I found on the flat it started in the 80s/90s, but over time dropped back down to the 60s and 70s, but it depends on pace.

Going uphill it would rise to 110-115bpm even taken slowly, again that dropped. I tried to keep my HR below 100bpm on walks after advice from a recovery trainer and found much more than that would bring on PEM, but that gradually improved and there was a point where I stopped monitoring HR altogether because I found it actually stressed me out, but that was when I was back on the bike and considerably improved.

Stood up first thing in the morning my RHR is now mid to high 40s/low 50s. Prone RHR is considerably lower, seated is somewhere between the two.

Using a HRM during resistance stuff was interesting. Turns out static core stuff like planking increase my HR far more than more dynamic exercises in many cases.

I’d look at trends over time rather than comparing to other people, as that’s what’ll tell you useful stuff. I use the ithlete app to measure HRV but it also records RHR and it dropped slowly over time as I recovered.

For reference, my HR now sat typing this is 57, if I walk up the stairs…. it is… erm 61 at the top of the stairs after a brisk ascent, which is a bit of a change from 135. But there’s also a HR lag, so it rose to 72 when I walked back down and sat down. I’ve already done the washing up and I’m not about to do it again :-)

I don’t know if you’ve looked at breathing exercises, but if not, it may be worth exploring. A lot of long haulers have been diagnosed with dysfunctional breathing, which can make a big difference to pretty much everything. Think driving a car with a hugely clogged air filter.

Don’t know if that’s much help, but all the best with your recovery, hope things improve for you, I know all too well how frustrating and debilitating it all is.

An hour in the gym this morning

Screenshot_20230817_083620_Samsung Health by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Sat in my home office now after a strong coffee and a fag

20230817_083759 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Had a medical recently and flagged up as low as it was mid 40’s

Interesting this as i had a bout of covid around October last year. Since then my rhr has gone from 60 to 75 ish. and my average hr is now around 90! (as well as feeling rubbish)

Mates think its amusing when i go to the pub and after a pint my watch starts flashing abnormal hr.

it is a bit worrying though.

OP, have you been checked out for AF, especially with long covid ? The racing HR AND feeling unwell can be a sign. My BIL developed AF in his late 50’s after a virus (and never exercising). It’s not too bad, but he can feel wonky if it goes up – not super high though. I have another mate, regular cyclist, has had cancer, but he’s left with AF, but sometimes his hits 180, and it’s a hospital visit to get it sorted.

As others have said, HR is very individual. Overnight mine is mid 40’s but will spike if I get up – certainly jumps as I’m getting the bike out. I can still hit over 190 bpm on a climb at 53.

42 – 73kg (2kg overweight after injury, illness, work pressure and holiday)  BMI of 21.9.  This was yesterday.  The two spikes are my 1hr cycle each way cycle commute.  The mid day one was my walk for lunch which was higher than it normally is…not sure why.

Resting = mid-50s
Pottering & chores = sub-100
Exercise = 130-170 depending on intensity

Just had a strong coffee and it’s 53 atm.

Currently trying to manage post viral fatigue, but it hasn’t altered my heart rate. I’m not exercising beyond walking as it just wipes me out at the moment. OP, if you check your pulse does it match the watch reading?

Covid appears to have affected me differently to most. My RHR did rise from mid 40 to mid 50s during the first few weeks of infection. RHR returned to mid 40s after about three weeks, but once I went back to exercise (too early), my max had been reduced from 182 to 155. I also had no stamina/recovery after peak effort.

My max now sits at 170. My LTHR has also dropped from 162 to a paltry 143.

What do people actually interpret from all of their accumulated HR data?

Today I Drove in, so 1/4 mile march from the car and up 3 flights of stairs to desk, currently sat at ~60, showing H/L of 94/39 for this morning, Avg RHR for the last 7 days is 42…
I’ve No idea if any of that can be interpreted as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but surely it’s easier, more relevant to measure how your heart responds to and recovers from significant efforts rather than how it ticks over at rest.

So I’ve just been poking about on Veloviewer:

More recently:
34 miler on Sunday was: Avg 153 / Max 176
80 miler the weekend before: Avg 127 / Max 171
over the last year:
Max HR (riding) the last 12 months is 181, last hit that on a 24 mile road ride in Early June, also hit it in a CX Race last October, So looks like I push ~5-10bpm harder on shorter rides/races (unsurprisingly).

Going a bit further back I have a couple of efforts up in the 220s and one above 230 so maybe I’m slowing down.

That would suggest I have a pretty consistent upper limit to my Max HR, but tend to adjust my nominal work rate based on volume, is there much more to interpret?

I’ve pretty consistently recorded HR on rides (and a handful of runs) going back to Early 2017 so there’s about 6.5 years worth of data there but what sort of trends should I be looking for?

There’s lots of ways to filter/sort the numbers, I wonder if pre/post Covid Avg/Max show a difference, and if there’s any indicators on recovery rates changing over that specific time frame…

Resting 50 ish, under 100 all day inc walking half a mile to get lunch.

A day with exercise (road ride):

Polar HR by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

A day doing not much, walking to shops a couple of times:

Polar HR by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr