Max HR test

In the physiology lab where I work we won't perform max tests on people who have heart problems or are >40 years old and do not regularly reach this intensity in training. For most other people max tests are safe.

The test you have described sounds about right; a warm up, followed by a gradual (over 8 to 12 minutes) increase in intensity finishing with a big sprint. You will notice that when you hit your max heart rate, you will still be able to increase intensity without an increase in HR.

Moving on from this...

what determines your max HR? I'm told that the fitter you are the lower your max HR becomes. I know my max is 181. Using the standard formula (which I'm told is pap) I get a figure of 220-28=192. I couldn't get close to 192.

Yet exception to the rule - Lance Armstrong - how come he manages to push out a max of 201? What's that all about?

There are perhaps a few factors that determine max heart rate like stroke volume, the contractile properties of cardiac muscle, neural stimulation, etc. and there will be individual variation in each of these.

Perhaps the largest factor is stroke volume. Imagine that the larger a heart the longer it takes to contract and the fewer beats that can be completed in 1 minute. There is often a slight decrease in maximum heart rate (upto 5 bpm) with fitness and this is caused by an increase in the stroke volume in the heart which means less beats are completed in 1 minute.

Ultimately, MHR is determined by genetics, training status and health.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by james.dippel
Moving on from this...

what determines your max HR? I'm told that the fitter you are the lower your max HR becomes. I know my max is 181. Using the standard formula (which I'm told is pap) I get a figure of 220-28=192. I couldn't get close to 192.

Yet exception to the rule - Lance Armstrong - how come he manages to push out a max of 201? What's that all about?

The standard formula is actually correct (i.e., 220 - age) but has a standard deviation of (i think) +/- 15 b/min. I assume, that a series of max HR data was collected and a line of best fit was fitted to these data and the regression equation was maxHR=220-age.

Thus, there will always be people who differ from formula, but 97.5% of the population will fit within 2 standard deviations.

Ric (34 y o, HR max 200 b/min, not that it means much!)

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by ricstern
Ric (34 y o, HR max 200 b/min, not that it means much!)

Now don't be modest Ric! 😄
34 and a Max HR of 200 - thats a well looked after heart!

doesn't mean much... but it takes a heck of a lot of suffering to get there!

I'm not suprised that 97.5% of people fall within 2SD, thats one hell of a big range.

Here is a link posted in one of the other threads and to quote the paper 'the formula 220-age has no scientific merit for use in exercise physiology and related fields'.

http://www.css.edu/users/tboone2/asep/Robergs2.pdf

So far I've only read the abstract, but things clearly aren't as simple as 220-age. It apears that all univariate predictions are likely to be as much as >10 bpm out.

i have a resting rate of 45 but i can only get my max heart rate up to 174, any ideas why its so low (im 26)? can training improve your max heart rate?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Danneh
i have a resting rate of 45 but i can only get my max heart rate up to 174, any ideas why its so low (im 26)? can training improve your max heart rate?

assuming, of course, that you have no heart problems, it doesn't really matter what your max HR is. I've tested an 18 y old with a max of 165 b/min, who was a 1st cat.

training, will actually decrease your HR max, by maybe a few b/min.

the other point is that, it can be somewhat difficult to reach HRmax, you need to be *very* motivated and fairly well rested. As an aside, i've only twice in (ahem, cough, splutter) 19 years reached HRmax in a race. all the other times have been under controlled conditions in a lab etc.

Ric

Does it matter what the difference between your max and resting HR is? One friend suggested "you've more room to play around with "- ie big Mig had a lot of room with a resting HR of 28 and max over 200 I believe. My max HR measured so far is 178 and resting 43. Age 30.

No doesn't matter at all from a performance aspect.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Blackie
Does it matter what the difference between your max and resting HR is? One friend suggested "you've more room to play around with "- ie big Mig had a lot of room with a resting HR of 28 and max over 200 I believe. My max HR measured so far is 178 and resting 43. Age 30.

If your question means woulds omebody with more room be a better cyclist. The answer is not really.
The important thing is wat can you do with a stroke, how much does your power output go up when your hr goes up 1stroke.

I know guys with limited room(as you call it) 45 rest 170 max(note only 17 years old), but he still was one of the best riders in our country who could ride big parts of the race in front of the pack on his own and was in the top 10 of the winners ranking(mostly solo victory's on hilly routes). I raced with him and had way more room 40 upt to 205 but there was no way i Could beat him.

Hr is personal. Its nice to have a vieuw of how hard you are pushing youself(with its limits, it lacks a little and poor showing of short (but hard) intensity changes). Its nice to check if you are recoverd, to look for overtraining signs or form(RR(with its limits again)
But for inter personal comparision(straight out compare hr) I do 140 he 155 it has a limited not to say almost no use. Altough when you have 90 and the other one 160 you could safely state he's suffering more(or your battery is weak 😉 )

When I was riding as a junior in MTB races I could maintain 190-200 for 1hrs 30mins in races. I had a MaxHR of 219 and had seen my HR go as low as 28bpm during sleep.

I am 24 just now and have seen MaxHR of 203 in races conditions and resting below 40 while awake.

Has anyone else here worn their HRM during a whole nights sleep? Would be interested to see what kind of readings people get!

Anyone want to post the following info:
Resting HR (first thing in morning etc)
Avg + Max HR during sleep.
Age

Mike