HR Mythbusting

Beastt said:

Kudos on your achievements and having overcome cancer. We can all only hope that you never again have to deal with the ominous prognosis of such a disease.

As concerns some of your comments about heart attacks, I may be going out on a limb here but I need to ask; do you know what a heart attack is and what it isn't? There are many types of serious cardiac events. Heart attack (myocardial infarction), is just one of them and it can't happen just from applying a strain to the heart. It's also not just a natural side-effect of age. There are numerous cultures around the world with longevities in the 90s and up where heart attacks are almost unheard of. They are, for the most part, completely avoidable but you first have to give up the notion that Western diets are in any way heart-healthy.

I have to agree with a few other posters here, it may be possible to simply stress an older, but healthy heart, to the point of suffering a serious cardiac event. But the idea that age plus stress can automatically lead to a "heart attack" seems to ignore the mechanism of a heart attack. Unless the circulatory efficiency of your coronary arteries has been compromised, a heart attack won't just happen. If you can go out, apply stress to your heart and induce a heart attack, you weren't all that far from having one to begin with. It was just a matter of time and fully detectable -- even reversible.

Thanks for the kind words, Beastt. We pretty much agree on the discussion of heart events, but unfortunately even hearts that appear normal upon autopsy can have suffered what's known as "coronary spasm," as well as fatal arrhythmias. But, obviously, if there's an existing defect, that raises the risks significantly. The trouble is none of us knows whether or not we have such a defect, and the chances of having one rise with age.

But for the average person, the risks of not exercising far outweigh the minimal risks of the above.

And I certainly agree with you about our typical Western diet. The poisonous [censored] that the food industries market to us and our bought-and-paid-for government that allows it - I might have a heart event just thinking about it.

You guys are certainly heros....your prose have served to show me the how sad my life had become in respect to a healthy lifestye.

I am 53 years old, have always been pretty healthy but always suffered from knee problems. In college, I weighed 185-190 pounds at 6' in height. Being a professional, I got wound up with work and ballooned to 245 pounds by December of '06.

Looking at a photo of me, I became depressed. The fat pudgy face, bulging mid section, and balding head was more than I could take, I would be severely outy of breath climbing just a single flight of stairs, and finally on January 15 decided enough is enough.

By March 15 I was down to 223 and decided to get a bike. I began riding, could not even do 2 miles without my theighs burning and my chect heaving. Now, it has been 3-1/2 months since I got my bike, I ride 50-70 miles a week. This Sunday, I rode 25 miles at an average of 16+ mph and weigh 209.

Next week, I am riding in my first local TT. Tonight I did a practice 10 mile TT and monitored my heart rate. I decided not to push it too hard until the latter stages.

Heart Rate Data Avg Low High
Heart Rate (%max) 76 45 91
Heart Rate (zone) 3.6 0.9 5.1
Heart Rate (bpm) 140 83 168

Heart Rate
Zones (%max) Time(h:m:s) Distance(mi ) Speed(mph)
Zone 0 0-50 00:00:05 0.01 9.9
Zone 1 50-60 00:01:27 0.29 12.0
Zone 2 60-70 00:05:40 1.39 14.7
Zone 3 70-80 00:19:05 5.13 16.1
Zone 4 80-90 00:10:30 3.07 17.6
Zone 5 90-100 00:00:23 0.13 20.1

I was a bit concerned about the Zone 5 for the last 23 seconds. But I recovered in just a few seconds. I felt great as I began to cool down. You guys may not think this was very good, but I am pretty proud. My waist is down to a 34-1/2 and I feel incredible.

I now know what I have to look forward to. Perhaps one day, I too can be a hero.

You guys are amazing.

9202 said:

You guys are certainly heros....your prose have served to show me the how sad my life had become in respect to a healthy lifestye.

I am 53 years old, have always been pretty healthy but always suffered from knee problems. In college, I weighed 185-190 pounds at 6' in height. Being a professional, I got wound up with work and ballooned to 245 pounds by December of '06.

Looking at a photo of me, I became depressed. The fat pudgy face, bulging mid section, and balding head was more than I could take, I would be severely outy of breath climbing just a single flight of stairs, and finally on January 15 decided enough is enough.

By March 15 I was down to 223 and decided to get a bike. I began riding, could not even do 2 miles without my theighs burning and my chect heaving. Now, it has been 3-1/2 months since I got my bike, I ride 50-70 miles a week. This Sunday, I rode 25 miles at an average of 16+ mph and weigh 209.

Next week, I am riding in my first local TT. Tonight I did a practice 10 mile TT and monitored my heart rate. I decided not to push it too hard until the latter stages.

Heart Rate Data Avg Low High
Heart Rate (%max) 76 45 91
Heart Rate (zone) 3.6 0.9 5.1
Heart Rate (bpm) 140 83 168

Heart Rate
Zones (%max) Time(h:m:s) Distance(mi ) Speed(mph)
Zone 0 0-50 00:00:05 0.01 9.9
Zone 1 50-60 00:01:27 0.29 12.0
Zone 2 60-70 00:05:40 1.39 14.7
Zone 3 70-80 00:19:05 5.13 16.1
Zone 4 80-90 00:10:30 3.07 17.6
Zone 5 90-100 00:00:23 0.13 20.1

I was a bit concerned about the Zone 5 for the last 23 seconds. But I recovered in just a few seconds. I felt great as I began to cool down. You guys may not think this was very good, but I am pretty proud. My waist is down to a 34-1/2 and I feel incredible.

I now know what I have to look forward to. Perhaps one day, I too can be a hero.

You guys are amazing.

Hi, 9202, glad you found "religion." Don't let your results in races discourage you at all - for people like us it's just a motivation to keep at it. And maybe you already have, but also educate yourself about the [censored] to avoid in food, such as trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup. If you read labels you'll find this stuff in food you'd never imagine. (As for trans-fats, they can actually put 0% trans-fat per serving on the label as long as there's less than 1/2 gram per serving. Another government-sponsored scam. Check the list of ingredients and if you see "hydrogenated" something, don't buy it.)

Pendejo said:

Hi, 9202, glad you found "religion." Don't let your results in races discourage you at all - for people like us it's just a motivation to keep at it. And maybe you already have, but also educate yourself about the [censored] to avoid in food, such as trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup. If you read labels you'll find this stuff in food you'd never imagine. (As for trans-fats, they can actually put 0% trans-fat per serving on the label as long as there's less than 1/2 gram per serving. Another government-sponsored scam. Check the list of ingredients and if you see "hydrogenated" something, don't buy it.)

Ah, the proverbial "[censored]", yes I have been reading and comparing the ingrediants from all of the foods I am purchasing and eating. My wife is pretty intense about this stuff, she reads and analyzes everything before it goes in the shopping basket.

Warmest regards.