HRM questions...

Roger Buchanan said:

Kinda kicking around the potential worth of a HRM and have come up with a couple of questions:

A) Would all the wire that was used to close my chest following surgery interfere with the
monitors signal? (An x-ray of my chest looks like a spiral bound notebook);

B) Would the fact that I'm also taking a Beta Blocker for my heart make the whole HRM idea moot?

Any insight from you HRM guru's would be appreciated. Thanks!

Do you really expect anybody on a NG to be able to answer questions like that 😉) If you aren't
trolling I suggest you ask somebody to borrow one and see for yourself. The antenna effect might
just be awesome. Seriously the Polar type HRMs don't count heartbeats, they monitor electric
activity on your skin created by your heart and thus they monitor the frequency of your heart. Maybe
your wiring will switch the polarity or something and you'll be registering negative Heart Rates.
This could be pretty cool. Make sure you come back and tell us.

I don't have any idea what a Beta blocker does but your HRM will monitor your HR.

One thing that I do know though, I just remembered reading this on a Polar site sometime. This is
valid for Polar but maybe other HRMs. A Polar HRM will not register irregularities, extrabeats and
other abnormal activity. It will simply discard those and report the normalized HR you have.

Now of course with all that wiring and blocking done maybe you shouldn't even ride a bicycle ;( Then
it would be kind of ridiculous to buy a HRM.

--
Perre

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Roger Buchanan said:

Kinda kicking around the potential worth of a HRM and have come up with a couple of questions:

A) Would all the wire that was used to close my chest following surgery interfere with the
monitors signal? (An x-ray of my chest looks like a spiral bound notebook);

B) Would the fact that I'm also taking a Beta Blocker for my heart make the whole HRM idea moot?

Any insight from you HRM guru's would be appreciated. Thanks!

Questions very appropriate for your doctor.

I understand that beta blockers keep your heart from racing. Were you instructed to keep your HR
below a certain #? If so, an HRM could help you stay in the safe zone. Or the drugs might just not
let your heart go especially fast, in which case an HRM would be a waste.

--
--
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a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it
could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater
instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed"

Raptor said:

Roger Buchanan said:

Kinda kicking around the potential worth of a HRM and have come up with a couple of questions:

A) Would all the wire that was used to close my chest following surgery interfere with the
monitors signal? (An x-ray of my chest looks like a spiral bound notebook);

B) Would the fact that I'm also taking a Beta Blocker for my heart make the whole HRM idea moot?

Any insight from you HRM guru's would be appreciated. Thanks!

Questions very appropriate for your doctor.

I understand that beta blockers keep your heart from racing. Were you instructed to keep your HR
below a certain #? If so, an HRM could help you stay in the safe zone. Or the drugs might just not
let your heart go especially fast, in which case an HRM would be a waste.

Yep, my doctor prescribed beta blockers 12 years ago. This was back when I was a little too focused
on numbers so I can confirm that my HRM was a waste when I was on the blockers. My max heartrate
back then was 212, on the beta blocker I could never get over 180. The HRM was worthless as I could
get to 180 easily but I couldn't it to budge much over that and I was slower on normal rides. I
consulted with my doctor and since the beta blocker wasn't helping my extra beats and it was
literally slowing me down I stopped taking them.

My advice is to just ride (within any doctor's orders).

Greg

Per Elmsäter said:

Quoted message said:

Any insight from you HRM guru's would be appreciated. Thanks!

Do you really expect anybody on a NG to be able to answer questions like that 😉)

Ya just never know. As evidenced by one of the other replies!

Quoted message said:

will not register irregularities, extrabeats and other abnormal activity. It will simply discard
those and report the normalized HR you have.

Fortunately I have fairly normal heart rhythm.

Quoted message said:

Now of course with all that wiring and blocking done maybe you shouldn't even ride a bicycle ;(

Nope. My Doc, who I consult with on matters of this importance, says that riding is okay. Crashing
on the other hand is strictly forbidden (So in *that* sense maybe some might interprete it as I'm
not really riding)

Your comment about an antennae effect has me thinking of taking a small radio on a ride and wire it
to my chest, or some such foolishness.

--
- Rog

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Raptor said:

Questions very appropriate for your doctor.

Always. But sometimes it doesn't hurt to ask a forum such as this. The voice of experience, and all
that you know...

Quoted message said:

I understand that beta blockers keep your heart from racing. Were you instructed to keep your HR
below a certain #?

Nope. My cardiac problem was/is structural, not anything related to the normal rhythm.

My doc told me that the blockers would cause the heart to beat with less force, and aid in the
dilation of the major arteries (pertaining to a grafted ascending Aorta). Didn't mention anything
about HR really.

--
- Rog

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