Heart Rate Monitoring

As part of the previously discussed exercise program that Angel & I are undertaking, we needed to determine our heart rate for various reasons. Athletes are known to have slower heart rates then the non exercising populous. Therefore, after completing this 90 day battery, our heart rates should show evidence of slowing down. Also, your resting heart rate is used in determining your training heart rate.

Well, since I am the one that takes things to extremes, of course I've been trying to determine the numbers we should be targeting. Well, this investigation has lead to some interesting results. The first heart rate readings that I took were from sitting at my desk working. This averaged out as I had expected to be in the neighborhood of 82 BPM. I was likewise not surprised that my heart rate while lying in bed to also be in that same neighborhood. My heart rate bounced between 75 and 83 while lying in bed. However, what did surprise me was that my true resting heart rate (taken at wakeup) was much lower. It averaged 68 BPM. I find this to be an interesting swing. However, it is likely to be statistically uninteresting.

Well, our Heart Rate Monitors that were previously mentioned have alarms built in to help the users from hurting themselves by over exertion or from slacking off by not exerting themselves enough. However, in order to take advantage of this feature, we need to determine our training heart rates. A quick search on Google lead me to Wiki. I don't know how accurate this document is as there isn't any reference to the differences between sexes. I don't know if one exists, but I would think that there would be a difference.

The reason that I am inclined to think that there should be a difference is that a difference exists between Angel & I for resting heart rate and in general physical condition. I don't think it would be fair to say that my 90% max heart rate of 173 - 179 (depending on the calculation you use) would be the same for Angel. I realize that it would take different levels of exertion between us to obtain this number and this very well might be an accurate representation of how things work. However, I'm skeptical. I guess we'll see how this pans out once we start working out and what it takes for her to max out.

I know that skating is a pretty lax physical activity. I once skated from Station Square to the Blood Bank to donate and my pulse was around 110 bpm. Also, since I'm a smoker, I am able to maintain a heart rate longer then that of a non-smoker. I don't know why this is, however, I once heard that it is. I was instructed to wait 10 - 15 minutes for my pulse to decrease and the change was not great enough to permit me to donate. When I had my pulse up to 110 I was only marginally winded and know that there is much more that I could have done to kick that rate up. I have no doubts that I will be capable of maintaining a heart rate of 165 for an hour a day to do this exercise. Once again, I can't speak for Angel and am interested to how this works out for her.

If anyone would like to reference my calculations for the desired heart rates I have published my Heart Rate Calculations spreadsheet.