Heart Rate Recovery After Cycling

[JamesAA]

Does anyone here know much about HR recovery? For instance if I do 1 rep of some short burst exercise (maybe a 200m sprint, or some shuttle sprints mixed in with some jumping around for about 1 min) I can get my HR to an anaerobic level (like 165 bpm). Then I stop. 1 min later I check my HR and it has dropped 40-45 bpm in 1 min, which is considered very fit.

HOWEVER today when I did some HIIT on the bike, which was 7 all out sprints in which I sprinted for 20 seconds and recovered for 40-45 seconds before sprinting again. After my 7th and final sprint my HR was 165bpm....but this time it did NOT drop off as quickly as in the above (1st paragraph) trial. In fact it only dropped 20 bpm after 1 min and tapered off slowly after that. To me it was intuitive---I had just done much more intense work than just a single, 60 second repetition of moving around fast and jumping up and down.

So which method should I use to check my overall HR recovery index?? There's all sorts of literature online telling you about HR recovery and what numbers are "good" and what are more "unhealthy", etc. But none discuss length of exercise time. My HR will drop like a brick after just 1 intense rep. But after a strenuous workout it will not recover as fast....and I'd think that's to be expected??

 

[Viking55803]

I believe all or most of the heart recovery rate literature is based on the treadmill stress tests. So that would mean increasing your workload up to your max over no more than 10 minutes, and then stop riding completely. Sit or lie down. Check heart rate at exactly 1 minute and 2 minutes. Check the chart.

What you experienced checking after a series of intervals was probably cardiac drift or something similar. The heart recovery rate test should be performed as a standalone single effort where you are starting out rested and ramping up to max.

At least this is my understanding of how this test should be performed. It's a good idea for older cyclists to do this from time to time, especially if, like me, you've had a heart attack or bypass surgery. Let's you know your ticker is working up to specs.