Heart Rate Speeds Up After Just A Little Effort

[JamesAA]

Sorry, this question is more about heart rates associated with work/effort than about cycling training, per se, but I know so many of you guys are knowledgeable in this area and I thought I'd post here to see if I could get some answers.

I'm 40 and have been active my whole life. 5'7, 155, probably 15-16% body fat, decently muscular.

I notice that my HR, which is anywhere from 50-60 at rest, jumps up pretty quickly to like 110-120 after walking up like a flight and half of stairs. I just thought everyone's did but recently I wanted to see what others were experience.

So I checked the HR of a girl friend of mine, who is 38, never works out and is carrying a few extra pounds. Her rate rate barely changed after the flight and half. I did the same test with my father, age 76, very thin but never works out or runs or anything, and his too barely was any higher after walking up one and a half flights of stairs. (I say one and half flights because there's some stairs by my house that are like 23 steps to the top, which is about one and a half flights).

When my dad's was 60 bpm at the bottom and barely any higher at the top, while mine was 60bpm at the bottom and probably 120 at the top, I was really perplexed. I'm MUCH younger, and way more active. How could it be that his HR didn't barely budge and mine doubled????

Thanks,
James

 

[maydog]

Sounds pretty normal for me. Heart rate variability is a good indicator of cardiovascular health.

A lack of HR response from exercise can be an indicator of a lack of fitness or a pathological condition. One such condition is chronotropic incompetence.

A sample of 3 people is much to small to make any generalization.

 

[cyclightning]

Well, obviously one would ask did you walk up the stairs faster than the other test subjects ?

 

[JamesAA]

Quote:Originally Posted by maydog .Sounds pretty normal for me. Heart rate variability is a good indicator of cardiovascular health.

A lack of HR response from exercise can be an indicator of a lack of fitness or a pathological condition. One such condition is chronotropic incompetence.

A sample of 3 people is much to small to make any generalization.


It is true, that a sample size of 3 is so small. But in general, wouldn't the better athlete's heart not change as much (i.e. increase in rate) upon exertion, especially mild exertion such as walking up stairs?

 

[cyclightning]

Quote: But in general, wouldn't the better athlete's heart not change as much (i.e. increase in rate) upon exertion, especially mild exertion such as walking up stairs?
Yes. My heart doesn't rise much after a few second burst up a flight of stairs (say about 4.5 meters), doesn't matter if it takes a few seconds or 15 seconds, but a higher power output will increase it more.

 

[maydog]

Quote: Originally Posted by JamesAA .



It is true, that a sample size of 3 is so small. But in general, wouldn't the better athlete's heart not change as much (i.e. increase in rate) upon exertion, especially mild exertion such as walking up stairs?
It is true that an athlete's cardiovascular system is likely to be better adapted to exercise. One of those adaptations is a faster autonomic response to exercise stimuli. At a steady state workload, the athelete's heart rate may be lower due to training effects producing a larger cardiac output.

Efforts lasting only a few seconds don't alter the blood's chemistry (CO2, oxygen saturation, latic acid, etc.) enough to be significant. Changes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic tone are responsible. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for rapid increases and decreases of heart rate.

110 bpm is not that high of a heart rate. For middle-aged and younger folks, that is like a easy walk on a flat surface sort of effort.

 

[JamesAA]

Quote:Originally Posted by maydog .It is true that an athlete's cardiovascular system is likely to be better adapted to exercise. One of those adaptations is a faster autonomic response to exercise stimuli. At a steady state workload, the athelete's heart rate may be lower due to training effects producing a larger cardiac output.
 
Efforts lasting only a few seconds don't alter the blood's chemistry (CO2, oxygen saturation, latic acid, etc.) enough to be significant. Changes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic tone are responsible. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for rapid increases and decreases of heart rate.
 
110 bpm is not that high of a heart rate. For middle-aged and younger folks, that is like a easy walk on a flat surface sort of effort.


This is very interesting. So does does this mean that just because my HR goes up faster than my father's or my friend who does not exercise while walking up the same flight of stairs, that I am not necessarily out of shape OR that I have a cardiac problem?

 

[maydog]

If you are really concerned - consult a physician.

Understanding heart rate is very important in my line of work, all I can say from your depiction is that an increase into the low 100's for walking up stairs does not sound abnormal.