Maximum Heart Rate increasing with fitness???

[WillemJM]

Noob here, good topic.

Been doing this for almost my whole life and can only relate to personal experience. My heart rate decreased with age, but much less than the traditional formula of subtracting age from 220.

When my fitness is down, my heart rate is lower, I am not able to reach normal maximum.

When my fitness is optimum and race ready, my heart rate is even lower, but in this period if I recover totally, no intensity whatsovever, for at least seven days, I can achieve a very high heart rate directly after.

At the end of the day I don't think heart rate is that important, it is more about the watts we can put to the back wheel and the intensity and feel to achieve that.

 

[Monroe71]

Originally Posted by ric_stern/RST .

when replying to people it may be of use to check who they are. <whoosh> ;-)

haha point taken - Still thought it was worth making the point regarding max HR for those who aren't pro cycle coaches

 

[Jaw78]

Obviously this is an old thread, but since I was researching this myself, and just in case OP still wants to know:

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/06/max-heart-rate-and-fitness.html

 

[Antonio23]

It is well known that relaxing HR will reduce and common performance enhances as physical fitness and health enhances, but I was at a loss to disprove Max HR will not improve.

 

[Antonio23]

When my physical fitness and health is the best possible and competition prepared, my pulse amount is even reduced, but in this period if I restore completely, no strength whatsoever, for at least seven days, I can accomplish a very high pulse amount straight after.....

 

[cyclightning]

Swampy1970 : At the bottom of the oil drum ?

 

[CaseyB66]

Obviously an old thread, but I need to clarify a few issues. I am an exercise physiologist, been one for 20+ years. Two points:

1. Max HR GENERALLY goes DOWN with fitness, and back up with de-training, good review in the professional literature is here (you can read the abstract...):
Sports Med. 2000 Jan; vol 29 issue #1: pages 13-26.
Evidence and possible mechanisms of altered maximum heart rate with endurance training and tapering.
Zavorsky GS.

Having said that, there is a LOT of scatter, with lots of other factors that play into it, such as your genetic makeup, prior fitness level, organic disease states such as cardiovascular conditions or respiratory (e.g. asthma) and if you are taking medications that could alter HR response. In other words, lots of inter-individual differences in these kinds of biological responses, so the anecdotal stories posted in this thread probably have merit in individual cases.

2. The 220-Age formula is only for guidance. It was generated years ago by doing large population studies, and there is +/- 15% variability around that estimate, which means that 95% of 40 year olds will have a HRmax between 153 and 207 or so. So, again, the anecdotal stories presented in this thread could ALL be true, without negating the usefulness of that formula. Again, multiple factors could weigh into this on an individual basis, your genes, prior fitness level, your BMI (wt/(square of ht), e.g,. how fat you are), prior smoking history, lung disease, heart conditions, medications, etc etc.