Heart rate monitor watch question

G

Getting old

Guest
I was given a heart rate monitor watch (Medline MDSP3044). It has two sensors that you touch with your fingers and it displays your pulse and a number that is a Percentage. The % number is only described as "how hard your heart is working" but I have no idea what that means. Is a low number good or bad? The web site is no help. My number at rest is around 35. I'm either ready for the Olympics or I'm about to go into heart failure.
 
It's displaying the percentage of your "max heart rate" which for exercise purposes is 220-your_age. Lots of aerobic training is targetted at various max heart rate percentages.
 
I thought it might be something like that, but the watch doesn't know how old I am (I hope). It doesn't know if I am male or female or how much I weigh either.
 
I took a look at the website for that watch. That % is a pretty meaningless number. It looks at your pulse vs some theoretical optimum. It's a $35 watch with a pulse monitor if you touch it. I would ignore the %.

A resting heart rate of 35 is pretty low unless you are a XC skier, or marathon runner. Even then, it's pretty low. Are you seeing that when you first wake up or in the middle of the day if you sit for a few minutes? Try doing something, walking etc that gets you breathing a bit harder and then take it. Also try taking your pulse manually and see if the watch matches up.
 
Back when I was a runner, I had an EKG that said “Abnormal - Marked Sinus Bradycardia”. I was concerned until my doctor said a slower than average heartrate (60 bpm) was normal for athletes*, and mine was in the 50’s. But 35 bpm is worth investigating regardless.

The 220 minus your age for predicted maximum heartrate is only very rough guess. Rarely right, actually. If you’re basically in shape, you can cycle or run on a treadmill to maximum exertion to find your own maximum. Mine was about 182 for the longest time, but approaching 75 it’s definitely lower now.


*I may be misremembering, but I recall reading that a Tour de France competitor - Miguel Indurain? - has a resting heartrate of 19!

Edited to add: Found it.

“Miguel Indurain, the former professional road bicycle racer from Spain, had an impressively low resting heart rate. During his career, it was measured at 28 beats per minute—significantly lower than the average resting heart rate for adults, which typically falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute12. His remarkable cardiovascular efficiency likely contributed to his success in endurance cycling, including his five consecutive Tour de France victories”

So not as low as I remembered, but still impressive.
 
Hang 4 said:
I took a look at the website for that watch. That % is a pretty meaningless number. It looks at your pulse vs some theoretical optimum. It's a $35 watch with a pulse monitor if you touch it. I would ignore the %.

A resting heart rate of 35 is pretty low unless you are a XC skier, or marathon runner. Even then, it's pretty low. Are you seeing that when you first wake up or in the middle of the day if you sit for a few minutes? Try doing something, walking etc that gets you breathing a bit harder and then take it. Also try taking your pulse manually and see if the watch matches up.
Click to expand...
That 35% is the meaningless number. My pulse ranges from about mid-50s (resting) up to about 90 during a brisk walk. I walk about 5 miles in a little over an hour every morning. On a treadmill, I have trouble getting my pulse up to 110-115, and that is at a steep angle and a jog.
 
His 35 is not beats per minute, it is the puzzle number.

Possibly % of his highest BPM?
 
An important concept is Heart Rate Reserve. That’s the difference between resting HR and maximum HR. It’s to that number that a percentage should be applied. It’s applied using the Karvonen formula.

Example: Resting heartrate 70 bpm. Maximum 160 bpm. Heart Rate Reserve: 160-70=90 bpm

So in the example, if you want to train at 50%, that’s 45 bpm (90/2) into your Heart Rate Reserve. Then you add that back into your resting, so 70+45=115 bpm. Several calculators online to do the math for you. Most folks start to get uncomfortable above 80%, so that’s not a bad target for general conditioning.

Nice summary here: https://www.physiotutors.com/wiki/karvonen-formula/
 
Back
Top