Forums >Health and Nutrition>Question on Resting Heart Rate
MM #7877
Looking to figure out heart rate zones. Need to take resting heart rate. Slept with heart rate monitor on and have data.
Would I use my average BPM overnight? (49 BPM) Would I use my lowest recorded rate? (40 BPM) or would I use somewhere between 43 and 45 BPM which seemed to be the rate measured most when you toss out what appears to be dream cycles where the rate rose about 9 - 10 times overnight into the mid 50's.
Philippians 4:13.
Labrat
Is the 40 a single excursion down or was is a rate you fairly consistently reached. Single points can be a little unreliable
Generally when i do this I take the average of the last 'restful' period, as for me, these tend to get slower and slower as the night wears on.
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Half Fanatic #846
Depends on your definition of "resting heart rate". To a lot of people, this means "at rest during the day" such as sitting down or during a longer period of inactivity. To others it means during the middle of the night in the middle of sleep. Mine at rest during the day is mid-forties. My lowest during sleep is 35. The other day waiting at DW's doctors office, a consistent 28 (I don't use this one - it's a fluke, and I don't use meds that might affect HR). I generally use 40 as my "RHR". (I also wore a HRM to bed like you, to get my "lowest" RHR - which might be different than my "average" RHR.)
Strangely, some of my lowest readings have been while waiting at a doctor's office, being prepped for out-patient surgery (pre-meds), and during a recent physical examination.
To establish HR zones, I would think your average overnight would be the rate to base them off of, but that's just my guess - sounds logical to me. It probably doesn't matter and 45-50 would be OK. I would use an "average RHR". RHR is not necessarily an indication of health or ability, as evidenced by my turtle-like paces.
"I don't always roll a joint, but when I do, it's usually my ankle" - unk. "Frankly autocorrect, I'm getting a bit tired of your shirt". I ran half my last race on my left foot!
I have read multiple texts on using heart rate monitoring as part of your training. Typically they refer to resting heart rate (RHR) as being your heart rate immediately upon waking each morning BEFORE you get out of bed and intake any food or drink. They recommend you take it while lying in bed.
One of the keys these experts do emphasize is that you must be consistent in the manner you check your RHR. For example, if you take it when first waking while lying in bed using your radial pulse in your wrist, then you should do it this way every time.
Personally, I have no desire to sleep in a HRM chest strap. I just cannot see that as being that comfortable and would wonder if the electrodes maintain appropriate contact throughout the night. I generally just check my radial pulse first thing in the morning and call that good.
Walk-Jogger
My resting heart rate is a bit lower in the morning AFTER I get out of bed, and sit quietly for 5 minutes. While lying down in bed it's 2-3 BPM faster. Either way, it's important to check it consistently at the same time and the same way each day. After a while you will start to recognize patterns. My resting HR goes up 2 BPM on the morning after a good workout, and it goes down 2-3 BPM if I don't take my blood pressure meds and my blood pressure starts going up. If I'm coming down with a cold or the flu, it will be at least several BPM higher than normal, and after getting over being sick it may stay several BPM or more higher for a few days.
Retired & Loving It
The way I've done it the last couple of years is to wear the HRM to bed. I hit the Start button on my Garmin and record a "run" all night long. The following morning when I get up I hit the "Stop" button. I upload the data to Garmin Connect and look at the heart rate graph. I look for the lowest sustained heart rate reading. It is usually just several minutes long. That is the lowest heart rate needed to sustain life and is what I use for resting heart rate.
The chest strap is not as convenient for this as something like the Mio-Link. I've done it with both though.
Any activity or motion associated with trying to take a heart rate reading is itself going to raise the heart rate, thereby obfuscating the actual heart rate.
That is what I actually did. My lowest sustained was 44-45. My average was 49. I went with 45.
I agree that the act of taking my heart rate on waking will likely raise my heart rate by 3 to 5 beats. However, I do not see that as being significant. I am using my RHR to determine my heart rate zones. Since it is not possible to dial in to a specific heart rate when training and your heart rate on the run can be affected by elevation, hills, humidity, and hydration, I am just trying to get an approximate range to train in. I would rather over estimate my RHR so my training zones would be lower. I think the important thing is that we are consistent in how we determine our RHR.
All of these are my opinions and should not be taken as fact ; )
Brian Wright
I agree that the act of taking my heart rate on waking will likely raise my heart rate by 3 to 5 beats. However, I do not see that as being significant. I am using my RHR to determine my heart rate zones. Since it is not possible to dial in to a specific heart rate when training and your heart rate on the run can be affected by elevation, hills, humidity, and hydration, I am just trying to get an approximate range to train in. I would rather over estimate my RHR so my training zones would be lower. I think the important thing is that we are consistent in how we determine our RHR. All of these are my opinions and should not be taken as fact ; ) Brian Wright
Actually, the lower the resting heart rate, the lower your HR zones will be. For example, RHR 50 and MHR 150, between 70% and 80% of heart rate reserve puts the results from 120 to 130. Now if the RHR is 60 and MHR 150, then the results are from 123 to 132.
Probably, in general, as long as you're in the vicinity, you do okay, so long as one has gravely gone too high. Probably not every individual is going to fit exactly along the spectrum of heart rate zones, whatever they may actually be.
But one amusing thing about wearing a Garmin overnight to find RHR is you might also find that it thinks you've wandered around for a couple of miles or so.
"But one amusing thing about wearing a Garmin overnight to find RHR is you might also find that it thinks you've wandered around for a couple of miles or so."
That is what I would expect if I left the GPS on, but I turn it off. No point in wasting battery.
I don't even pay attention to my RHR and training zones. I always thought it was all about max HR.
BTW, my RHR is ~48, but I've never done a overnight recording like many here.
I read an article once the purport of which was that heart rate zones had been discredited. For the life of me I can't find the article using Google. People like Hadd always suggested that the important numbers were max heart rate and anaerobic threshold.
Resting heart rate is only interesting from an individual's own point of view; it can't be compared to others any more than max heart rate can. The more fit one becomes the lower one's resting heart rate gets. (However, don't try to get it to zero. ) Therefore it might be interesting to check a couple of times a year just to see the trend.
not bad for mile 25
I don't pay any attention to HR zones, but I do recall that Nobby (and by extension, Lydiard?) suggested that if your RHR is higher than normal, it could indicate overtraining or elevated stress levels. That's all I've got.
That's been my experience. It's usually elevated (for me) when I'm sick.
My RHR is also elevated when I've been doing a lot of High-Intensity workouts.
I read an article once the purport of which was that heart rate zones had been discredited. For the life of me I can't find the article using Google. People like Hadd always suggested that the important numbers were max heart rate and anaerobic threshold. Resting heart rate is only interesting from an individual's own point of view; it can't be compared to others any more than max heart rate can. The more fit one becomes the lower one's resting heart rate gets. (However, don't try to get it to zero. ) Therefore it might be interesting to check a couple of times a year just to see the trend.
It's possible that you may be thinking of this article, titled,'Maximum' Heart Rate Theory Is Challenged
: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/health/maximum-heart-rate-theory-is-challenged.html
It's a somewhat long article, but very interesting and very much worth reading.
One of the things they say is important, but doesn't get a lot of attention is this (Excerpt):
"Some people get blood to their muscles by pushing out large amounts every time their hearts contract, he said. Others accomplish the same thing by contracting their hearts at fast rates. As a result, Dr. Hagerman said, he has seen Olympic rowers in their 20's with maximum heart rates of 220. And he has seen others on the same team and with the same ability, but who get blood to their tissues by pumping hard, with maximum rates of just 160.
''The heart rate is probably the least important variable in comparing athletes,'' Dr. Hagerman said.
Heart rate is an indicator of heart disease, said Dr. Michael Lauer, a cardiologist and the director of clinical research in cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. But, he added, it is not the maximum that matters: it is how quickly the heart rate falls when exercise is stopped.
An average healthy person's heart rate drops about 20 beats in a minute and the rates of athletes ''nose dive by 50 beats in a minute,'' Dr. Lauer said.
In three recent studies, Dr. Lauer and his colleagues found that people whose rates fell less than 12 beats within a minute after they stopped exercising vigorously had a fourfold increased risk of dying in the next six years compared with those whose heart rates dropped by 13 or more beats."