Resting Heart Rate

[Ming the Merciless]

A brief summary is high pressure pumps (BP) work at low pump rate (HR), while low pressure pumps (BP) work at higher pump rates (HR). Can anyone say definitively if my theory holds water?

Does not work in the case of the heart and blood vessels. Blood vessels are not fixed diameter pipes like in heating systems etc. I have a low resting HR and low normal blood pressure.

 

[Pblakeney]

Does not work in the case of the heart and blood vessels. Blood vessels are not fixed diameter pipes like in heating systems etc. I have a low resting HR and low normal blood pressure.

Fair point.
I won't worry about it though as that might raise my BP. 😉

 

[yello]

I'm by no means fit (not now anyway) 64 and have a hr as I sit here of 54. It drops to 45 when I'm sleeping - all as measured by my garmin watch. I'm not an athlete, I don't 'have' bradycardia. I've no idea why it is what it is and don't really concern myself with it anymore.

I'm a bit meh about my watch these days. It's useful and does correlate sometimes (though today I woke with a 100% body battery and a 99/100 sleep score - but feel nowhere near that, go figure) but I don't live by it. It's use comes when the numbers (my numbers) change; it can 'predict', and kinda validate, illness.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

My rhr has never changed from my teens. My average HR for various power zones is lower now though which is a general indicator of improved fitness over the years.

 

[KneesUp]

My resting heart rate is 44 over the past 12 months according to my Garmin watch. I’m in y early 50s, and I thint a lot of my generation never takes their watch off so that’s pretty much 365 days / 24 hours a day. 30 years ago I was riding my bike to work every day in my summer job and used to ride as hard as I could both ways - it was essentially a series of sprints between traffic lights with the occasional long draft behind a bus. I now know that would be classed as 30-40 minutes of fairly hard anaerobic exercise a day (I set off too late most mornings, being a student and all, and I just wanted to get home in the evening but I also used to try and get a higher average speed on my Cateye computer). My mum is a trained medical professional and took my resting hr with her nurses watch and it was mid 20s then. I think some of it must be genetic? I’ve always have some symptoms,of bradycardia (principally lightheartedness when I stand up) but my gp has never questioned it, and even my mum wasn’t that bothered.

 

[ColinJ]

I will watching my RHR to see how it tracks my recovery.

I thought that I would give you an update after wearing the smartwatch for 3 months...

I started wearing the watch just as I was getting ill. You can clearly see my RHR rising as the illness got worse, and then follow it back down again. It has stabilised at around 52 bpm now and will probably stay there until I lose some more weight and get fitter. I reckon that that it would drop another 5 or 6 bpm if/when I do.

My HR is much lower when I sleep. I am regularly seeing lows of 40-45 bpm when I check my overnight readings.

The watch does reveal how sedentary I am when not cycling or walking to the shops. I found one 2 day spell where my maximum HR was 89 bpm!! I am quite good at making bigger efforts but too damn lazy in between. Which reminds me... I must get up, it is 13:12 on a sunny Sunday!!!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

For myself, my RHR value that I use is not based on when I am asleep or when I have just woken up, but somewhere during the day when I will have been active, or even taken some planned exercise, and I am simply at rest on a sofa etc.

A couple of years later 😁

Doing the measurement after you’ve woken up, and in same position etc. before you do anything else. It is not about aiming to get the lowest figure you can. It is about consistency, so you can baseline your resting HR range, and from that know if its normal for you or not. Resting heart is affected by what you have been doing, hormones fluctuate throughout the day, post exercise its affected, eating, drinking affects it etc etc. of course sleep could have affected it, but you can note that at the time if so inclined.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

When i started getting fitter i noticed that if i arose from a seated position too quickly i would nearly black out!

Known as postural hypotension

https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/health-information/postural-hypotension

Drop in blood pressure when you stand up. You can do a test where you measure blood pressure when sitting, then stand up and measure again, and also measure 3 mins after standing up.

You can also do the same with resting HR and HRV, Measure it over a minute sitting, then stand up and also measure for minute. Note the difference between the two, and baseline.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-024-05601-4

 

[presta]

You can also do the same with resting HR and HRV, Measure it over a minute sitting, then stand up and also measure for minute. Note the difference between the two, and baseline.

My HR used to go from 42-45 sitting in the armchair to 100-110 standing (still). The threshold for a diagnosis of POTS is a rise of more than 30bpm.

 

[Punkawallah]

You’d best explain ‘resting’ for all the married men out there ;-)