307 replies to this topic

[wobbly man]

Mine = 54

Running for about 18 months.

[lebusqp]

44 same as my age. at 25 yo it was 38-40. max is 188 when running a few less on the bike.

[shark]

The Shark is:

48

That's back in bed in the morning - NO activity.

S

[Pud]

54

But 88 now 5mins after 10km tempo run
Pud

[Tuttle]

50

[Action]

Currently 46, with sub 40 possible if I really concentrate! My record is 34... damn, do we runners have PB's for everything?

[KevinCassidy]

All through my best running days of the mid 80s to mid 90s, it hovered between 40-42.

Now that I am what I call a semi retired runner, it is 37!!!!

Go figure. I guess all the swimming in recent years has had an effect.

[Stu Mac]

In bed, first up in the morning, noting I am not a small person (178cm = 86kg), I check once a month for the past 6 months and I am normally 53bpm, but have once been 49.

[Spareribs]

When in shape and on mornings when I have been sober the night before, 47. When not in shape or having had too many Hahn Premiums the night before 56-58. When I was younger it was not unusual to be down around 40. Age brings it up a bit I think. Am 57 now. Would be interested in others' feedback on that subject. Am serious about the alcohol and non-alcohol effects too. Great question though; funny how we runners keep count of everything. Spareribs

[Spud]

Taken first thing in the morning 40-42 bpm.

Spud

[Benny]

I test it in the morning every few weeks.

If I wake up of my own devices 40-42. If the alarm wakes me up, 194.

[onrei]

When I was fit a couple of years ago I had it down to 37bpm late at night (say 11pm). It would be around 40-41 during the day. These days I'm afraid to check! One of my teachers who himself was an ultra runner (Uncle Dave will know who I'm talking about) had a pulse of 32bpm.

[TRAVY]

Resting 55
hungover 95
alarm 150

[Gem]

Sitting at my desk at work at this very moment it is 50....

[Amjan]

Resting is normally around 48, but sitting at work rate is currently 51 (damn, beaten by Gem again!).I have noticed that my family, who are mostly not very fit, all have fairly low resting heart rates.

[DuncanTheIncredibleDivingHorse]

About 90 at the moment (sitting at work). Quite alarmed to discover this! Something must be up - damn intervals this morning.

[Rhino]

Resting is 38-43 (male 25yo, 6"2') but rises to 43-45 during the off-season.

[MPHinLondon]

When I wake up, it's normally around 43-45, at the moment its 53, athough I haven't had my morning coffee yet..

Certainly get this from my old man, he's used to be under 40 when he was resting.

[Whale Boy]

Funny I was only thinking about this this morning.

Mine rests at 42-44, peaks at around 170/180, recovers quickly - less than 2 mins to sub 100 then takes a while to get back to sub 50. Male, 49, 5'9" 76k

Cheers,

Whale Boy

[Action]

My dad had a stent put in his heart a few weeks ago. Whilst in the hospital the monitors were going off quite regularly because, as a 76 year old, he should not have had a resting heart rate of 50. He is now back running again. :D

[vat]

Haven't checked post-Canberra but I tested it the week prior and it was 40 - generally sits betwen 40-42.

In January 2000 it was 72!

[pastyboy]

Best ever (IM training + lots of time at altitude) - 28 (freaky)
Early morning (rested) - 44
Early morning (after workout previous day) - 58
Right now (12km run last night, 4.2k swim and 20k bike this morning, plus 2 lattes before 9am) - 78

[Davo]

Mine's usually in the low 40's but I think some of our scores can be due to genetics, as hinted at by a few.
My father has a heartbeat of 48, and he's 90 years old! Although he was never an athlete, he was a coal miner for many years, I guess that gave him the strong heart.
But is a slow heartbeat a guarantee against heart attacks? Maybe a cholesterol count would be more to the point in that respect.

[pastyboy]

A slow heartbeat can be a disadvantage, especially for things like long-haul flights and DVT.

[tim]

I seem to have a low heart rate but for me that does not seem to translate into good running. At the moment after vacuuming and 3 strong coffees I am 42.

I have also just bought a heart rate monitor and whilst I was standing talking to my wife just before I went out for my run I noticed it was dropped to 39.

I never remember to take it in the morning but I after this thread I am curious how low it is.

It seems that as people get fitter their heart rate gets lower but I am thinking from my own experience that a low heart rate does not automatically mean your are incredibly fit for am certainly no where near as fit as I'd like.

tim

[FitzCameron]

I was in hospital a few years ago (bad dose of chickenpox) and the nurses were kinda freaked out and used to call me the 'marathon runner' (I will, one day run a marathon - spare knees anybody? :D )

Apparently during the night, my pulse dropped to really low levels - I can't remember what it was, but the nurses set up a schedule to check on me more regularly than usual.... :)

My usual rate is about 50 - 54 lying in bed, early in the morning (I take a 6 second count and multiply x 10)

I recall a professional cyclist from the 80's (Sean Kelly) reportedly had a resting heartrate of 32.

So long as my heart keeps pumping I'm happy!

There was a really interesting documentary on recently where Dr David Suzuki hooked himself up to an ECG machine which have been adapted to link heartrate eg 60bpm to a particular note on a piano: in a variety of experiments, they found that a resting "healthy" heart does not keep to the same rythym but tends to bounce around and the resulting 'tune' is actually quite melodic - an unhealthy heart ie post attack, was monotonous, and very unmelodic.

Happy hearts = happy music.

[Gavan R]

38-40 when I first wake in the morning - provided I have not been out on the town the night before! ;)

[Grey beard]

Generally 48 to 50 first thing in the morning, but has been down to 46. Like Action, I can concentrate and lower it (to some extent), but only when I'm close to sleep. It climbed up to 63 when I had pneumonia etc last year.
I also got the third degree from a cardiologist who thought it was too low.
Max HR for me is about 178 to 180 (age 50).

[Louise]

I've occasionally wondered what happens to people with a really low HR (say, < 40) when they land in hospital, for whatever reason. Do the docs want to pump them full of adrenaline just to make their HR "normal"?

Interesting to read the piano post. I noticed my HR bounces around a bit when I'm doing nothing in particular, but can remain fairly steady when I'm moving around. Wonder if I'm in tune...?

[downunder runner]

best ever recorded by my hubby in the morning was 34. I often take it myself before getting out of bed and get a reading between 36-40.

[Luckylegs]

Don't know whether to be freaked out with alarm or pleased with the result!!

Took mine this morning...first time since Canberra...and it was 57; is that good or bad or something else? LL

[Davo]

Bernard Hinault, Tour de France winner back in the 90's, had a resting heart rate of 28.
That "musical" posting is really very interesting. I wonder if anyone has ever done a psychological study of this to see if that's why, as a species, we do like music: whether it's Mozart or Marilyn Mason.

[Davo]

Sorry, that should read Marilyn Manson. And apparantly it's a man, so my son informs me. Same as Alice Cooper. But not George Elliot or Henry Handel Richardson.
I'll shut up now. Back to the heartbeats....

[runrtom]

Resting is 54 bpm ie.. right now, but I haven't measured it first thing in the morning, presumably a bit less although as travy noted the alarm would send it skyrocketing - I will tomorrow. Max is 182 (51 years old)

[Leftie]

Mine is generally 42-45 first thing but it seems to get quicker as I concentrate on it.

[Roy]

Davo - I think you've mixed your riders up.

Miguel Indurain won the Tour de France from 1991 through 1995 and was reputed to have a resting HR of 28.

[FitzCameron]

Found a link to the David Suzuki doco I referred to earlier:

http://www.sacredbal...own.html?sku=46

[Linno]

Yes, Louise, it does sometimes freak out the medical profession.

Hubby, also a runner, sustained an eye injury when he was at peak fitness many years ago.

He had to lay as still as possible in a hospital bed for some days.

The nurse taking his pulse first thing in the morning ran around seeking assistance when she saw it as she thought something was wrong with him.

[O_Gal]

resting HR 48

The variation in resting heart rate (the piano thing) can be used to estimate VO2max because the more efficient your cardiovascular system is, the greater the variation in time between heart beats. Some heart-rate monitors have a feature on them which does this (polar s610 and above) last time I did the test it said I had a VO2max of 61 and an estimated max heart rate of 194. I haven't had my VO2max checked properly but the highest hr i've recorded was 196 which is not far out.

[Davo]

Yes you're right, Roy, it was Indurain. Sorry about that.
Davo. :o

[RunWolf]

sitting here now, it's 52. Normally first thing in the morning it's low 40's. When I was taking part in the asthma study at RPA they had me hooked up to a monitor that would beep when it dropped below 50, so it was constantly going off, much to the frustration of the Dr who couldn't work out how to turn it off. The other Dr's whos trial involved the general population rather than "athletes" didn't encounter the same problems.

[DrJH]

Pastyboy, a low heart rate won't predispose you to DVTs. You pump just as much blood in a given period, because more blood is pumped with each beat. In addition to this, blood in veins is not flowing in a pulsatile way like that in arteries, so heart rates are irrelevant.

[skitz]

Male, 51yo, 5'9", 68kilos, getting back to fit. 50 sitting here at work. 20 yrs ago, fit, was high 30's - mid 40's.

[Johnny Dark]

Age and resting rate 50.

Johnny D.

[red rover]

usually mid 40's lowest 39 taken about 9pm watching tv. age 62 weight 59 kilos.

[Colin]

Is a resting pulse rate signifigant to athletic potential or is rise in pulse rate upon exercise more relevant?
Thinking about it, very low heart rates surely pump blood in a more stop start fashion (think about a two cylinder vs an eight cylinder)- is that good or bad?
Mine , I think was down to about mid 40's in my PB days, and now in current sate of fitness (or unfitness), about high 50's. Won't take it right now as I have had two of the aforementioned HP's.

About 20yrs ago , a guy who worked with me--mid 30's , no running, played the occassional sunday soccer game- had a pulse rate of 32! He did not have the cut down body of an athlete in training either. And this was in my PB days, so you can imagine the ribbing I got. However, when challenged to do a running program, he became a reasonable runner after a few months, but not at the progress you would expect. Pulse rate--still 32.
btw, Lasse Viren had a pulse rate of 28, but I'm not sure if that was taken before or after his alleged blood doping!

Another btw, re cholesterol being an indicator of heart desease. My dad is 84, and these days with limited function in nursing home. He only had his cholesterol measured for the first time in his late 70's--7.8! Today his cardiovascular system is the thing keeping him going--according to doctors, like someone half his age.
I found out that mine was 8.2 a few years ago, on a low fat, no red meat diet, with plenty of running behind me--should I worry??? Got it down to (still high ) 6.2 with even more attention to diet.
I think there's a big (about 7?) combination of factors contributing to heart desease--being good or bad in one of them may not necessarily be relevant.

[astro]

[indent]quote:

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Is a resting pulse rate signifigant to athletic potential or is rise in pulse rate upon exercise more relevant?
Thinking about it, very low heart rates surely pump blood in a more stop start fashion (think about a two cylinder vs an eight cylinder)- is that good or bad?

---

[/indent]Colin, HR is one component in determining Cardiac Output (CO), ie the amount of blood being pumped by the heart with each contraction (which is the HR). The other component is Stroke Volume (SV), ie the volume of blood in the heart chambers. The equation is

CO = HR x SV

By increasing SV, to maintain CO you need to decrease HR, thus creating a more efficient pumping system. Imagine you are trying to pump water and you let the pump fill a little tiny bit then pump, fill a tiny bit then pump, you will be wasting a lot of energy by pumping faster and not letting it fill up to do one big pump to expel a lot of water. The heart is the same. Endurance training leads to an increase in stroke volume, so at rest and submaximal exercise the heart decreases HR, so the heart is working a lot less to pump out the same amount of blood (cardiac output).

So in that long-winded answer, the short answer is yes, a low resting HR is good as it is an indicator of a more efficient heart (I'm ignoring the clinical conditions of bradycardia here for simplicity reasons, and just assuming we are talking about an otherwise healthy person). You mentioned cholesterol, this can have a direct impact on HR, if the arteries around the heart are clogged with a build-up of cholesterol then blood flow to the heart is decreased, causing stroke volume to fall. Therefore, to maintain cardiac output the HR needs to increase and the heart is working a lot harder, leading to all sorts of coronary problems.

Phew - better stop there or I'll end up turning this already long essay into a novel or something! :D

and my resting HR - haven't measured it in awhile, usually about 40bpm I think. Blood pressure low too, 80/50 measured a couple of months back.

[Grey beard]

Following up on Fitzcameron's post about the David Suzuki doco. The idea seems to be that a healthy heart should move easily between a variety of heart rates, and that settling in at a specific rate is maybe not a good thing. "Being unpredictable is good for your health". Is this an argument for fartlek and varied terrain, and against long slow running on the flat, or is it more of an observation that a limited range of responses is indicative of some underlying problem? I guess we spend a third of our lives asleep at somewhere near our lowest heart rate, so I guess we're stuck with some degree of predictability!

I'm a bit intrigued because I have a heart abnormality (left bundle branch block) and I have often wondered about its affect on my running, especially if it limits what I can ultimately achieve. Although LBBB is statistically related to a number of forms of heart disease, for me there is apparently no evidence of disease and the chances are I was born with it. But when I use my HRM I have noticed that there are certain heart rates that seem to crop up regularly for me. Like 141 (never 140, 142 or 143), 158 (not 155, 156, 157 or 159), 165 and 171. Do others experience this tendency to get into a groove and settle at a particular HR when running or is it only me?

[Phantom Strider, retired]

[indent]quote:

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When I was younger it was not unusual to be down around 40. Age brings it up a bit I think. Am 57 now. Would be interested in others' feedback on that subject.

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[/indent]All other things being equal a gradual increase in resting heart rate is a natural function of aging and is accompanied by a gradual decrease in max. heart rate. So if you live to an incredibly old age it's conceivable that your resting and max. heart rates will one day be the same. ;) Of course, once you're dead your true resting heart rate will be established and max heart rate and resting heart rate will be identical for everybody and forevermore, unless you believe in cryogenics.

[DeniseL]

My resting heart rate taken first thing in the morning is between 44 and 48 beats per minute. My blood pressure is pretty low so that sometimes I feel as if I am about to keel over when I stand up too quickly.