Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with workout and heartrate

My heart muscle is worrying me!

sio42 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:25:24 -0800

ExerciseFilter: I've been doing the gym thing at least 3x per week for about 3 or 4 months now. Strength training and cardio mix. About 6 weeks ago, I started Trileptal as a mood stabilizer (I am not epilectic). I am on no other meds. It's the type of drug where you ramp up your dosage over a period of time. In the last two weeks, my low THR feels like my heart is pounding as if I'd just been in car accident. If I swim a length of a pool, I have to stop for about 30 sec to a min until my heart goes back to feeling normal. I've had to leave the gym the last several times I went because I just couldn't do the cardio machines at the same settings I had been using. My heart feels like it's just racing and pounding.

But when I take my pulse, It's just at the 60% range of my THR. I've noticed my morning pulse is a bit fast, but I've just started taking note of it at the advice of my SO so I could get a better metric.

In the mean time, I'm a little freaked out. I don't have a GP to go to right now (I'm on a waiting list to get a new patient appt!??!!). And I have a few more weeks till I see the psychiatrist again. This hadn't been happening long enough to warrant alarm the last time I saw him.

It's not like I get out of breath, but my heart beating like that scares the bejessus out of me! I have never had any health problems.

Oh right...30 yo, female, 5'6", 170.

Is it the meds? Is this some weird exercise thing? I've tried google searching and mefi but just come up with how to calculate and stuff about "my heart rate is too low". Please direct me if I have overlooked something. Meanwhile, I'll be walking very slowly on the treadmill at 0 incline.

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Shepherd — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:18:14 -0800

How does heart rate correlate to calories burned, and can I lose weight by just being incredibly nervous? I understand that heart rate and calorie burning during exercise are related, but I'm a bit fuzzy on how this works when you get into various kinds of exercise and specifics. Running with a Polar watch, I can get my HR up into the 160s at a good jog, 170s with moderate effort, and 180s when I'm going full-bore or running uphill. On a rowing machine, however -- and I've used the ergometer a LOT over the years, mostly in winter, so this isn't a "never done it before" effect -- I get to the 150s at moderate effort, 160s when I push it, and full-out-crazy puts me at the mid-170s.

So the rowing machine feels like more of a workout -- I get winded faster when I go hard, I can't go hard for as long and I'm a lot more physically exhausted after. But by the HR numbers, running is a "harder" workout.

Is the higher HR necessarily the better workout from a straight calories-burned perspective?

And if I hired a bunch of creepy clowns to follow me around and jump out at inopportune moments, would I lose weight passively thanks to having my heart constantly going like a triphammer?

Heart-rate monitor attached to treadmill

Saucy Intruder — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:15:31 -0800

Yesterday on "CBS Sunday Morning," a correspondent chronicled his attempt to lose weight. I'm trying to identify one of the machines that his personal trainer used to evaluate his progress. The device was attached to an ordinary treadmill. The subject would exercise for a few minutes, and the device would check his vital signs (presumably his heart rate, but perhaps also other indicia.) When he first came to the trainer, the machine said that his health was "poor." Ten weeks later, although he hadn't lost any weight, he was reevaluated as "excellent." The trainer said that this was because he had exchanged fat for muscle.

What kind of machine is this? Is it a simple heart rate analysis or is something more complex going on?

Should I sit or should I bend?

forallmankind — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:04:24 -0800

I have a mountain bike on a resistance roller that I use to workout, and I also use a heart rate monitor to keep my heart rate at 145. If I workout in a cycling position with my hands on the handlebars, it takes much more effort to maintain 145 than if I sit upright with my hands by my side. Why is this, and does this mean my upright workout is less effective than my bent over one, even though I'm maintaining the same heart rate?