I was prepared to interrogate my Dr. about my blood pressure today. I had a list of questions to throw at her and even thought she might refer me to some specialist. I don't know what type of specialist, but I was sure that my situation of being overweight with high blood pressure, with my heart rate through the roof when I exercise would call for some type of special treatment.
The nurse wrapped my arm in the adult large cuff. I tried to relax and breathe deeply. Doesn't she know I'm not supposed to talk during this part. She keeps asking me questions. The cuff inflates tightly around my arm. I can feel my pulse bouncing through my arm. I'm waiting to see if she has to reinflate, because she hadn't started high enough, which means my blood pressure is higher than she expected. Don't think about it, don't think about it, just relax and breathe.
"Good," she says. I hate in when they don't tell me what my numbers were, and I have to ask. "114/76." Really!? That's fabulous. However, now I feel like my planned interrogation has lost its foundation. According to their records my blood pressure has been completely normal. I decide to ask the Dr. about it anyway.
She told me that I must work out as close to 85% of my max heart rate for as long as possible to lose weight. I can spike up, but only for 30 seconds at a time. She gave me an equation to find out my target heart rate. Two-hundred twenty minus my age (34) equals my max heart rate (186). Then take 85% of 186, which is 158. Hmmm.... this seems pretty low based on what I've seen my heart rate do during my workouts.
I felt armed with knowledge and hit the gym that night for my run. It started off really well. I was staying around 155. After a mile, it started creeping up. I tried to stay relaxed and breathe steadily in rhythm with my steps. Finally I had to back off. It got to the point that I was barely faster than 15 minute miles and my heart rate was still over 160. I felt like I was working, but not that I was struggling. How can I be going at 85% if I don't even feel like I'm working that hard?
Still confused about how all this heart rate training works, and how my body fits into the equation.
But, hell yeah!, on my low blood pressure! booyah!
That's great, Heather! Yay! I think my blog buddy, LB, used to do heart rate training. (He lost 120 pounds.) Do you want me to "introduce" you via e-mail? His blog is Muddy Runner.
ReplyDeleteHi there -
ReplyDeleteThat equation they gave you is a nice rule of thumb but it doesn't fit everyone. For me, I'm 37, so my max should be slightly lower than yours. In reality, my max HR is 208-ish. That changes everything.
When I was working on Mercer Island, I was part of the Club Emerald running/tri team and the coach/owner, Ginny Pietella, is very knowledgeable about this stuff w/ a MS in exercise phys and several iron-man tri's under her belt. She actually tested us on the track to help us figure out our max HR. You can do the same with a little research.
Just check out some running books from the library and/or do some searches online to get more info about determining your max HR. It really is important to get it right because it's a great training tool.
What's interesting is that you'll have a max HR for different activities - running, walking, swimming, biking, etc. Also, your max HR technically shouldn't change with age if you stay fit (per Ginny).
Wish I could think of a book to recommend because I have gone through some good ones in the past that talked about this, but the titles are gone from my memory. I just have a few flash cards in my gym back that remind me of my different training zones and that's about it.
Good luck with the training.