Heart Rate To Fast On Exercise- Ideas?

[POTLUCK]

OK, I know I have posted on something similar several times but I am really wondering if this is common to people with POTS or just myself.

If you take 220 and subtract your age = Your maximum HR "I know calculated, estimate"

but how many people on here can exercise with their heart above this number ( whatever it is for you ) for long?

I have spent the last nearly year going from run/walk to run, and up to an 8 mile run - slow pace 12 min./mile( my longest ) on saturday. My HR goes over my Maximum in the first mile and stays there the entire next 7 miles. ( I have it on Garmin and tested at Cardiologists stress test. ) It reachs 30 points over my maximum calculated HR frequently, including on this run.

Is this normal for POTS people?

( The difference between my average Standing - Lying HR can be 15 points less the day following one of my longer or harder runs. ) I am doing much better. I still have symptoms daily, but can work again, and anyone that saw me on this forum a year ago must notice how many spelling/errors I made due to poor concentration/dizziness.

[Lemons2lemonade]

it depends on what i am doing. I cannot jog as my HR will go through the roof. An easy ride on the bike puts me at 140-cardio training zone.

[Guest Alex]

I don't know if this is normal for POTS but even on meds - florinef, propranolol and mestinon my HR during exercise went slightly over the max HR for my age.

Had some nasty experiences exercising so I'm not really pushing it right now.

Alex

[Racer]

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Edited March 28, 2013 by Racer

[ramakentesh]

I rarely check my heart rate while exercising. But mine no longer goes dangerously high when i run.

[Relax86]

I don't check HR during exercise unless I'm feeling terrible. My biggest problem with cardio is not that my HR goes way too high but my HR will stay elevated for hours. It's like my body doesn't realize that I stopped the activity.

[k&ajsmom]

Household chores gets My hr to the max so im not exercising yet. But i can get to 180 vacuuming ...geesh

[Lemons2lemonade]

Racer, conditioned athletes have lower resting heart rates than the normal population and actually it is more challenging for them to reach higher heart rates due to being conditioned. In fact, to improve fitness by reaching cardiovascular fitness heart rates, they actually have to continually intensify their workouts. When i ran cross country, i would have to be at a near sprint to get my HR up into those levels which is closer to anaerobic type activity. Maybe for anaerobic type activity above 160 BPM that would be normal, but those types of exercises are limited in duration due to the body's inability to utilize oxygen during that time--which is why you can only sprint so far.

What is intense cardiovascular exercise for us, could be a HR of only 100 BPM for them...In fact, the formula used is nationally accredited for finding a person's target heart rate. http://www.livestrong.com/article/398738-what-should-an-athletes-heart-rate-be-during-heavy-exercise/http://www.livestrong.com/article/398738-what-should-an-athletes-heart-rate-be-during-heavy-exercise/

Edited March 27, 2013 by corina

[Racer]

ahh, never mind

Edited March 28, 2013 by Racer

[Lemons2lemonade]

So Racer, are you saying max hr should be more subjective than objective? To me, it sound like you are saying how hard can you push your heart. i.e. how high can you go. However, if you are saying that pots changes your heart rate and that you should do something that is comfortable for your self, i agree with you 100%. With pots, just because my HR is 120 doesn't mean i am actually getting any fitness out of it. If i were, i would be a lot skinnier! Even though that should be in my fat burning zone.

[jknh9]

Yes. I can hit 195+ way too easily. I get to 150+ doing my stationary recumbent at 15 mph with moderate resistance. My cardiologist told me I have to stop letting it get above 180, so I've switched to walk/jog circuits and I avoid jogging uphill. I also have been modifying my cardio at-home exercise (stuff like Bob Harper Body Rev dvds). I am not a beginner at exercise, far from it, but my resting heart rate never seems to go down (I'm usually in the 70s) and neither does my exercising heart rate even though I work out 5-6 days a week doing jogging, speed walking, hiking, yoga, strength training, stationary recumbent bike, etc., and I'm well within a normal weight/BMI range. I wonder if lowering those numbers is impossible for some of us, or close to impossible.

I asked my cardio what HR I should aim for when working out and he said "Oh, probably somewhere around 120." Sorry buddy, I hit that just standing up and walking across the room.

[POTLUCK]

Thank you everyone for the answers. It looks like I am not the only one who's heart rate goes over their calculated Max. I am not sure about parts of this thread as there are several edits.

Rama - You mentioned dangerously high ( no longer ), but the cardio told me he did not think it was dangerous for me to go so high. ( 30 points over my calculated Max ) That is not to sa what is dangerous or not, just what he told me.

Relax86, I noticed that effect also, ( My HR staying elevated a couple hours after - of course not as elevated as during the run, but above what it was before by quite a bit.) but it has improved with my running over the last year.

Lemons - One of the things that has been commented on here before but I still notice is how many people were athletes and more so endurance athletes before this illness. It seems disproportionate.

jkh9 - Yes I can hit 120 by standing on a bad day. ( not often anymore - but today I messed up by drinking heavily last night and found out that does not work with my POTS even when I am doing well. I am not only feeling terrible but my resting and standing HR and the overall difference are all elevated more than normal. )

Alex- I am still on 3.75mg Propranolol LA BID, which I make from 60mg capsules by splitting them 4 times into 16 capsules ( with store bought gel capsules. I went to 2.5 BID ( made from 80mg LA Propranolol ) for a while but do to stress in my life went back to 3.75 temporarily. I certainly do not feel stress causes my illness but I do feel it exacerbates it.

[blueskies]

The only exercise that is comfortable for me is swimming and it has to be in the sea. I'm allergic to chlorine. The water has compression qualities that help the muscles pump blood around the body. When I'm swimming in my comfort zone I am fit and feel good for up to a few hours after I get out of the water. Unfortunately these past two summers in Australia POTS has made it hard for me to get to the beach so haven't done much swimming.

My walk 4 times a week is not much more than a stroll but if the weather is cool, break the walk up with a rest half-way I am certainly not getting superfit and it's not doing anything for my overweightness but it does make me stronger physically. I'm looking forward to the winter in Australia so I can do more walking in comfort.

Since my early 20s I could never keep up with gym classes or other people's pace. It always had to be at my own pace. In gym classes when we had to stop and take our pulses mine was always so high they'd make me stop the class. Now, with my POTS diagnosis I can look back to then and know that although I was extremely fit (and I was -- doctors used to say how strong I was) I could only exercise, even way back then, by pacing myself.

Kenneth Cooper, who I believed invented the word aerobics said in his first book nearly 40 years ago that you needed to reach the equation of pulse rate mentioned above. But he also said that if you can exercise for more than an hour any exercise then becomes aerobic. Not sure if this 'science' still holds true but maybe.worth looking into.

blue

[jangle]

I think I've hit 210 before.

Doesn't feel so good.

Nowadays I've been able to keep it below 190. I did 24 mins on the stairmaster and think I maxed at 187. Ultimately id like to get it below 170. Im incorporating a lot more heart exercises like rows and squats together with endurance jogging and the stairmaster

[Lemons2lemonade]

Jangle, 210, are you kidding me?!?!

[CarrieJessica]

yes for me but I have found I can do a recumbent bike and pilates and stay in a normal range.

[bunny]

My pulse seems to have different "speeds" like an electric fan, rather than function like a heart. Case in point: My pulse when I woke up this morning was 48. Stood up and it shot up to 142 in <2 seconds. Wasn't feeling too good so I sat back down on the bed & my pulse dropped back down to 50.

The same is true for exercise for me. 180+ isn't uncommon for me and my pulse doesn't always correlate with how intense I'm working out. As soon as I stop exercising, my pulse drops like a rock, ie: goes from 165 bpm down to 70 bpm in ~2-4 beats and stays there. Sometimes it'll go from the exercise speed, skip a few beats, then resume at the resting speed. It feels pretty gross when that happens. The only real correlation I've seen is the more exhausted I am, the more erratic & irregular my pulse is, but that actually makes some sense, unlike everything else my body does.

[POTLUCK]

My HR went 31 points above my calculated max today running. I ran my longest run in years ( 9 miles at a pace of 11 minutes and 15 seconds a mile - not fast but long ) My HR ( on Garmin ) went above my calculated maximum after the first mile and stayed that high for the following 8 miles.

The running appears to do something to the difference between Lying and Standing HR. After one of these runs where my HR goes so high the next day or two the difference between my Lying and Standing HR decreases. ( i.e. my POTS not only feels better, it measurably improves. ) This has been how I have been tapering the Propranolol. I went from 3.75 LA BID to 2.5 BID starting last night and slept terrible, waking feeling like pulse pounding, numbers were worse this morning Lying to Standing and I felt worse, BUT feel better after run and will bet numbers are better in the morning. ( I always due my poor mans tilt in the morning )

[amybird57]

I have chronic fatigue syndrome for decades and have had many ups and downs over the years. Sometimes I cant walk normally due to fatigue and POTS or hypotension, another I can hike out of Canyon de Chelley. No idea why but things wax and wane. So Ive been doing poorly for 2 years and had some issues come up (shoulder problem, poor sleep, ear infection etc) so Ive been in a long slump. I am sure I have some measure of deconditioning at this point. Dr. Nancy Klimas of FL has done some work on how to exercise to overcome the deconditioning aspects, as well as to build endurance over time. Im not familiar enough to describe it here, but it is about keeping the HR under the rate where you go anerobic and building on that. I am trying some (recumbant bike and floor exercises) of these but concurrently my sleep disorder is not managed and is keeping me down. My heart rate can exceed my optimal just by standing up many times, morning is worst. My POTS is definately worse when my sleep is worst so I know there is some relationship for me. Anyways just to share about Dr. Klimas who can be found via google. I recall videos and published papers I reviewed a few months ago.

[Kay107]

I have been wondering about this recently. My max should be 190, but it often hovers around 250 during workouts. Luckily my workouts are usually pretty short, but if a longer one comes up (more than 25 min) I slow way down, just can't sustain it.

[davecom]

Interesting - I have the opposite problem. My heart rate does not seem to respond normally now that I am on atenolol. Recumbant biking, which has been bringing me to 130 max the last week and a half now only brought me to 102, but I am actually more tired.

[jkoconne]

My Hr depends on the day im having but its always between 160-198 when i do cardio. My max is 200 and when i get close I usually stop because I get nervous. I wear a heart monitor everytime I work out or even go on long walks. I can tell when im getting close to my max...I just dont feel right when i get to 198. So ive been working on trying to figure out this whole thing.

Like i was doing 15min 3x a on the alyptical (spelling) and walking on the treadmill 2x last week. My Hr was normal but then this week just walking makes it 165-180 so i havent been able to do anything but walk. I know walking is better than nothing but my neruo really wants me to be jogging 15-30mins 5x a week.

[POTLUCK]

Kay107 - Your heart rate goes hovers around 250 beats per minute ?

[Kay107]

Yes. My doctor was not concerned so I don't pay much attention to it. Although sometimes I wish I could see an expert on POTS just to see what they might have to say about my condition/treatment. I'm not sure how experienced mine is with POTS. I pass out at the gym a few times a week, everyone there is used to it.

[POTLUCK]

Passing out itself sounds dangerous. I heard a lecture recently saying that people with HR over 120 baseline have a higher incidence of Cardiomyopathy. That being said my POTS doctor is a Cardiologist, specializing in Electrophysiology and he says it is OK to run with HR 30 points over calculated max. He was very happy it was working for me and encouraged me to continue, knowing the HR.