Question About High Heart Rate During Exercise (200+ Again)

[MightyMouse]

Tonight I was riding my recumbent bike and my hr kept rising without me changing my effort all that much... it shot to 212 for a bit, then hung out between 200 and 210 for about 2 minutes, despite stopping pedaling as soon as it climbed over 190. I did not feel any pounding. This time I did not have the nausea and sick feeling like I did with my low bp episodes a month or so ago. Then it suddenly dropped to 80 and has stayed there--but NOW I feel sick. Ugh.

I know my predicted maximum safe heart rate is about 180 based upon my age (177 if you want to be exact). I try to keep to 150 or lower for aerobics.

So, my question is this: is the 200+ hr during exercise anything to be concerned about? Do any of you routinely have this occur during exercise (I know, I know, I'm lucky to be ABLE to exercise...but for the other lucky ones who can also do so... and of course, the ones who know enough about the subject to give me some insight).

Nina

[mkoven]

Hi Nina,

That sounds awfully high. I'd give a call to your doctor. Maybe some sort of adrenaline surge on top of the exertion??

Take care,

Michele

[Sunfish]

i wouldn't want you to ignore something that's different/ new for you based on my reply (you know the drill...), but years back when i was able to work out regularly a HR over 200 wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me. that said, my age put me at a higher ideal/ target HR to begin with, & at times as a varsity athlete i was actually trying to get my HR as high as possible as part of my training regimen. but at times where i was no longer to be in super competitive mode & was struggling much more health-wise & recall asking dr. grubb if there was a point wherein i should care/ be concerned about my HR. he gave me a quick lecture on not pushing too much in general, aka my needing to realize that just b/c i was used pushing myself to my max in years past didn't mean that was the best plan when i could hardly walk ten feet, but said i didn't really need to worry about my HR too much in & of itself but rather concentrate on how i was feeling, how i recovered after, etc. swimming was the specific topic of our discussion.

hope you're feeling better now,

melissa

[Ernie]

Hi,

When I was able to exercise I was often above 200 and I was able to manage it. I was nauseated but it was part of the game.

[Mrs. Burschman]

I wish I could offer some input (as someone who is able to exercise) but I don't usually check my pulse, so I don't know.

I have noticed, however, that the "target heart rate" seems low for me. And according to my resting heart rate, I'm horribly out of shape, which is not the case.

Amy

[MomtoGiuliana]

I know when I was pregnant and age 33, a cardiologist I saw (who didn't know a thing about POTS and was extremely dismissive) told me my hr could go up to 200 bpm safely (mine wasn't going over 160). I would talk to a doctor about exercise. Is this even with a beta blocker...?

[morgan617]

In Nina's own words (almost) get thee to a monitor.....morgan

[MightyMouse]

Dearest Morgana... I hear an echo of Lloyd in there somewhere... I've not heard from him in months... that's a prompt to write him a note. My favorite of his was "lie down on the table and let them fix your sinuses!"-and something quite similar about surgery on my neck.

I'll get in touch with the doc after the holidays to get a monitor going and to let him know the 200+ hr happened yet again. We leave for Mexico at dawn tomorrow, but at least I have Teri with me, my personal health care representative! Always nice to know that I have someone with medical training at my side when far from familiar surroundings!

Nina

ps. love to you all--The rest of the mod team will be taking care of things as usual in my absence...although I may be able to post depending on whether or not our room has a good wireless connection this time --Teri needs to bring the laptop b/c grad school online doesn't much care about the holiday break other than x-mas and new year's day.