Anyone had good results from raising heart rate regularly?

[sagebasil]

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I'm older (61) and not especially fit, but have started going to the gym and doing work out on bike and treadmill get my heart rate to above 130/min.

Trying to build up to sustain for 30 mins - at around 20 mins presently - and aiming to do this 4 times a week...

Just wondered if others had done similar and what positive results you've had?

My aim is to improve overall level of fitness as don't really need to lose weight etc

Who gave you that number? It is too high to bring benefit and might actually do more harm.
You shouldn't train for long above your maximum heart. For heart benefits, you should be at 50% - 75% maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is 159 and 75% of that is 119.

Crikey

No one told me anything 😁

What sort of damage?

I’m 62 and do a lot of exercise. For periods of time during my workout my HR is between 155-170 bpm. If running I would aim to keep my HR around 160. My resting HR is mid 50s. At 130 I’m not uncomfortable. I don’t know if that’s helpful for you?

I guess the difference between the OP and @AnAudacityofinlaws is that the OP is trying to improve her fitness and doesn’t feel like she has good fitness right now, so she might be able to get that uncomfortable feeling at a lower heart rate.

At 130ish I would think you are getting into Zone 4 which would be used more for interval training (I.e. try to hold that for say one minute and then recover for a minute and then repeat for several cycles). You could probably push it a bit, but I’d concentrate on feeling out of breath and like by the end of the interval, you are very ready for the break!

For the endurance training you are doing (I.e. say 30 mins), you want to be in Zones 2/3, so for you it is probably between 100 and 130 ish.

I believe a combination of both types of training in a week, with a slight bias towards the number of endurance sessions over intervals) is best. But of course you will find evidence to the contrary!

This is absolute garbage.

Unless you have a serious underlying heart condition there is absolutely no harm and multiple benefits in sustaining elevated heart rate. You also have absolutely no idea what OP's HRmax is.

I don’t disagree @PARunnerGirl, I’m using my personal stats to reassure the OP that a proper approach to building fitness and a balanced programme isn’t going to cause damage to her heart.

@sagebasil:

Working at an intensity that raises your heart rate substantially has three main benefits:

1. It results in strengthening the heart muscle, so the heart can pump more blood on a single stroke which results in a lower resting heart rate, and less spiking of your rate when e.g. going up stairs or running to catch a bus
2. It adapts your body to use oxygen more efficiently - this is more to do with working at an intensity that gets you breathless, but that usually coincides with increased heart rate. Increasing your bodies ability to use oxygen efficiently (increasing your VO2max in technical terms) increases your general fitness - your ability to do work at a sustained level for a long time before you to stop - again stairs, running for buses and all the rest.
3. As you increase your ability to work at sustained levels for long periods of time, you also increase your ability to burn calories - fitter people can do more work in the same time. For example, I can burn 1000 calories in an hour (race pace on my bike), whereas someone with a lower VO2max may take twice as long. Doing work isn't just about weight loss, it helps improve your body's ability to cope with stress and inflammation (if you are keeping your body busy with churning out work, it has less inclination to have excessive inflammatory response).

I looked into the benefits of the MAF method which is staying in an aerobic zone of 180- your age. Mine is 135. At this HR I can hold a conversation to some extent and I am not exhausting myself.

Your MAF would be 119, but it’s not that’s dangerous, just that you increase risk of injury and fatigue when you go flat out, whereas I believe with MAF you gradually increase your stamina gently and that’s more suitable for me.

https://philmaffetone.com/180-formula/

I am not a fast runner yet and I tend to stay in the 135 heart rate but my VO2 max is 41 and I recover very fast (and I’m getting faster in pace as time progresses)

there are different ways to do things it’s up to you what suits you

Thanks all for some very helpful information and encouragement.

I do some HR training. 90% max HR is Zone 5 which is VO2 max and great for improving your fitness. Endurance training is meant to form 80% (I think) of your weekly cardiovascular exercise though. It’s like the base you build on with zone 4 (also really important and can be held for longer) and zone 5. I’d recommend reading about it as it’s a fun way to train imho.

If you're pretty new to cardio exercise your body will be less efficient and go higher than someone more experienced anyway.

In my early days of running, my HR quickly went up to the 150s and stayed up there. Now, the same effort is more like 130s. I'm a decade older so hypothetically my 220-age maximum has changed by 10 (but this is a rough guide not an absolute rule) so there's been more change to my body through efficiency/ experience than through aging.

For stamina, a good guide is that you can still talk through the exercise for most of your training.
Short, intense bursts are also good for a small proportion of training. A minute of hard effort, then recovering back to being comfortable before another rep is good for improving fitness. Doing it for a few reps near the end of a session before cooling down is an efficient way to add a bit of higher intensity in and adjust to it.

Op I like the heart rate monitor that I've been using to track my fitness and level of effort - I have a Polar one that connects to an app that shows the heart rate zones (pic hopefully attached).
(I use a stationary bike that says it tracks but I think it gives a much higher heart rate reading than reality.)

This is mine. The intervals shift as you get fitter too. It’s from my gym but I use it for all workouts.

Another way of trying to work out target heart rates for training is to look at your heart rate reserve (HRR) which is your maximum heart rate minus your resting heart rate. As you get fitter your resting heart rate is likely to fall and you will need to exercise more intensively to reach your maximum heart rate. I’m a similar age to you with a maximum heart rate of 165 and a resting heart rate mid 50’s and am now pretty fit and as an example a high intensity exercise that used to get my heart rate up to 155-160 now only gets it up to around 140

This link explains it more

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24649-heart-rate-reserve

this is so individual - and I think heart rate trackers/smart watches take away intuition.

running or other cardio my heartrate goes up quickly into the 170s and stays there. I feel good and can keep very light, breathless conversation.
my friend on the same run has a heart rate quite a bit lower and she would feel unwell at a righer heart rate.

@sagebasil seems like what you are doing is great. don't over think it. as long as you feel well and get slightly out of breath and sweaty you are doing good.

The 220-age thing for measuring your HRmax is just bro-science. There is no way to calculate HRmax, it has to be measured. It's easy enough to do in the field - you just need a hill, a heart rate monitor, and a willingness to suffer.

I mix steady jogging with short term bursts if running g up hills. At a steady jog my heart rate is around 150. I will then run as fast as I can manage up hill until I can’t take another step, stop until my heart rate goes down to 150 then go again as fast as I can for 4 or 5 sets. I have noticed my max heart rate is now about 185 down from 192 pre menopause.

Late 50s, VO2 max is 30.

At my last health check my heart health was average of someone under 30.

Prolonged high intensity endurance exercise can be counterproductive for heart health, especially as you get older.

Could you explain please @MO0N ?

Ie what does prolonged mean in numbers?

And in what way is it counterproductive in over 60s?

scaremongering
unless you go couch to iron(wo)man you will not damage your health.

I'm 66 and get my heart rate up to around 140 bpm regularly in my gym training sessions - I work with a PT and I do about 3-4 sessions a week, generally pretty much 30 mins strength training (really heavy weights are the best fun!) and then 30 mins metcon (metabolic conditioning), more like HIIT or SIT as recommended by Dr Stacey Sims.

The thing is that you should be able to get your HR up, but the really important thing is the rate of recovery. My PT says I recover fast & I feel that now. I can be completely gassed, but about 30 seconds of either rest or walking slowly, and I'm back & ready for the next thing.

When I started training seriously like this about 8 years ago, the metcon stuff would make me tired & I'd feel as though I'd overworked (for me, it's a distinct feeling of being very sleepy). But now I just love it: it energises me & for most of the rest of the day I get that wonderful relaxed endorphin high.

I don't run much or fast, but I can cover 5k reasonably easily in about 35 minutes, and I aim to walk between 12 to 15k steps per day. When I"m brave enough about the running (I had a knee cartilege tear while running a18 months ago) I may do a Hyrox race. I train for it pretty much already.

It's great!

My PT says that over the age of about 70, this might be the case, not until then. And if someone is conditioned and used to their heart rate going up, then it's generally OK>.

Thank you @ParmaVioletTea - very helpful post.

Your gym sessions are sort of what I'm aiming at; although I don't lift heavy weights (yet 😃). I do get my heart rate up to above 130/min and am not completely 'done in' afterwards.

It's got to be better than sitting around on your arse doing nothing! I do a fair bit of normal walking too - generally 7000 to 14000 steps a day, depending on different factors.

It's to do with not wanting to get to 70 plus unable to do much at all.