High heart rate when exercising

bigdog123 · Dec 1, 2012

My brother is 23 and I did some CV yesterday with him, only 20 mins on the elliptical trainer.

He is 5`7 and about 170 and healthy, never used AAS, weight trains and plays other sports a few time per week and is fairly lean etc.. He is fairly fit and can run 3 miles/5 km in about 23 minutes

His resting heart rate is around 70.

However during the CV yesterday on a fairly low resistance level his heart rate shot up to about 175 and stayed there for the full duration, whilst mine was 120 or so as we were exercising at a fairly easy pace.

I asked him if this was normal and he said yes, whenever he exercsies whether it be intense or moderate his heart rate goes up to 170-180.

After we finished it took his heart about 3 minutes to get back down to 90 or so.

For me to get my HR to 170 I`d need to really be pushing it very hard.

Is this a bad thing for him or normal?

Kaladryn · Dec 1, 2012

Could be a few things, if he is going anaerobic that would explain it, but I would suspect his heart is just out of shape, either that or his RBC is low. I bet 3-6 months of cardio 4-6 times per week would do the trick.

odality · Dec 1, 2012

when i train quad, i'm not limited by my energy but my HT.

@12reps i feel like i will die.

Simpllyhuge · Dec 1, 2012

What's HT?

bigdog123 · Dec 1, 2012

Kaladryn said:
Could be a few things, if he is going anaerobic that would explain it, but I would suspect his heart is just out of shape, either that or his RBC is low. I bet 3-6 months of cardio 4-6 times per week would do the trick.

Hes not going anaerobic, its like a fast walk pace.

He does exercise regularly, about 3 times per week so I`d say hes fitter than 80% of people.

Ironically I never do much cardio and my HR was around 120 compared to his 170 at the same level of exertion.

Swaglantern · Dec 1, 2012

Heart rate zones are individualized. There is a mathematical equation to determine your max heart rate, and the zones that follow - but it is VERY GENERAL and shouldn't be followed. The only way to know your true training heart rate zones is to determine your max heart rate over a few tests. Based off this you can determine your resting, walking around, aerobic, anaerobic, and max efforts. At 23 your brother could very well have a max HR of 200 - maybe even a little higher. When I trained competitively I was able to hit 196 at 36 years old- which shouldn't have been possible based on the math equation (which is why it's bunk.) I had races that were averaging 2+ hours and my heart rate log showed an average HR in the high 180's for 2 hours. 175 for a 23 year old with a 200 max bpm may just be an slight aerobic workout. 120 is a low HR. and maybe for you may be an aerobic workout - as you may have a max HR of 140? But it still seems very low. I need to become a trainer because so many people don't understand heart rate zones, and aren't getting the true benefit out of their cardio. So many people state that they did 30 minutes on the tread mill, or thirty minutes on the elliptical, and yet they don't know their true heart rates - so in all honesty they could have just wasted 30 minutes of their time...with a really inefficient workout...and to be hones I even question if they really even did cardio because thirty minutes at a decent cardio rate is fairly taxing for a non endurance athlete, and they often get off the machine like nothing happened.