What is a good resting heart rate?
This is a very common question among cyclists. I have heard several people discuss this topic and have often seen them compare registrations of early morning resting heart rates. The fact is that you can only compare these values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.
Autonomic nervous system regulates resting heart rate
The resting heart rate is closely related to the autonomic nervous system. You will probably already have noticed that your resting heart is lower when you are in good shape. This is because of a larger stroke volume or more correctly a bigger parasympathic drive on the sinus node. This is one of the central adaptations to endurance training.
Know your resting heart rate
A good reason to know your normal level of resting heart rate is that you can use it to discover overtraining or illness. If your resting heart rate is 10-15 beats above normal, you might have a disease. In that case I will recommend you take your temperature and look for other symptoms. Avoid intensive training or races if you don´t feel well.
Some values to compare with (don’t do it…)
There are great deviations in normal resting heart rates. Many well trained cyclists normally have a resting heart rate in the 40’s, some in the high 30’s and few in the low 30’s or lower. There are also well trained cyclists or even professionals in the high 40’s or low 50’s. And as I said previously: Don’t compare values with others’…
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Scott said,
March 30, 2008 @ 8:41 am
My resting heart rate right now is about 72 beats per minute (sometimes 66 or 78 or 72 or 70). I just bought a ellipitcal machine and I want to work on lowering my cardio heart rate down as I want to train harder. I have missed a lot of gym time lately as I am 39 years old but I feel 21. I train time to time, no excuses, it is really my lack of effort, my gym is 3 blocks away and it a private 24hour power lifting gym. I bought the ellipital machine because I always sweat too much, this way I can run 20, 30 minutes or maybe an hour and shower when I’m done. Also I can combine sit ups during my cardio, 20 minutes of cardio, then do 50 to sit ups, then run 5 to 10 minutes cardio and then do another 50 situps and then I’m done.
I am about 170 in weight and losing but I have lots of tone (it’s easy for me to gain muscle, I joiced 10 years ago and never needed it, just wanted to see the size from steroids but never really completed the cycle, so I ended it early). I keep my heart rate no higher then 160 beats per minute when I run on the ellipitcal but I am out of shape or sort of but high energy. I train hard, I love to train but not lately, so I am doing the cardio 4 days a week and love it (things will get better in the next cuple of months as I continue to train on the ellipitcal machine). I feel great but my goal is to bring down my resting heart rate to 60 beat per minute even though 72 is fine. I don’t drink much (some beer but not much) or nor do I smoke and I don’t drink coffee (maybe once a week) but I drink tea with honey daily. I don’t eat any transfats nor do I eat anything with high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup in it, I learned that is just bad for ya and read all my labels when I shop.
Anyway, I appreciate this new post. This is a good topic.
Timothy said,
April 12, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
Gee thanks for your life history Scott. You got nothing better to do?
Scott said,
April 13, 2008 @ 10:26 am
I train, got the heart rate down. That’s a good thing isn’t?
Scott said,
April 13, 2008 @ 10:26 am
I train, got the heart rate down. That’s a good thing isn’t it?