High heart rate/low endurance in athlete

[tmoney1]

I am an 18 year old female. Because I play on several sports teams (swim team right now), I am in very good shape. Yesterday, I was working out on an elliptical machine at the gym and about 5 minutes into my workout, my heart rate monitor measured 193 bpm. I wasn't exercising very strenuously at all, though. I have noticed that I seem to tire more easily and I have less endurance than most of my friends, even though I exercise often. I am 5 foot 10 and 148 lbs; pretty average. Is this something that I should be concerned about or look into further? Thank you

[RazaShah]

Hi there

Here is the heart beat formulla,  220 is maximum heart beat rate above this definetly will passed away so that do some calculation like this 220 - your age = result.
e.g 220 - 32years old = 188 your heart beat could be normal 10% up or 10% down depends on environment etc -

[Bromley]

Is your workout schedule properly structured (i.e. getting enough rest)?  

Are you eating well enough (balanced diet with enough carbs and enough electrolytes to fuel your activity levels)?

You weren't having any problems at 193.  To know whether that is normal, you can estimate your anaerobic threshold in a number of ways  at:

http://pages.prodigy.net/edc3/imusa/heart_rates.html

Good luck.

[pine88]

lol, funny axg : )

I'm actually getting my readings from a heart moniter that I wear. It is very consistant, unlike those on workout machines.

[axg]

My towel sometimes registers a heart rate of 140 when I put it on the treadmill (Woodway) handlebars. Nice to know it's alive, I guess.

[pine88]

I'm having the same problem too.  I'm 29, very active, but my heart rate always shoots up super high and I get tired.  I was on the treadmill today and running only at an 11 minute mile for about 30min. My heartrate AVERAGED around 177bpm, which is 90% of my max heart rate. I also bike to school every day, and even on level ground my heart rate shoots up into the 170s.  Supposedly my ideal range is 152-162.

My life is very low stress, I get lots of exercise.  Despite that, I seem out of shape compared to my friends, many of whom do not exercise regularly.  I'm thinking about going to a cardiologist, but it doesn't seem like a serious enough problem...?  But it's frustrating because I struggle to do the activities I want to do.

[ta69]

The same thing happened to me I have a elleptical machine one of those state of the art machines and the heart monitor is on the handle and I gripped the handle and all of a sudden my heart rate read 175, I kept on excersing and held on to the handle and the next readings were normal so to speak at 128. So I started keeping track and every once in a while the machine will have a incorrect reading. Maybe this will put your mind at rest, if not see your doctor. Good luck.

[Fran71]

What's an elliptical? Is it that kind of machine where you move both the legs and the arms, a sort of standing bike? If that is the machine, my HR on that one gets up to 180 or even 190 as well. The owner of the gym freaked out when he saw it, and said that the machine had to be broken because if my HR was indeed that high I would have collapsed and passed out. I wasn't even out of breath; I felt fine, only my heart was racing.

I was told what matters most is not how fast the heart beats during exercise, but rather how fast it slows down afterwards. It should slow down by at least 10 beats after the first minute at rest following exercise. My heart does that so I feel reassured, though I often get tachy and PVCs a short time after working out.

Fran

[hbp702]

Ask your doctor to check for anemia.

[CollegeGirl143]

i have a similar problem, and it could be a number of things. Dehydration can make your heart race when standing up, so make sure you're drinking plenty of water.. Do you usually work out on ellipticals? those things r murder.. If i use one for 5 minutes im ready to collapse, but i can run on a treadmill all day long and my heart rate wont get above 140..If that was abnormal for you, you might want to ask your doctor for a holter monitor and go work out while you're wearing it

[Cleveland Clinic]

tmoney,

thanks for the post.

Exercise monitors are notorious for having spurious readings. Overall, it sounds like you are in pretty good shape and I wouldnt think too much about the event.  A qucik visit to the physician for a complete history and physical as well as a baseline ECG would be helpful to reassure you. Keep up your active lifestyle.

good luck