Worried about heart @18

[violoncello]

Hi,

Well first off, here are my stats:
Age:18
Height:5'11"
Weight: 170
I am around average....I have little fat on my arms and legs, but I have a belly.

I started working out for the first time about two months ago. Lately I have been worrying that there is something wrong with my heart. Last year I thought I was having problems because I often felt my heart way too distinctly and felt thirsty and weak all of the time. Sometimes my left arm was cold and I often had trouble falling asleep also. I got a ton of tests done (blood, ekg, 24 hour monitor, and something that resembled an ultrasound for the heart). My doctors insisted there was nothing wrong with me and it could have been anxiety linked (for 2 months) and eventually the symptoms went away.

Sorry for that long into but I just wanted to get out that I once thought I had a heart condition. Well my routine includes weights, then cardio. I do my cardio on an eliptical. My question is concerning how high my heart rate should be for how much work I do. I will often see an older person doing a similar thing while their heart rate is around 110, and mine will be 170. What I normally do it 20 min, which gets me about 1.8 miles. My heart rate peaks at 175ish but will stay around 165. Today I did 30 min and got 2.8 miles, with my heart rate topping at 175ish as well. Is this a very small distance and intensity to have such a high heart rate? I do vary the incline and resistance so that is also a factor.

When I run, I will run about a mile in 10-12 min depending on the day. I run 6.5 mph and my heart rate will go up to 180.

During my 5 min cool down, my heart rate will generally drop to 140.

I just need to know if this is a cause for concern. I feel like I am doing little work for how high my heart rate gets.

Thanks,
John

[Al Dente]

I don't see anything really of concern as a lay-person (not a doctor) for your age.  Max heart rate is 220-age.  In your case that is 202.  If you're getting up to 175-180 your nearing 90% which is a good heart rate.  Generally cardiac exercise targeting 60-80% of max is a good work out.  It's good that your heart can get up and work, and start back down after.  Your hr will respond better as you get in better shape.

As you get older, your hr targets lower.  You can't compare yourself against a 30 or 50 year old.  As a cardiac patient myself taking lots of heart meds getting up to 120 is quite a feat.

You've been given a good check out so I wouldn't be toooo worried.  If you have early onset heart disease or other heart problems that show up earlier in life, I'd pay more attention.

Keep up your workouts.  If you haven't been training and conditioning, you can't expect to be like those who've been doing it for a longer period.  Take things on gradually.  If you try to do a bunch of weight sets then jump on a treadmill and run your head off, you're more apt not to feel that great.

Good luck.

[Flycaster305]

I'm the older person on the machine that you see with a lower heart rate.  Like Al Dente, I can't get my heart rate to raise much over 100 bpm because of heart meds I take, Altace and Coreg, and many if not most people over 65 are taking BP meds. Those of us on those types of drugs have to develop new formulas to determine peak heart rate guidelines. If you were having heart issues, I would imagine you would have different symptoms than you mentioned.  

[violoncello]

Thanks for the advice. Now I know that is a safe heart rate.....but is a heart rate around 180 high for running 6.5-7 miles an hour?

[anacyde]

I'm a 28 year old woman, so my max heart rate is going to be lower than yours for target exercise.  When I'm on a treadmill doing a 5 mph jog, my heart rate hangs in the 160 range.  Bear in mind I am not much of a runner, but I am very physically fit.

A couple of things to consider here are:

a. Older people have lower heart rates naturally, and frequently are on medications that will make their heart rates lower still.

b. If you are not in great shape yet, your heart rate will be higher as you begin your fitness routine and will slowly begin to decrease.  For example, when I started working out again after my son was born, I could hit a heart rate of 180 easily.  Now it takes a LOT of effort to get to that.  I'm sure you'll see similar changes.

c. If your doctor seems to think this is not heart-related, back problems as well as digestive problems can sometimes mimic cardiac issues.  If you're not finding relief after ruling out the heart cause (which is highly unlikely at your age) I would ask your doctor about other possibilities.

[CollegeGirl143]

just wondering, have you had all the normal blood work done as part of your screening? (thyriod, diabetes..) If your symptoms of weakness and thirst are still bothering you, they might be good tests to get done.

[LadyNRA]

Yeah, I agree with you.  I couldn't figure out why my heart rate wasn't way up there when I got back on a treadmill.  I am WAAAAAY overweight, and just recently got PVCs (going on 9 weeks now).  Age 51.  So being out of shape, I figured that a fast walk should get the pulse up but I asked the cardio clinic people I see, and they said that with the Toprol and Lisinopril (like Altace), my heart rate won't get very high.  In fact, they told me that if I ever needed a stress test, they'd either have to drop the toprol dose for that morning and then walk me (which I'd prefer) or do the chemical stress test (which I want to avoid).