Resting heart rate for swimmers

[Robin33]

Hello,
I'm swimming coach and work with age group swimmers (9-14yr), I would like to know about one of my female swimmer
who's eleven and has a resting heart rate of 88/90 every morning. I'd think it shouldn't be that high but would like your opinion. She trains 5/6 times a week (10/12 hours), most of the time she gets 75/78 beats per minute but over the last few weeks it has increased. Is it normal or could it be related to overtraining? She also does lots of sports at school.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Robin

Robin Armayan
Poole SC head coach
robin.***@****

[braveheart1978]

hi i am a 32yr old female i will try 2 make this short......In 06 i had a atrial spetal defect repair( at childrens hosp in detriot) my complaints b4 the surgery were...(flutters or feeling like my heart was stoping and weak,sleepy no energy! i was so good after the surgery then last yr 08 i had a feeling of passing out followed by fast heart beat and hard kinda felt like it was flopping around.......then i had nothing like it again untill may of 09 it was all day so i went 2 the er and they said i had svt they gave sotalol while i was on the sotalol i had no more events just lill flutters......i was told 2 get an ep study with possible ablation .....so i did nov18th 09 I had 2 stop the sotalol which i did but it was only 4 like 4 days b4 the ablation and i didnt have any events then during the ep study he couldnt get my heart 2 where he wanted it but did ablat a area ......i was sent home and was fine till now....as soon as i had a event 6 in 30 mins (almost passing out followed by hard fast heart beat and some pain and burning) i took the sotalol called my heart doc on mon and they sent a event monitor 2 me but the doc didnt want me on the meds,so i stoped 2 days into it i had 15-30 events......got them on the monitor, but i couldnt take it and took the sotalol it now has been 5 hrs and i have not had a event, so why dont he want me on the meds if they work and is there any other health issues that look and act like svt???

[Jeffrey R Boris, M.D.]

Dear Robin,

The resting heart rate for children that age is actually 80 to 130.  Having said that, considering that she is active in other sports and is training significantly in swimming, I am a bit surprised at this, as we do tend to see somewhat lower resting heart rates in these really active kids.  Without seeing her and evaluating her, it’s hard to say exactly what’s going on here.  One thought that I would have is that we often see elevated heart rates in athletes when they don’t drink enough fluid.  I would make sure that she is taking in at least 32 ounces of fluid (milk, water, juice) per day.  I would also make sure that she is not skipping meals and has minimal caffeine intake.  This should also help to improve her athletic performance, as a side benefit.  If this is still persistent, it may be worth evaluating, although if she is asymptomatic, it is also debatable.