Heart Rate Increases Too Fast

[DPM111]

I am fairly deconditioned and sedentary, a retired person in his mid 50s who works at a computer a lot.  A few years ago, I was able to exercise on a elliptical trainer for 15 or 20 minutes a day.  Sometimes with a few rests, because I am trying to keep my heart rate around 140 or 145 during exercise (a rate that is recommended for my age).

Now I am trying to get back into some exercising, but I am worried that my heart rate accelerates very rapidly.  When I get on the elliptical, my heart rate goes up to 140 bpm within 60 or 90 seconds.  Even with pausing, it's difficult for me to do more than 3 or 4 minutes if I want to keep my rate below 150.  This seems strange.  I am not feeling any kind of chest pains or odd feelings in my chest or arms, but in such a short time I am not even getting out of breath.  I don't feel exhausted, my heart just seems to go too fast.

One morning, when I got on the elliptical, my heart rate showed up as 150 after just 30 seconds, so I visited my doctor.  He put me on 25 mg of beta blocker, a low dose.  I had a stress echo cardiogram test which came out normal (up to 160 bpm on their treadmill).  So they can't find anything major wrong.  But I still feel like I cannot start exercising when my heart rate zooms up to such high rates just doing brief mild exercise.

[BPV1]

A related discussion, Heart skips beats was started.

[vikram9562]

A related discussion, rapid increase in heart rate during regular work was started.

[Koregol Prabhakar, MD]

Dear DPM111,

Thanks for posting your query.

I would like to reassure you that there is nothing that you have nothing to be worried about. Presently, you need to get acclimatized by training. The increase in heart rate is occurring only because of deconditioning. I would suggest that you train yourself at constant speed for prolonged periods on a tread mill preferably instead of an elliptical cycle (atleast in the initial period). Additionally, you should try and increase the incline rather than your speed. If your test results are normal, you should not be receiving beta blockers right now. Additionally, I would also suggest that you get your thyroid function tested. This would be done by measuring the Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and free thyroxine (FT4) levels.
As long as you are not symptomatic, you don’t need to worry about the absolute magnitude of your heart rate. If you feel comfortable, you should continue working out and you would notice that the further increase in heart rate would be very small.

Hope that this information helps and hope that you will get better soon.

Thank you for using MedHelp's "Ask an Expert" Service, where we feature some of world's renowned medical experts in their fields. Millions have benefitted from our service to get personalized advice for them and for their loved ones.

Best Regards,
Dr. Prabhakar C Koregol