Unusually high heart rate

[jessiew0]

I am a female, 26 years old. I have been excercising regularly for about 8 months, doing weights and moderate cardio. About a month ago at the gym I was on an elliptical trainer going at a moderate pace and when I tried to cool down my heart continued to race between 140-160 bpm. I walked really slowly on the treadmill for 40 minutes before it came down to 120 and then I went to the ER just to get checked out. Dr said it was sinus tachycardia probably caused by high caffeine intake. Took about 4 hours to return to resting heart rate.I cut out caffeine completely from then on. So I went to the gym again a couple days later. Normal. Then on another day my heart was pounding after my workout (140 bpm) after cooling down for about 30 minutes started to drop. Then yesterday I went and was working out not that hard and suddenly my heart rate climbed from 130 ish ,which is my normal for what I was doing , up to 150 bpm which freaked me out a bit since I wasn't working that hard. I slowed down right away but my heart rate continued to rise up to 167 bpm and finally started to come down. I know this isn't extremely high for my age but I wasn't working hard enough for it to be that elevated.I'm very worried there is something wrong... anybody have any ideas as to what would cause this? Is it safe to continue to excercise?

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

I think that we all turn into "freaks" after a trip to the ER *LOL* I would bet that after you see the Dr and have all the usual testing done, you will feel more at ease with this.

Please let us know how your appointment goes:)

[jessiew0]

Yeah I know it's not out of normal range, it's just that even when I was running earlier in the fall even after running the highest i saw was maybe 150 , and it seemed to come back down faster than it has been lately. It just freaks me out because I haven't been exercising hard like I used to and it seems my heart rate is high for what i'm doing and i'm worried maybe theres another problem. I do have a dr appt in a week or so, but just wanted some opinions in the mean time to ease my mind... I'm not prone to anxiety but since the ER day I'm a bit of a freak LOL

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

What you should expect to see is the heart rate to rise from about 70 at rest to as high as 194 (220-Age=Target Heart Rate at peak exercise). And then during the first minute after exercise you should expect to see is the heart rate fall by at least 20-30 beats per minute . That would take you down to between 164-174. This is an example of how your heart rate should normally respond to brisk walking.

I don't see anything in your post that seems too alarming. However, since you are the best judge of what is occuring and how you are feeling, you could schedule an appt to see your Dr to discuss this.

Best of luck and certainly let us know how it works out:)

[jkfrench]

Hi Jessie
I used to have that problem.  My doctor said it was probably inappropiate sinus tachycardia.  It isn't life threatening but if you worry it can aggravate it.  Mine started in my early 20's.  I'm in my 40's now and still here so try not to worry.  
Frenchie