Question

farah's picture
Posted August 15th, 2007 by farah
in

I have been puzzled about why occasionally my heart rate does not reach the target rate when I run on a treadmil.  Any ideas?

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maverick's picture
On August 15th, 2007 maverick said:

hello farah,

is there anything you can correlate as far as changes in duration and speed of running on the treadmill, changes other activity, changes in diet, changes in sleep, or stress level, to not reaching your target rate?

also, how are you measuring your heart rate? manually or with the machine?

farah's picture
On August 16th, 2007 farah said:

Thanks, Maverick for responding to my question. There are not much of a change in any of what you mention.  I select cardio on the treadmil and enter my weight, age, duration, and the machine determines what my target heart rate should be. I then hold the handles on the treadmil designed to get my heart rate.  I know that some machines may vary in accuracy-although I do not think that the level of accuracy is very high on these machines.  This is what I always do, but sometimes I do not reach my target heart rate in the 30 minutes workout and sometimes I reach it within the first 10-15 minutes.

maverick's picture
On August 16th, 2007 maverick said:

hi farah,

i think sometimes we get too caught up on the numbers.

i've gotten varied results from the same machine over the course of a work out, so i don't trust what they report.

you could stop and check your heart rate manually if you're concerned.

you could also follow this rule of thumb regarding cardiovascular exercise:

  • if you can sing without much difficulty, you're slacking - work harder.
  • if you can talk without much difficulty, you may not be working hard enough - take it up a notch.
  • if you can talk with a little difficulty, you are working at a good speed - don't slack off.
  • if you can't talk at all, you're working too hard - slow down and grab a chocolate bar (kidding).

try following that benchmark and see how you feel after your workout.

HealthWarrior's picture
On August 16th, 2007 HealthWarrior said:

Farah,

This could be due to some medication that you take occasionally, such as those for Migraines.  Beta blockers are suspected to have this effect and they are found in a wide range of medications.  I thought of migraines because you said this happens only occasionally and so it wouldn't be caused by a medicine that you take regularly, such as those for hypertension.

Here is a quick list of related drugs:

Acebutol (Sectral®)

Atenolol (Tenormin®)

Betaxolol (Kerlone®)

Bisoprolol (Zebeta®)

Carvedilol (Coreg®)

Esmolol (Brevibloc®)

Labetelol (Trandate®, Normodyne®)

Metoprolol (Lopressor®, Toprol XL®)

Nadolol (Corgard®)

Penbutolol (Levatol®)

Pindolol (Visken®)

Propranolol (Inderal®, Inderal LA®)

Sotalol (Betapace®, Betapace-AF®)

Timolol (Blocadren®)

Hope this helps!

UPDATE:

I found an article that explains this as well: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/beta-blockers/AN01224