Okay, okay, I'm tired of arguing weight with Aquageek and company...and Centaur brought up a very neat idea.
So answer me this, if you're so inclined to: What's your resting heartrate? There are a few who say theirs is below 55, and some who say it's right around 60.
To try and get a slightly less askew measurement, try taking it while you're sitting right here, reading this. Hopefully, you're on the computer during the day, either at work (shame on you for being on the boards at work!) or at home (I won't question that), or somewhere, and you sit down for a few minutes at least. Take your heartrate, and answer the poll, and we'll see what we come up with.
I'd start by telling you mine, but I had an asthma attack this morning, and as a result, my resting heart rate is higher, around 68 bpm's. Typically, it's 54. Stupid asthma. Makes me feel like I've been hit by a truck. :(
Not sure if this is completely kosher, but here's a snippet on resting heart rates from the Runners World (UK) site:
www.runnersworld.co.uk/.../article.asp
Q I have an unusually low resting heart rate – with beats per minute in the mid-30s – and my doctor is a bit concerned about it. What is the normal range of resting heart rates for runners? And are there any problems associated with a low resting heart rate?
A First, because endurance athletes have strong hearts, they generally have low heart rates. As an analogy, consider a bricklayer lifting bricks. If his arm muscles are strong from lifting lots of bricks, he can move 10 bricks with each lift rather than just two or three. Similarly, if your heart muscle is strong thanks to running, it has a higher stroke volume, which means that it can pump more blood with each beat than an untrained heart. It can also pump the same amount of blood in a minute using fewer beats. The average resting heart rate of endurance athletes is around 50-60 beats per minute. I’ve seen one report, though, of a healthy athlete whose resting pulse was only 25 beats per minute.
Doctors who are familiar with athletes only get worried – and follow up accordingly – when a resting heart rate is lower than 30. But even this can be completely normal (and usually is) if the athlete is otherwise healthy. The slow heart rate indicates a strong heart, but this alone does not make you a better runner. There are too many other factors involved in running performance.
Are there any problems associated with your low heart rate? Perhaps one. It does make you more vulnerable to anything that reduces the blood flow back to the heart, such as coughing or choking on food. This occurs because the reduced blood flow causes the heart to slow down even more, to allow more time for blood to enter the heart.
And that can set off an involuntary nervous response that leads to fainting. Apart from this, provided that you have no other symptoms or complaints, your resting pulse should not concern you, or your doctor, unduly.
—Paul Thompson, cardiologist
Not sure if this is completely kosher, but here's a snippet on resting heart rates from the Runners World (UK) site:
www.runnersworld.co.uk/.../article.asp
Q I have an unusually low resting heart rate – with beats per minute in the mid-30s – and my doctor is a bit concerned about it. What is the normal range of resting heart rates for runners? And are there any problems associated with a low resting heart rate?
A First, because endurance athletes have strong hearts, they generally have low heart rates. As an analogy, consider a bricklayer lifting bricks. If his arm muscles are strong from lifting lots of bricks, he can move 10 bricks with each lift rather than just two or three. Similarly, if your heart muscle is strong thanks to running, it has a higher stroke volume, which means that it can pump more blood with each beat than an untrained heart. It can also pump the same amount of blood in a minute using fewer beats. The average resting heart rate of endurance athletes is around 50-60 beats per minute. I’ve seen one report, though, of a healthy athlete whose resting pulse was only 25 beats per minute.
Doctors who are familiar with athletes only get worried – and follow up accordingly – when a resting heart rate is lower than 30. But even this can be completely normal (and usually is) if the athlete is otherwise healthy. The slow heart rate indicates a strong heart, but this alone does not make you a better runner. There are too many other factors involved in running performance.
Are there any problems associated with your low heart rate? Perhaps one. It does make you more vulnerable to anything that reduces the blood flow back to the heart, such as coughing or choking on food. This occurs because the reduced blood flow causes the heart to slow down even more, to allow more time for blood to enter the heart.
And that can set off an involuntary nervous response that leads to fainting. Apart from this, provided that you have no other symptoms or complaints, your resting pulse should not concern you, or your doctor, unduly.
—Paul Thompson, cardiologist
