Question for fitness experts from couch potato

[Buffafly]

I know that I don’t exercise enough but I seem to be able to cope with a fairly high rate of AF which seems surprising if I am very unfit. I recently bought a watch which continuously records my heart rate. It assumes my resting HR is 60 bpm though in fact it goes down to 50 sometimes. It has set my VO2 max at 145, presumably because I am 75, with various grades in between. My average HR is 72 and most days I am in the ‘intensive’ zone for about 11/2 hours plus a few minutes in the higher zones when my HR spikes. It’s useless when I’m in AF though.

My question is, does that time in the ‘intensive’ zone help to maintain my fitness at all? I’m sure I should be spending time in the Aerobic or Anaerobic zones but I’m surprised that I don’t seem as unfit as I ought to be 🛋?

[Buffafly]

🤗

[Buffafly in reply to Buffafly]

My watch treats them as the same - 145 BPM and after that I do start to fade out

[Paulbounce]

All I'll add to your post is this Buffafly.

I do my one mile + 'ish' exercise (walk and run up hill) every day. My HR is about 55 at rest these days - sometimes more \ sometimes less. I've gone down to 46 lowest but it's not unusual (any Tom Jones fans on the forum) to be about 53 in the day time at rest. Sometimes lower.

Before I started my exercise I was lucky to have a resting HR of 65.

I totally believe that excerise - in moderation - can really help with afib. In fact if you look at medicial journals it's found that regular exercise reduces hospital admissions with afib and the associated risks with it quite significantly.

This of course is just my personal opinion. Moderation and a slow build up is key to success here I think.

The 'intensive zone' can reflect how fit your heart is. How quickly your HR goes back to a resting state is important. A 20 year old trained athlete will go back to resting HR in about 5 minutes. However the older you get the longer it takes. During my run it knocks up to 120 / 130 but takes longer to go back to resting rate. The other thing to watch for is how long it takes to have a quick drop after exercise. I'll drop 20 beats within a few minutes which is a good sign. However I keep a record of it all and will discuss it with my cardio when I see him again.

If I ever see him again in these hard times

Paul

[Buffafly in reply to Paulbounce]

Very interesting, thank you, I’ll try testing those on my ‘bike’, it might spur me on 😅

[Billiam54]

Good Morning Buffalfly, What watch do you have? Wrist based heart monitors vary in accuracy particularly with AF sufferers. Have you verified the accuracy of your watch by manually taking your heart rate or with a chest strap? As Happy Jo states VO2Max and Max BPM are not the same thing, although your watch will use your heart rate to calculate your VO2Max. As BobD says, listen to your body when exercising. Cheers. Bill

[Buffafly in reply to Billiam54]

Hi Bill, thank you, I have a Xiaomi 4 which uses green light technology and seems fairly accurate against a Kardia or an oximeter when in sinus but like an oximeter is useless in AF. I have read up on VO2Max and realise that the related App is simply predicting where I am likely to collapse in a heap and it’s pretty accurate! Even Kardia is not infallible as it gives an average but when I went to hospital with a bpm of ‘145’ the ECG came up with 168!

[Billiam54]

You seem to be pretty set then . If you need further verification there is an App entitled Heart Rate Free, I have it on my iPhone and there's probably an Android version also. Cheers.

[Madscientist16]

I think your heart rate may also depend on what medications you are taking. Beta blockers lower heart rate and can affect exercising heart rate and how far it will rise. Calcium channel blockers also lower heart rate.

[Hidden]

Ignore the watch, If you are in AF it will not be accurate. Exercise more, just having a high heart rate because of a malfunctioning heart is not going to get you fit

[Buffafly in reply to Hidden]

I think you misunderstood me, I am talking about when I am in NSR. I hardly ever have AF for a long period so even if it did ‘exercise’ my heart it wouldn’t be daily. What I am saying is that my HR is going up during normal activities like gardening and housework so I’m wondering whether that contributes to fitness. I am not looking for an excuse not to exercise ‘harder’.

[Hidden in reply to Buffafly]

Ah, sorry I did misunderstand completely.

Yes housework is exercise, especially if you really go for it, vacuum cleaning is a good one, ironing not so good

[Buffafly in reply to Hidden]

Especially our vac, weighs a ton and has mighty suction which you need on a pile carpet. Not much of a one for ironing though standing is supposed to be better for you than sitting 😀

[Hidden in reply to Buffafly]

I only ever do the ironing when there is some good car racing on the TV, so everything is creased this year 😱🤣

[Buffafly]

Thank you, very useful