High Heart rate when exercising but feeling fine.

[dindy]

Hi . Undecided if I need to be on this forum or the afib forum. They both involve the heart so I will post on this forum; if I am wrong please tell me.

I have copd but only mild so they say and does not seem to affect my breathing in any activity unless I go jogging. I started snail jogging at around 70 years old to keep my lungs & heart healthy as possible. I turned 73 this month and in August was diagnosed with AF. They say I am in now persistent AF and therefore on 125Mg dioxin once a day and 5mg of apixaban twice a day.

Personally I am not sure as once my heart rate graph looked like a seismograph recording a magnitude 10 earthquake. Now it looks like someone who is exercising. Anyway that is not the point of post. Once diagnosed with AF I decided to stop snail jogging for 2 miles and go over to brisk walking to keep heart rate lower.

I am supposed so I read try to keep max heart rate around 103 bpm, my max for my age being 148. Anyway even when I was walking as fast as my little legs would go I never at no time felt out of breath or tired. What I did find was my heart rate went up around 1.5 miles which I put down to my body feeling tired although as I pointed out I did not feel physically tired. Also by this point my right hip was getting painful even just to walk so I also put this down to my heart rate climbing.

The cold weather set in and I was getting cold just walking and after many many months I have admitted defeat that I will never jog for more than 3 mins without stopping as I was out of breath.

New strategy, 30/45, 30 seconds snail jog followed by 45 seconds of briskish walk for 2-2:1/4 miles. This I have been doing now for around 4 weeks and for me it works for at least 2 reasons. 1. The jog part warms me up even when it is pouring with rain and 2. The 30 second snail jog gets me breathing just a bit heavy but not out of breath so exercising my lungs.

I have mostly always been one to follow “listen to your body” person when exercising. I think I better mention that apart from mild copd, af, I am supposed to have exercise related asthma so get a bit wheezy sometimes and recently sliding inguinal hernia so basically I am falling to bits but will never stop me fighting it even though it may be a lost cause.

Now this is the problem and not sure how to deal with it. I suppose as I now jog/walk for 2 miles my heart rate is going to increase as I am putting more effort in. Now it goes up to 120 bpm for most of the time but as I near about 1.5 miles again sometimes it will go up to 130-150 bpm which to be honest is high. When this happens I no longer snail jog but walk and sometimes sit down in a bus stop to let heart slow down, which it does very quickly, about 20 beats a minute. Once I start again it gradually goes up.

The thing is I do not feel out of breath, sweating, tired or anything in fact if I did not have a polar watch on I would think my heart rate was high and I could just go on. I would have thought at such a high BPM I would feel some discomfort but I do not so do I just stop or carry on? When I get home it feels like I have not even been out for a jog and have plenty of energy left.

Even though I feel no discomfort I do not want to ignore a high heart rate if it is doing harm.

[Hatchjd]

If you are keeping your heart rate under 150 and feel fine I don't think this is a problem. The heart is a muscle and as you get fitter the rate should come down.

[Hidden]

Totally agree, the basic formula is fine as a guide for ave Joe, but anyone who is/was reasonably fit, is much better using RPE, UNLESS of course your HR is hitting silly numbers.

220-age means my max is 157, like TWU I can run/row/cycle & maintain close to that for 30+ mins.

I use the Miller formula which is still only a guide, but takes age & some level of fitness into account, the formula is 217-(0.85*age)+4 (for men), that gives me a max of 167, which still seems a bit low, but I think is closer to reality.

Anyway as TWU says, check with your GP, he knows you best (hopefully).

[Vanilla88]

How are you measuring your heart rate I’ve found if my fitness tracker can move in my wrist it shows an incorrect and elevated heart rate.

[Smileyian]

Hi Dindi, as someone who has experienced a myriad of arrhythmia for nearly 40 years and Afib for 5 of those years, I was particularly interested in your post. However after being in AFIB permanently for a year, I took the plunge and had 2 ablation's within a year at the age of 75 (now 77) and it was the best outcome I could expect. I lived with an average HR of about 120 for a very long time and it was not pleasant. Still on rhythm drug and of course an anticoagulant. Had you considered an ablation ? Good success percentage these days. Notwithstanding that, you seem to display good tolerance, given the exercise regime you describe. May I offer you my very best wishes and a Happy Christmas.

[Char1985 in reply to Smileyian]

What arrhythmia have u had/got? How was they diagnosed if u don’t mind me asking?

[Hidden]

I am 81 years old and have been a runner for ever. When I was younger my heart rate went exceptionally high in the first mile and then settled down. When it was high I felt fine and only knew it was high by looking at the watch. I now have stents fitted and have angina and awaiting another angiogram. However I still include some running in my training. I never look at my heart rate but walk when the angina comes on, then jog again. My cardiologist is happy with this.My advice is to ignore the heart rate and go by how you feel.