Thanks for the comments, you guys!
I wanted to clarify that:
Exercising itself doesn’t make me anxious – it’s that tightness and wired-ness and the way my heart rate doesn’t drop back to normal that is anxiety-producing.
So on that note, I can do aerobics pretty well and not find the increase in heart rate disturbing. It’s after a strength workout, where my muscles seem to get worked very hard, that I have the symptoms.
Meg suggested that I have an anxiety association with exercise, which is totally true, and I suppose could be causing it. But then you know me; my let’s-assume-it’s-complicated brain views Ockham’s razor with suspicion.
It’s Meg’s other suggestion that I think could be the right one: that I’m working too hard. I went and looked up target heart rates for my age and fitness level. I haven’t done this since, no kidding, HIGH SCHOOL, when I was sixteen-years-old and fifty pounds lighter and athletic. Back then, my “target range” was in the 170′s.
So today, when I was using my heart rate monitor and noticing several times that I was hitting 176, I thought, “Hey! Wow! I’m getting a great workout!”
Yeah.
So I went and looked it up.
Age Target HR Zone
50–85 % Average Maximum Heart Rate 100 %
20 years 100–170 beats per minute 200 beats per minute
25 years 98–166 beats per minute 195 beats per minute
30 years 95–162 beats per minute 190 beats per minute
35 years 93–157 beats per minute 185 beats per minute
40 years 90–153 beats per minute 180 beats per minute
45 years 88–149 beats per minute 175 beats per minute
50 years 85–145 beats per minute 170 beats per minute
55 years 83–140 beats per minute 165 beats per minute
60 years 80–136 beats per minute 160 beats per minute
65 years 78–132 beats per minute 155 beats per minute
70 years 75–128 beats per minute 150 beats per minute
Your maximum heart rate is about 220 minus your age.
The figures above are averages, so use them as general guidelines.
According to these three sites I checked out (Site A, Site B, Site C), a beginner like me should be exercising at around 50%-60% of her target heart rate. At the “advanced” level, you could safely be hitting around 85%.
Yeah, so apparently I was, at several points, HITTING 95% OF MY MAX.
This is where I duck, while Meg hits me with the clue bat.
So it turns out that I’ve been basically working way way way way way too hard, which explains the 3-hour nap I had yesterday, and why every time I’ve worked out in the last two weeks I feel like I have to recover for days afterward. It also explains why my workout today, which I did in the late morning when all I’d had to eat before that was a glass of ROMAINE LETTUCE JUICE, had my heart rate elevated for almost two hours post-workout. GO FIGURE.
I hereby declare that I will continue with my workouts and aim for a heart rate of between 130-140bpm or so. After a few weeks I’ll maybe go a little higher.
When I first got my HRM, I too would get frustrated by trying to get it lower. I was told at a gym that I should try, as practice, to learn to get it to 135 and keep it there for 20 minutes. Easier said than done. No amount of walking could get it over 120, and no amount of jogging could get it below 155. Sometimes I would start running, and for the first 5 minutes, I couldn’t get it below 175, but gradually I could get it down to 155.
All I’m saying is that it may take some practice to get it lower. One nice thing about step aerobics, is that to lower the rate, you can just lower your arms, and remove a riser in the step.
I think it’s totally natural to “gun it” when you are starting out with an activity, since you are pretty excited about it. I find that to me the case with jumping rope, too.
And the more frequently you do some kind of aerobic exercise, the more quickly your heart rate will come down afterwards. Just do a little a day–don’t burn yourself out! (Oh, and yeah, for breakfast you should probably eat a little more than lettuce juice? That sounds suspiciously like a diet to me, and I thought we were done with that? :)
I don’t have a “clue bat,” however, I do have a “duh stick.” It’s nice to be able to whack someone with it OTHER THAN MYSELF for a change. :)
You’re so cute, Hollie. Let’s get married.
Ivana – It’s not a diet, I promise! I’m just trying to get that raw foods glow! Which, holy cow, I think I actually have this morning. My cheeks are all healthy pink instead of wake-up pale, and my joints aren’t hurting.
I’ll definitely start doing just a little every day, and then working at keeping my HR in the right range. I really don’t want to burn out and then stop altogether and get flabby again like last time. :(
Meg – Name the place! You know I’m yours. It’s a good thing I didn’t get your haircut, because I mean THAT WOULD LOOK SILLY IN OUR WEDDING PHOTOS.
You know whats kind of funny? You notice that your heart rate is elevated, and that makes you nervous, which makes your heart rate stay up. If someone could just not point out to you that your heart rate was elevated in the first place, you’d probably be just fine. Honestly. Of if brains worked the way they should, and it was somehow possible to over-rule your animal response with your logic response.
When i run, i run at about 180. so, figure that out. I’ve asked a number of doctors about it, and they all shrug, tell me they don’t know what it means, and don’t know how to fix it. A couple of them have even suggested that i’m wrong, because it is impossible to run for 13 miles with an average HR of 180. Hah! On the other hand, i largely just ignore my HR now, and things seem to be fine.
(As a note: I think my HR is related to my asthma – I think there is a physiological cause. But i don’t know how to fix it, and by all accounts my heart is actually fine. so i’m stuck there for now.)
Anyway, what are you doing taking your HR while you are lifting weights anyway?
I know thats not at all helpful, i’m just writing stream of conscious here. I do wonder if you might not benefit from a one or two time meeting with a trainer to help you set up realistic workouts.
I resist the notion that it’s just noticing the elevated heart rate that causes the problem, since there are other things happening too. And just doing aerobics doesn’t cause it – it’s the after-feeling. I really think, at this point, that I’m just overdoing it, and that’s why I need so long to recover and feel like crud. But it’s still very likely that while the over-doing it is real, thinking about the heart rate being high is very likely contributing to it being high.
180? PHEW. Geez, lady.
I took my HR while I was lifting the other day because I noticed my pulse spiking, especially during kettlebell moves. It was surprising and strange, and I wondered what it was related to.