Heart Rate Recovery

[MARKE020272]

I've recently got a heart rate monitor that I've been wearing on my commute. My resting heart rate when I wake up is averaging 48. On my commute this will go up to 160ish on the hill. When I finish it's about 90. Should I be looking at the amount of time it takes to get back to my resting heart rate or near it. It usually stays up in the 80's for quite a while. Is this a level of fitness or am I reading to much into this. I'm also asthmatic, would this cause my heart rate to be higher. Thanks for reading.

 

[Dan B]

I'm not a medical expert, but if 48 is your resting hr on waking, I'd be surprised if you get anywhere close to that after exercise (unless you go back to bed and lie down). Try taking your HR when upright and walking around even before you start exercising seriously, and my guess is it will be 80ish (give or take 20bpm).

Recovery time after exercise is a measure of fitness, but personally I'd only be tracking it down to about 50% (i.e. (maxhr+ rest hr)/2)

 

[The Jogger]

I always thought what you do is clock your heart rate when you finish then check the beats it drops over the next minute, 30 is the least and 50 beats drop is excellent. That's what I understand by recovery rate.

 

[Garz]

In addition to the other posts I agree that RHR is irrelevant after your commute as you will find that by sitting and walking around doing daily activities it will hover around 60-70 for example. As Dan mentioned it will only return near your RHR when you are sat idle for ages or lying in bed.

To give a rough idea of your health it's probably best to measure (and log) the HR when your about to leave for work. This will give you an idea if you are fresh, lethargic or potentially coming into being ill or having a cold.

To give a rough idea of your fitness it's probably best to record your HR when you sit down at work and see what value you get from being inactive for say 5 minutes. Log this too and it should show you returning to that value in a faster time the fitter you get.