Q: I’m a 50-year-old cross-country skier, and when I hit the trails, my heart rate averages about 118 beats per minute. When I told a friend about it, he called me a slacker. Am I?
A: In the summer, I race bikes against friends in their mid-60s who can still get their tickers up to 180 for rides well over an hour long. And we’re riding up hills, into headwinds, and sprinting to beat each other to the finish. So I would guess you can do better than 118, depending on your level of fitness and your goals. Most people need to maintain a heart rate of about 60 percent of their maximum effort for at least half an hour to see the true benefits of a cardiovascular workout. If you’re in very good shape, you should be able to maintain an even faster heart rate for a longer amount of time. To figure out your max heart rate, strap on a good monitor, like the RS100 from Polar ($120; polarusa.com), warm up for 10 minutes, then run, bike, or ski uphill as hard as you can until you can go no longer. At that point, look at your monitor; you’ll see your highest heart rate. For the first week, skiing at 60 percent will hurt, but by pushing yourself, you’ll eventually be able to go faster and will obviously have a fitter heart and lungs.
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Email your questions for Dr. Bob Arnot to dr.bob@mensjournal.com.
This article originally appeared in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.
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January 18th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I remember the “make it hurt” argument for how hard should I be pushing during training. Recently I’ve been told that pushing just past the conversational pace is they key.
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August 29th, 2011 at 9:42 am
60% of maximum effort – you’re talking about the V02 max (peak oxygen uptake), right? It’s interesting, but I never looked into how heart rate and V02 max are related, but turns out they are (as detailed in the Fick equation).
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