Is it ok to train at 95% of your maximum heart rate?
when I do cardio my average hear rate for 1 hour is 160bpm. My bp at doc last week was 123/71 with 60bpm heart rate. What I would like to know is – is it ok to train at say 95% of max heart rate? sometimes when i go flat our for a less than a minute etc I can get my heart rate up to 180 but can’t sustain it… am I doing damage to my heart if I train at say 95% o f heart rate 3 days week?
Some recent trials have demonstrated the deficiencies in the various methods of calculating “maximum heart rate”.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11153730
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/24/health/maximum-heart-rate-theory-is-ch…
Using the Karvonen and 220-age formulas, you could underestimate your heart rate by 20bpm or more.
The best predictor is the talk test. If you feel that you’re working too hard, you probably are. If you can still talk and can carry on a conversation, then you’re probably not working hard enough.
As always check with your physician. Some people who have various heart, bp or other conditions (pregnancy, diabetes, etc) may need to work within a predetermined heart rate range set by a physician.