Maximum heart rate?
I did an elliptical workout for the first time today. I was doing a minute of hard work but not killing myself and then thirty second spurts of pushing it as hard as I possibly could. I survived about 25 minutes and hope to work up to at least double that.
During the minute intervals, my heart rate stayed around 175 – it never got below 168 or so. During the bursts, it would go up to 185 or so, but occasionally I hit 190. I didn't realize that was considered very high until I was doing some Googling later.
Is that way too high? Has anyone else seen those sort of numbers? Heart problems run on both sides of my family so I am trying to find the balance of wanting to push myself to fight off my double whammy of bad genes and not wanting to put too much strain on a heart that might not be built for that kind of exertion.
I've got an appointment with my doctor in about two weeks and I'll bring it up, but I really don't want to stop until then because I'm afraid I'll lose motivation. I'm obviously not asking for medical advice, just anecdotal evidence that I am not going to keel over at the gym!
For what it's worth, I am twenty years old.
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