High heart rate during exercising and normal during rest.

[Saibimajdi]

I'm 25 years old, male, 178cm and 95kg.

I start going to the gym the last two months, the first time I was exiting I tried to push myself a bit. I noticed that when I run (using a treadmill) my heart rate will easily reach +200BPM (max was 211bpm) when I run at 6 miles per hour. 

When I walk for 10min my HR will reach 130 bpm easily.

Resting HR is shown in my Fitbit as 62bpm. I noticed that any movement will increase my HR by 15-20 bpm.

This is when I was working out, I stopped because I reached 200bpm.


This is a normal day of HR (including 20min running at 4mph).

[SunsetRunner]

It is quite an individual thing for everyone. For me ( 38 ) my heart rate can change really quickly from very low to very high. My resting HR used to be always low. Even at the time when I wasn't fit it was oscillating around 60bpm. But by exercise, I can elevate it above maximum HR ( mind that the heart doesn't know max HR equation 😉 ). Usually, during cycling, it stays around 170-180bpm and I am quite fine with that. If I stop on the traffic lights it goes down instantly to 100 or even less ( depends how long I wait ). When I walk, it jumps right away 30-40 beats ( to 80-90bpm ) etc. My heart has own patterns and own responses to the actions I take. I don't have any heart condition and staying at the peak for a long time doesn't bother me physically. For accuracy, I test it always using the chest strap (ECG) and sometimes numbers come crazy but I don't find it strange anymore. This is how my heart works. I don't feel out of breath or any other unwanted symptoms. See the example below, a slice of an activity:

It's one of my climbs on the wall I've done today. It's an increase by 78bpm within just 48 seconds. Then it dips down when I came off the wall and goes up when I retry. My HR raises and lowers really quickly and it reflects every action I do. I've seen it sometimes raising to 200bpm on several occasions.

Like you, I've been wondering whether this is correct behaviour ( mostly "wondering" due to my wife's concerns about my health 😄 ) so I went to see my doctor and got tested. Nothing wrong, this is how I function. If you have any concerns like these I suggest to do the same - see the doctor and get a medical opinion. My intention here is to show you, that heart is not a machine following always the same patterns. Sometimes oddly looking behaviour may be absolutely normal for some people. Seeing a doctor in case of doubts is the right thing to do but the first thing is to not panic 😉 Even low resting HR when I was obese didn't seem to be normal ( so I have been tested for bradycardia, too ) but after all, my doctor had to admit that for me, it was normal.

Lot's of text so here's the conclusion:

1) any doubts - see a doctor

2) don't panic, observe your body, its responses etc.

3) you can't put whole human machinery under simple equation ( like max HR etc. ) because...

4) we are all different 🙂

5) just in case see point 1 🙂

[Saibimajdi]

Thank you very much @SunsetRunner !! Your words help me a lot. The reason why I posted here because I'm not able to go to the doctor now because of some health insurance issues. 

Again, thank you!

[SunsetRunner]

@Saibimajdi one thing just came to my head is what my doctor told me. It's not only about numbers but mostly about patterns that you can observe. For example, if I had bradycardia, the pattern would be that my heart wouldn't accelerate despite doing something strenuous ( my GP described it like there is a block that doesn't allow my heart to "shift the gear up" 😉 ). As a result, I would feel fatigue, dizziness and in some cases, I could even faint due to not receiving enough oxygen. That's one example. So then, when you look at the HR graph you see, whether heart speeds up when it should do so or whether it slows down when it should do so etc. There is a lot more to it than just numbers. It was a simple explanation but worked for me so when I analyze my HR from my activity I look for patterns and compare them with what I've done. In one of my past posts, I used HR to determine locations of waiting on the red traffic light when cycling ( ignore rant about Ionic in this post, that's not the point 😞

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Heart-rate-accuracy-test-cycling/m-p/3016226/highlight/true#M7...

Looking back it was quite an interesting experiment because then I realized that a heart can show predictable behaviour within the scope of a single person 🙂 So now, when I analyze my HR graphs I don't look only at numbers but also at events ( circumstances ) when those numbers have been obtained. Gathered lots of data over time, I can predict what my heart should be doing and when. I don't have a medical background but did lots of research and made myself a guinea pig in my small machine learning pet-project 🙂 And maybe one day, I'm gonna get an early alarm if something goes wrong with my heart ( hopefully that day will never come 😉 ).

Just mind that I use my example to show you that such situations may be normal but if I were you I would solve the insurance problem just in case 🙂 You know what they say, better safe than sorry.

[Annabel398]

Another thing to think about is this: how quickly does your HR come down after you stop the exertion?

Rule of thumb: if it comes down by 20 bpm or more after 1 minute, you're fine. If the heart rate continues high after 60 second of inactivity, that might be more worrying.