|
Sep 2021
4:45pm, 20 Sep 2021
15,441 posts
|
larkim
Resting heart rate - do you use what Garmin reports as your RHR or do you pick the lowest (reliable) reading you've seen? Now I've had a watch for a few months which does continuous HR monitoring, I can see plenty of days where my lowest matches what I've considered to be my RHR (47/48ish) but Garmin consistently reports my "resting" as 7 or 8 beats above that, despite the daily trace clearly showing periods when it is lower than that.
I know it can be filed under "doesn't matter", and I want to resist the temptation which says "My RHR is now higher, that means my Z1 and Z2 training can and should be done at a higher HR", but is Garmin's definition of a resting HR better than the simple " as low as it goes" approach?
|
|
Sep 2021
5:03pm, 20 Sep 2021
26,504 posts
|
fetcheveryone
I was on the point of asking this same question.
First of all, when I first wake up, my Garmin (935) tells me that my RHR for the day is about 5-6 beats above what I'd expect. It's only after I've done a bit of moving about, made a cup of tea etc that I check again, and by then it's lowered the estimate. But I can also see points on the four hour trace that are lower than the value it's given me.
I'm not sure about the first issue, but as for the second, I suspect it's using some kind of time threshold to pick a minimum e.g. at least five continuous minutes at X to accept it as the overnight RHR. But if that was the case, you'd think they'd also tidy up the graph so it doesn't show the lower figures.
|
|
Sep 2021
6:03pm, 20 Sep 2021
23,453 posts
|
Dvorak
I wouldn't go just by the Garmin, I would manually check it. I have been getting occasionally ridiculously low readings, and I think what it is declaring as average resting is for me, a few beats low.
Latest manual checks (over several days) suggest I'm down to 54 bpm, from 56.
Garmin watch says, right now, Avg resting: 51.
On Connect, though, going backwards from and including today, my daily resting heart rates in bpm are given as: 57, 52, 59, 35, 58, 45, 57.
You can maybe see why I am a bit sceptical about using Garmin's figures.
|
|
Sep 2021
6:05pm, 20 Sep 2021
23,454 posts
|
Dvorak
(I should write: what the watch is showing is low, as it's not tallying with Garmin Connect.)
|
|
Sep 2021
8:21am, 21 Sep 2021
15,442 posts
|
larkim
Interesting that your experience is the opposite of mine there Dvorak.
How do you do your manual readings? My "low" I've done in the past by sitting chilled out in an evening watching TV with the HRM and observing on the watch the lowest BPM reported which is sustained for a few seconds. I know if I sat in a doctors surgery or at a physiology centre I'd be unable to "achieve" that same level of resting low HR, so perhaps my approach is flawed.
|
|
Sep 2021
8:28am, 21 Sep 2021
26,505 posts
|
fetcheveryone
This morning, first thing, my watch was reporting a RHR of 52, whilst the little graph was showing a low of 43. Just checked again, and it's lowered my RHR to 48.
|
|
Sep 2021
8:40am, 21 Sep 2021
23,459 posts
|
Dvorak
Manually taking my pulse whilst looking at some form of timer, larkim. Fifteen seconds will usually do, though sometimes I'll take it over a couple of minutes. I find watching football quite good for it: clock on the screen in front of me. It rarely raises my heart rate  I also tend to find my resting HR is a couple of beats lower in the evening.
|
|
Sep 2021
8:51am, 21 Sep 2021
2,217 posts
|
Flatlander
Manual RHR measurements should be taken as soon as you wake up in the morning while you are still lying in bed, otherwise you are not recording your true RHR, although some people find that theirs is lowest just before bedtime, provided they haven't done anything stimulating shortly beforehand.
larkim, I would say you are not measuring your true RHR -
firstly, a few seconds is not accurate enough because you can catch just one short part of your breathing cycle. When you breathe in, your HR rises as the heart pumps blood to the lungs' alveolar capillaries to absorb the oxygen you have just breathed in, and discard the CO2 you have produced. When you breathe out the HR decreases as there is no oxygen to absorb. With my low breathing rate, it is best for me to measure over a full 60 seconds rather than for 15 seconds and multiplying by 4, otherwise I could be in the inhalation or exhalation part of my cycle which, for me, could make a difference of as much as 5bpm.
secondly, sitting watching TV is not a totally physically relaxed state. Your muscles are working to keep you in a sitting position, your breathing rate is higher than when lying (see above paragraph), and your brain is being stimulated by watching TV (brains require a fair bit of oxygen).
Besides breathing, HR is also affected by eating, drinking (liquid, not just alcohol) or being dehydrated, amongst many other things.
|
|
Sep 2021
8:52am, 21 Sep 2021
15,443 posts
|
larkim
I'd definitely expect to read a higher RHR doing it manually like that; somehting about the tension and expectation of doing the reading. Of course, if that's the "right" way to do it I need to do it!
|
|
Sep 2021
9:22am, 21 Sep 2021
15,444 posts
|
larkim
Flatlander - thanks; that's really the nub of my question. And thus, is Garmin "doing it right" if it's abundantly clear that I'm doing it wrong. I appreciate the insight into the underling workings too. Though I will say that I can achieve my lowest "reading" when sitting watching TV; I don't ever seem to experience a lower rate than that, even during sleep or early in the morning.
On the plus side, it means that my Z2 running at the top of my Z2 band would really put me in the position of having been running in the middle of the band, which is probably "better".
|
