Best Way to Determine MAX HR?

[brianwchan]

Hi,

I did a search on google and this forum, couldn't find a conclusive answer. I'm using a polar cs200, am 20 years old, and weigh 175 lb. I'm asking because I can hit 207~ bpm without too much difficulty, and I feel like i can hit 215 or so.

Thanks

[evenfasterson]

Find the steepest hill you can and sprint your arse off up it from a stnding start and see what your max is, have a warm up first just to raise it up to start with incase the hill is too short. I hit 234bpm!

[Cyco]

A couple of years ago (early 20s) I would ride teams pursuits at 212, so don't worry about 215 being over the top.

[Skillgannon]

Max HR tests should probably be done on a wind trainer if you can. YOu dont know how your bodys going to react when you hit max, some people get really sick, others just explode, others throw up, and others are fine, no big deal.

One way of doing it would be to do 3-5 minutes in E3, then every 2 minutes increase your speed on the spinner by a couple of km/h, moving up fast enough that your not going to run out of energy before you hit max. When you think you cant go any faster/harder, sprint. Best way for that is to have someone looking over your figures, and when you start to plateau get them to lay into you until you get going.

[brianwchan]

I remember reading a while ago something similar ie time trial your way down a flat windless road adding a gear at a time. I'm fairly certain my max hr is around 215~ plus or minus 5 beats. Thanks for the advice, I'll probably just find some hills and sprint up them.

[evilgeek]

warm up, then do 20-30 mins at race pace, then 10 mins as fast as you possibly can.

[rockymtnway]

I'm not a fan of relying on max heart rate to determine anything. If you can, spend the time, effort and money and get a proper lactate threshold test at a reliable lab. The data you get won't be based on statistical population averages, it will be based on your results and your physiology, thus, do a much better job of taking your individual fitness into consideration. The test takes less than two hours, costs between $85-100, and is available nearly anywhere you live. I've had mine done at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and the 30 minute consult after the test is worth the price alone. Having a top physiologist make specific recommendations for your training program is priceless. I've managed to tailor a program that moved me from a mid-pack sport racer to a top-five expert racer in one year.

[brianwchan]

I see. UC Davis supposedly has a great sports testing program... I've been thinking about going next school year. I'm just trying to start riding again with some regularity this summer, difficult cause I'm working full time.

[keithster]

Max HR tests should probably be done on a wind trainer if you can.

One way of doing it would be to do 3-5 minutes in E3, then every 2 minutes increase your speed on the spinner by a couple of km/h, moving up fast enough that your not going to run out of energy before you hit max. When you think you cant go any faster/harder, sprint. Best way for that is to have someone looking over your figures, and when you start to plateau get them to lay into you until you get going.

tried this one a couple of years ago, my max hr was 198. a couple of days later I attacked the steepest hill in my area, and hit 204, I should try it again just out of curiosity, I think that max hr is higher now

[peterpen]

The best way to find it is during a race you really, really want to win. Everything else can come close, but I've always shown my highest HR in a race.

But really, why do you want to know your maxHR? If you're trying to find training zones, there are better ways to go about it, most revolving around determining a performance threshold or steady state.
The lactate test is one (although there's a fair amount of debate about how good a performance predictor blood lactate levels are.) You can do it Friel-style, and do a ~30 minute TT (maybe go climb Mt. Diablo?) then take your average HR for the last 20 minutes as your 'threshold' HR.

[therkildsen]

I did a search on google and this forum, couldn't find a conclusive answer. I'm using a polar cs200, am 20 years old, and weigh 175 lb. I'm asking because I can hit 207~ bpm without too much difficulty, and I feel like i can hit 215 or so.

Hi,

As a rule of thumb your maximal heart rate is 220 minus age. But as you´ve already discovered that all people fit into that formula. There is a standard deviation which means that "200-240 minus age" would be the normal range for maximal heart rate. So you are quite normal (correct me I´m wrong... )

If you want to test your maximal heart rate it is very important that you are motivated, because when you are above 95% it is all about being dedicated to the project.

It is a very good idea to use some kind of a power meter so that you can make small increments during the test. I will suggest you increase the resistance with about 10W pr 15 seconds. This is done to make sure that you are not spending to long time on the test but still long enough to reach your maximal oxygen consumption. If you start out to hard or make too big increments in watts, you will spent your energy going anaerobic to early. Thus, you will get exhausted before you reach your maximal heart rate.

With this test setup you will suffer the last 2-4 minutes.

Remember, as already mentioned, some people can´t get motivated enough in a testing situation so they will reach higher heart rate during races.

[clingenpeel]

Max HR is pretty much meaningless. It's the percentage of your max that you can sustain that's the key.

[Skillgannon]

Max HR is pretty much meaningless. It's the percentage of your max that you can sustain that's the key.

Sure, this may seem like a technicality, but it helps determine what percentages of your max your working at, and which percentage values of your max you need to train (for a serious training program, training zones will change for different people, and % of max HR becomes more applicable. Of course, between different people, theres a variance in the useable zones, but hey)

[Koen]

I've learned that your MaxHr drops when you're a little bit tired (after a long and severe race, it's difficult to get to that maxhr), when you have symptons of overtrainingsyndrom, somehow you just can't get that high, or after years of severe training. The most of the professional riders , especially the older ones, have a 'low' max hr (180-190).
3 years ago, i could get to 202-203. now, if i'm well-rested, i'll maybe get to 195-197, 200 is history

[BBAGDAN]

smoke a huge pipe of crack and wait 30 seconds.