Is Having a Lower Heart Rate Better for Your Fitness Levels? | About Heart Rate
Table of Contents
What Is Heart Rate
Heart rate is a very complex thing, there are so many things that can affect it. We can start with the basics, what does heart rate mean. Your heart rate reflects how many times your heart beats in one minute.
What Is Resting Heart Rate
Resting heart rate is the amount of time that your heart beats when you’re at rest (ex: when you wake up). This is your baseline heart rate. Resting heart rate can have so many different baselines for individuals. Some people might have lower heart rates than other individuals and that is perfectly fine.
What Can Affect Your Heart Rate
There are many different things that can affect your heart rate. These things include:
Training intensity
The more your heart rate has to work to keep up with your intensity the more it will beat to cycle oxygen through your body, and to get rid of waste.
Hydration
The blood is actually made of 92% water, so the less hydrated we are the less blood volume we have and the more frequent our heart will have to beat in order to get an equivalent amount of oxygen cycling to our muscles.
Altitude
When at higher altitudes there is less pressure in the are, this will cause our body to be able to access less oxygen into our lungs. Which in turn will cause our heart to have to pump harder and lungs breathe faster in order to obtain more oxygen.
Stress
Stress has known to be killer, causing some people have heart attacks, heart arrhythmias, stress can really change our heart rate in the matter of an instant.
Why Is Having A Lower Heart Rate Better Overall?
Our heart rate can tell us a lot of things about our bodies. Having a lower heart rate in trained individuals can show us that they’re a lot more efficient at utilizing oxygen and disposing of waste. This will allow trained individuals to have a higher output and be able to sustain higher levels of intensity and maintain a higher heart rate for prolonged periods of time when compared to an untrained individual.
Besides just training effects, there are many positive health benefits that having a lower heart rate and training your aerobic system can have. These include decreased risks for heart disease which is actually the number one cause of death in Canada, accounting for 50% of all deaths. In turn training, your aerobic system in combination with strength training can lead to a longer life with improved quality of life.
How To Train Your Aerobic System
Training your aerobic system is when people start to get very confused, do we just run on a treadmill and is that good enough? When it comes to training our aerobic system we are going to want to be more methodical in order to track our heart rate and measure our progress. Using tools like Max Heart Rate (MHR) which we will calculate by using this formula 220-Age. Other tools like heart rate monitors will help us constantly monitor our heart rate during our workout.
Example Training Session
Walk ~5 minutes
Dynamic Stretch
5 min light jog (50% MHR)
5 to 10km run/jog (65% MHR)
Cooldown (45-50% MHR)
Static Stretch
How To Intensify Your Aerobic Workout
When it comes to intensifying your aerobic workouts, increasing your pace when running is a great start. You can judge your improvements by doing the same workouts at a faster time, or your ability to maintain your heart rate at a faster pace week over week. Adding in things like hills, intervals are also another great way to increase the intensity.
Tips For Aerobic Nutrition
Eating for aerobic training specifically will look a bit different. When it comes to energy used during anaerobic training session it will be broken down into more of an even usage of carbohydrates and fats. Our nutrition should reflect that, a well-balanced portion of fats and carbohydrates, not really favoring one or the other too much.
Examples of Good Fats:
Avocado
Almonds
Pistachios
Olive oil
Examples of Good Carbohydrates
Brown rice
Oatmeal
Bananas
Apples
Sweet Potatoes
How To Lower Heart Rate
There are a variety of different things that you can do to lower your heart rate. This includes:
Reduce stress
Exercising more
Staying out of the heat
Quit smoking and reduce alcohol intake
Practice deep breathing
Maintain a proper diet
Stay hydrated
All of these methods will help to lower your heart rate. Methods such as deep breathing, meditation, stretching and having a warm bath are ways that you can reduce a sudden rise in your heart rate.
Drinks That Lower Heart Rate
The best drink to lower heart rate is water! It is important to keep the body hydrated so that the heart does not have to work as hard to stabilize blood flow in the body. Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and energy drinks are stimulants and will increase your heart rate.
Foods That Lower Heart Rate
In general, there is no food that you can eat that will immediately lower your heart rate. With this being said, eating a heart healthy diet is a great way to manage your weight and keep the heart healthy. Some examples of heart healthy foods include:
Fish that contain omega-3 fatty acids
Nuts, whole grains and legumes
Leafy green vegetables that contain vitamin A
How Long Does It Take To Lower Resting Heart Rate
There is no set time that it will take to lower your resting heart rate. This all depends on your age, weight, and the frequency, intensity, duration and type of exercise that you are performing. You will need to consistently perform exercises such as cycling, distance running, distance swimming for at least 30 minutes a day at an appropriate intensity to see changes in your resting heart rate. It is very likely that you will experience a lower resting heart rate if you perform aerobic endurance exercises consistently for at least one month.
Lower Heart Rate Naturally
To lower heart rate naturally, follow the tips that we have outlined above! The fastest way to lower heart rate naturally is through the consistent performance of endurance exercises. Examples of aerobic endurance exercises include brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, cycling or biking, hiking, using an elliptical or climbing stairs.
