Hey Dr. Seiler, thank you again for putting out this great information! You do an incredible job condensing the research and explaining why we train certain ways without any kind of emotional tie to your own personal "training system" as we hear from lots of other coaches who espouse the system that they use on their athletes as the best method. This is based on the research, and it is incredibly beneficial for us endurance geeks to listen to you explain these concepts and not get dragged into the muddy waters of all the competing coaches and voices espousing low volume versus high volume, sweet spot versus polarized training, MAF heart rate training versus power based training, etc... You do an awesome job of explaining the research and where it actually leads us, and as a fellow endurance junkie and geek, I can not thank you enough!
Great video as usual! It probably all comes down to the stochastic nature of blood volume and hemodynamics parameters. I personally see higher numbers at the end of the HIIT sessions or during off-season competitions, when my blood volume is expected to be lower. This may partially explain 30 min vs 10 min warm up and second/third interval vs first one - think of lost fluid.
So interesting the level of individual variation. I think it may seem obvious but the modality or situation that let’s an individual athlete hit their max HR simply maps to which exercise form you personally find easiest to “dig deep” without bailing. That motivation and situation is different for everyone and whether you need to externalise or internalise, and narrow or broaden your “attentional focus”. For me it’s an “external broad” focus - I can’t focus on my suffering, I need distracting from it and focusing on something else so races either indoors or outdoors let me hit HRs I simply cannot reach in training/testing. I’m so focused on winning and absorbed in and committed to the effort/chase, that my HR hits max. I could personally never deliver to this level in a testing scenario or intervals since the motivation and distraction simply isn’t there and the mind games would begin, there’s not enough distraction to keep my attention off of the suffering.
Mental has to be crucial in those tests. Personally, I reached my recorded peak (+4 bpm compared to known max) doing a self designed ramp test whereby I increased speed every 3mns (probably too long for running tests). On the last step, I really wanted to complete the 3mns and digged deep. Had the step been 2 mns instead, I would not have discovered this new peak.
@@dan_grey it’s not even every race, sometimes it’s just when everything perfectly aligns. I believe for ages my max HR was about 188bpm, until I had a race where I was desperate to stick with the leaders on a climb. I was completely maxed out and about to blow but the crest was *just* near enough that I managed to pull extra from somewhere and hang on and hit a HR max of over 190. If the climb had been just slightly shorter I wouldn’t have hit that HR, and if it had been slightly longer I’d have blown and given up knowing there was no way I could sustain and hang with the leaders to the top
@Stephen Seiler Maybe an interesting follow up question: When defining Heart rate Zones from MaxHR values, Would you then refer to the "highest possible value" influenced by the mentioned factors or rather refer to a "most recent value" especially with regards to chronic fitness level. Many thanks & Best regards!
Very interesting question indeed! Personally I like the zones being calculated out of my Lactate Treshold HR (automatically done my my smart watch). Like that the zone take into account my level of fitness (as a beginner, LT HR was in the low 180s, and now as high as 190), and my shorter term changes (LT HR can vary by a few bpm from week to week)
A vid on how CO2 impacts fitness and how we can impact it would be fantastic! I do believe my limiting factor, particularly with climbing on my road/MTB, is my inability to manage my CO2 levels. I can cheat if I blow off CO2, but that’s quite a seen & sound…or it’s placebo and I’m simply working through the discomfort of can’t breathe and stuff hurts!
No specific emphasis on environmental temperature vs. impact on Max. HR. I can always get a higher MAX HR in extreme high temperatures (especially doing intervals at say 40C/104F ). If this is generally true, then why would we not consider - either, the lower temperature Max HR are too low or at higher temperature the Max HR is too high (if there is such a thing in Max HR) or it is the actual MAX HR?
My max heart rate (according to a watch at least) has always been at the end of all out 5km efforts when I have paced it well enough for a substantial kick in the last 400m. Pretty consistently get to low 200's doing this. Conversely max HR in hard intervals sessions tend to be in the low-mid 190's.
I found that my maxHr varies quite a bit with regards to both chronic fitness level (detrained maxHR is significantly higher than trained maxHR) as well as with very cold temperatures (my maxHR during cold winters e.g. running outside is quite a bit higher compared to summer time)
I think this is to be expected and is partially explained in the video - it’s the same basic phenomenon as not being able to set peak HR when tired - you want to not hit other “throttles” before you hit max HR - I.e. you need your body not to shut the effort down because you are tired or too hot etc
Your max HR is a fixed value (disregarding the natural decrease with age). What you're seeing is day-to-day variations in fatigue or conditions which prevents you from reaching your max HR.
How does ambient temperature affect the ability get a MHR measurement? Every time I've hit close to my highest heart rate measurements, it's been when the temperature was nearing 38 degrees Celsius. Very informative video. Thanks.
38 degree celsius will give you a "artificial" or just very high HR max because a lot of your blood is pooled beneath your skin to cool your body, this results in a lower stroke volume due to lower venous presure. So a "true" HR max test i would do at a lower temperature, since the HR max reached in 38 degrees won't be possible to hit in say 20 degree environment
At the age of 26 I reached 196 bpm trying to break away, sprinting up, standing on the pedals, the final 500 m long, 5% hill and reaching 48 kph at the top, just before the final downhill to the finish. At the age of 45, I reached 182 bpm in a race, going up a 12% hill at 32 kph in the middle of the pack. In training, not even close. Probably, I need to be forced, motivated by others competing against me to reach my max HR.
Same experience, I've only been able to hit my max HR in the setting of competition, and once during a spin class. There seems to be something mental preventing maximum output when there's no "real" reason to do it.
@@tmoore121 Which may be a problem: a dose of suffering in training is required to be ready to give it all in competition. I am quite sure I could have been a better cyclist than I was.
Dr. Seiler, what about the possibility that the nervous system is adjusting max HR based on the current environmental, physiological and psychological conditions?Not exactly central governor but similar. P.s. Thank you for all the informative videos.
I'm a 55 year old male, was a decent athlete growing up and been active most of my life..I'm 6'5" and 270 lbs (goal weight is 220 lbs) and have been getting back into cycling in the last year including some racing on Zwift (Crit City) - I'm probably one of the largest racers on Zwift..(FTP @ 315).I have noticed that during training I can comfortably get over 165 bpm and during races I've gotten my HR well over 180 bpm during races..and recovered pretty quickly..I know the standard theoretical Max HR for me should be 220-55=165..is it dangerous to push myself during a race to get my HR up say 185 BPM or is it that I'm just able to run a higher HR and no big deal? I saw from one of the charts (48 second mark) that you had some outliers in the 50-55 yr old's that had HR's above 185..which obviously don't follow the 220-age rule.
Forget 220-age. It sort of works on average for thousands of people but it is absolutely unreliable for individuals because there is lots of normal, healthy variation in Max HR, independent of age. I once tested a group of 17 y old, well trained XC skiers (about 15-16 athletes) and I remember their HRmax values ranging from 176 to 208!
Hi thanks for such a well supported recommendations. I have 2 questions a) You ultimately don't comment on the value of using incline intervals as recommended by some (although you mention it in the body of the video re research with skiers) i.e what is their value in this context and what inclines someone should choose and why. My thought is that it is an easy way to develop max effort but excessive incline might hinder reaching max HR due to limits on 'localised' power availability b) My experience is of reaching max heart rate between 0.5 and 1 km into a run that is in the moving (as opposed to static) and relatively slow (max pace - 10%) warm up phase - do others experience this - is it a 'false' HR max? as I rarely exceed these in the later part of the run/ride. Although I have not tried your specific recommendations (and will) I'm not sure if I would exceed these numbers anyway. Please comment.
10 years ago when I was cycling I thought it was always easiest to reach max heart rate after 30 minutes of hard cycling. I could never go past 195ish the first 30 minutes. But after warming up and losing some fluid i could reach 215.
I did two V02 max tests and they recorded a maximum of 180 and 177 in Jan 2021 and Jan 2022. I've recorded max HR values of at least 10 beats above that in Sept 2021 during a long trail race - keeping a HR in the high 170s for the last part of the race and spiking all the way to 193 in the final sprint. I also have several 5k races where my HR went a few beats above the 180 mark. Can it be that the tests are not that accurate in pointing out my max? I feel like my legs are flooded with lactate before I can actually push hard enough to get to my true maximum.
Late to the party, but I hope this still helps. I found the same to be true for me: In my VO2 max test, I didn't hit max HR. I also found that I hit VO2 max before I hit the peak HR for the test. I got the test results with detailed HR and VO2 max data every 5 seconds. According to this, I hit VO2 max at 180 bpm while I maxed out on the test with 185 and a declining VO2 value. Race results from the same season saw me hitting 190+ a couple of times, so races may be better for me. I think the VO2 max test isn't designed to bring out your max HR, although it may work in some people. I believe it is even mentioned in the video that VO2 max testing isn't the best way to test your max HR. As you said, the incremental increase in running speed may fatigue you before you could hit max HR. Also, the warm up they asked me to do wasn't very long, only about 10 minutes. The test protocols that Dr Seiler mentioned in the video were a long warm up (30 min) followed by 2 all-out intervals of 3-4 minutes each. The workout part is shorter than the total duration of the VO2 max test to exhaustion. Alternatively, I've tested my max HR with several long hill sprints, a hill that takes me 90-120 seconds to run up. It's a bit easier on the legs to run uphill and it brings up HR faster than running flat.
Great presentation and info. Thank you. I found my MHR by doing push ups to exhaustion. Obviously not 100 % accurate, but close enough. Standard formula says 154 and push ups gives me 167, quite a difference. Interested in knowing if push ups is a good aproximate estimate for others too.
I reckon it would only.work if you are quite strong in the upper body. I couldn't get to max heart rate using press ups as my muscles would give up way too soon and I'm a bloke. For most women it would definitely wouldn't work....
This is very irritating. I am purchasing a different cardioid microphone with better gain control and real-time headphone connection today so that I can monitor and ensure optimum sound quality as I record! Thanks!
@@sportscientist Many thanks for your reply and for your inspiring video's. I have come back into cycling at 66 years of age after 22 years off a bike and had spent the last year bashing out turbo sessions (5hours a week) with no structure just hard most of the time. I have got quite fit FTP 215 @59kg's but mentally this was too much and I was about to throw in the towel and do something more in line with my advancing age. But, I like being fit and came across your video's as I was scouring the internet and am now starting again from square one with polarised training and a new mindset as opposed to my "all or nothing" attitude. My first week was this week and I just did 4 x 2 hours (4 days) at 65% of my max heart rate to start to build my aerobic fitness up first before building in high intensity sessions. I even watch your stuff over and over again to relieve the boredom of two hours on the trainer!!! so thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge, just at the right time for me.
You rock!! I am your biggest fan
Siren Seiler proud daughter, proud Dad😊
Hey Dr. Seiler, thank you again for putting out this great information! You do an incredible job condensing the research and explaining why we train certain ways without any kind of emotional tie to your own personal "training system" as we hear from lots of other coaches who espouse the system that they use on their athletes as the best method. This is based on the research, and it is incredibly beneficial for us endurance geeks to listen to you explain these concepts and not get dragged into the muddy waters of all the competing coaches and voices espousing low volume versus high volume, sweet spot versus polarized training, MAF heart rate training versus power based training, etc...
You do an awesome job of explaining the research and where it actually leads us, and as a fellow endurance junkie and geek, I can not thank you enough!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind feedback
Great video as usual! It probably all comes down to the stochastic nature of blood volume and hemodynamics parameters. I personally see higher numbers at the end of the HIIT sessions or during off-season competitions, when my blood volume is expected to be lower. This may partially explain 30 min vs 10 min warm up and second/third interval vs first one - think of lost fluid.
So interesting the level of individual variation. I think it may seem obvious but the modality or situation that let’s an individual athlete hit their max HR simply maps to which exercise form you personally find easiest to “dig deep” without bailing. That motivation and situation is different for everyone and whether you need to externalise or internalise, and narrow or broaden your “attentional focus”. For me it’s an “external broad” focus - I can’t focus on my suffering, I need distracting from it and focusing on something else so races either indoors or outdoors let me hit HRs I simply cannot reach in training/testing. I’m so focused on winning and absorbed in and committed to the effort/chase, that my HR hits max. I could personally never deliver to this level in a testing scenario or intervals since the motivation and distraction simply isn’t there and the mind games would begin, there’s not enough distraction to keep my attention off of the suffering.
Mental has to be crucial in those tests. Personally, I reached my recorded peak (+4 bpm compared to known max) doing a self designed ramp test whereby I increased speed every 3mns (probably too long for running tests). On the last step, I really wanted to complete the 3mns and digged deep. Had the step been 2 mns instead, I would not have discovered this new peak.
So true. I've only ever reached my max HR when racing. Always fall a few beats short indoors, even in lab tests.
Also a trick is to breath faster as your heart will follow. ( Goes both ways. If you breath really slow it goes down a little bit )
@@dan_grey it’s not even every race, sometimes it’s just when everything perfectly aligns. I believe for ages my max HR was about 188bpm, until I had a race where I was desperate to stick with the leaders on a climb. I was completely maxed out and about to blow but the crest was *just* near enough that I managed to pull extra from somewhere and hang on and hit a HR max of over 190. If the climb had been just slightly shorter I wouldn’t have hit that HR, and if it had been slightly longer I’d have blown and given up knowing there was no way I could sustain and hang with the leaders to the top
@Stephen Seiler Maybe an interesting follow up question: When defining Heart rate Zones from MaxHR values, Would you then refer to the "highest possible value" influenced by the mentioned factors or rather refer to a "most recent value" especially with regards to chronic fitness level. Many thanks & Best regards!
Very interesting question indeed! Personally I like the zones being calculated out of my Lactate Treshold HR (automatically done my my smart watch). Like that the zone take into account my level of fitness (as a beginner, LT HR was in the low 180s, and now as high as 190), and my shorter term changes (LT HR can vary by a few bpm from week to week)
A vid on how CO2 impacts fitness and how we can impact it would be fantastic! I do believe my limiting factor, particularly with climbing on my road/MTB, is my inability to manage my CO2 levels. I can cheat if I blow off CO2, but that’s quite a seen & sound…or it’s placebo and I’m simply working through the discomfort of can’t breathe and stuff hurts!
Thank you Dr Seiler. Most informative. I really enjoyed this.
No specific emphasis on environmental temperature vs. impact on Max. HR. I can always get a higher MAX HR in extreme high temperatures (especially doing intervals at say 40C/104F ). If this is generally true, then why would we not consider - either, the lower temperature Max HR are too low or at higher temperature the Max HR is too high (if there is such a thing in Max HR) or it is the actual MAX HR?
Great information, but the sound quality/volume of Dr Seiler's clips is almost always so low as to be inaudible!
My max heart rate (according to a watch at least) has always been at the end of all out 5km efforts when I have paced it well enough for a substantial kick in the last 400m. Pretty consistently get to low 200's doing this. Conversely max HR in hard intervals sessions tend to be in the low-mid 190's.
I found that my maxHr varies quite a bit with regards to both chronic fitness level (detrained maxHR is significantly higher than trained maxHR) as well as with very cold temperatures (my maxHR during cold winters e.g. running outside is quite a bit higher compared to summer time)
I think this is to be expected and is partially explained in the video - it’s the same basic phenomenon as not being able to set peak HR when tired - you want to not hit other “throttles” before you hit max HR - I.e. you need your body not to shut the effort down because you are tired or too hot etc
Your max HR is a fixed value (disregarding the natural decrease with age). What you're seeing is day-to-day variations in fatigue or conditions which prevents you from reaching your max HR.
How does ambient temperature affect the ability get a MHR measurement? Every time I've hit close to my highest heart rate measurements, it's been when the temperature was nearing 38 degrees Celsius. Very informative video. Thanks.
38 degree celsius will give you a "artificial" or just very high HR max because a lot of your blood is pooled beneath your skin to cool your body, this results in a lower stroke volume due to lower venous presure. So a "true" HR max test i would do at a lower temperature, since the HR max reached in 38 degrees won't be possible to hit in say 20 degree environment
@@petersrensen4768 Thank you for clarifying that. I had always wondered why I got such high heart rates in the heat.
Audio levels were bit low. Thanks for the content again.
I am on this! Thanks for honest criticism. I have to buy a different cardioid mic with real-time headset connection so I can optimize gain on the fly.
At the age of 26 I reached 196 bpm trying to break away, sprinting up, standing on the pedals, the final 500 m long, 5% hill and reaching 48 kph at the top, just before the final downhill to the finish. At the age of 45, I reached 182 bpm in a race, going up a 12% hill at 32 kph in the middle of the pack. In training, not even close. Probably, I need to be forced, motivated by others competing against me to reach my max HR.
Same experience, I've only been able to hit my max HR in the setting of competition, and once during a spin class. There seems to be something mental preventing maximum output when there's no "real" reason to do it.
@@tmoore121 Which may be a problem: a dose of suffering in training is required to be ready to give it all in competition. I am quite sure I could have been a better cyclist than I was.
is there any relationship between a low rest heart rate and max heart rate?
Dr. Seiler, what about the possibility that the nervous system is adjusting max HR based on the current environmental, physiological and psychological conditions?Not exactly central governor but similar. P.s. Thank you for all the informative videos.
I'm a 55 year old male, was a decent athlete growing up and been active most of my life..I'm 6'5" and 270 lbs (goal weight is 220 lbs) and have been getting back into cycling in the last year including some racing on Zwift (Crit City) - I'm probably one of the largest racers on Zwift..(FTP @ 315).I have noticed that during training I can comfortably get over 165 bpm and during races I've gotten my HR well over 180 bpm during races..and recovered pretty quickly..I know the standard theoretical Max HR for me should be 220-55=165..is it dangerous to push myself during a race to get my HR up say 185 BPM or is it that I'm just able to run a higher HR and no big deal? I saw from one of the charts (48 second mark) that you had some outliers in the 50-55 yr old's that had HR's above 185..which obviously don't follow the 220-age rule.
Forget 220-age. It sort of works on average for thousands of people but it is absolutely unreliable for individuals because there is lots of normal, healthy variation in Max HR, independent of age. I once tested a group of 17 y old, well trained XC skiers (about 15-16 athletes) and I remember their HRmax values ranging from 176 to 208!
why does 140 bpm is not the same for all athletes?
Make sure you have good legs and then make an 6min all-out test. It's that simple.
I miss the definition of HRmax, on how many beats or intervals between two beats is it based? The shortest interval only, the average of xy seconds?
It's HR *peak*, i.e. the highest value seen on the heart rate recording equipment being used.
Hi thanks for such a well supported recommendations. I have 2 questions a) You ultimately don't comment on the value of using incline intervals as recommended by some (although you mention it in the body of the video re research with skiers) i.e what is their value in this context and what inclines someone should choose and why. My thought is that it is an easy way to develop max effort but excessive incline might hinder reaching max HR due to limits on 'localised' power availability b) My experience is of reaching max heart rate between 0.5 and 1 km into a run that is in the moving (as opposed to static) and relatively slow (max pace - 10%) warm up phase - do others experience this - is it a 'false' HR max? as I rarely exceed these in the later part of the run/ride. Although I have not tried your specific recommendations (and will) I'm not sure if I would exceed these numbers anyway. Please comment.
10 years ago when I was cycling I thought it was always easiest to reach max heart rate after 30 minutes of hard cycling.
I could never go past 195ish the first 30 minutes. But after warming up and losing some fluid i could reach 215.
Do you think that people do not live more 65 years, or not exercising. I am going to to run myself to cemetery in due time:-).
should i change my heart rate zones every year
I did two V02 max tests and they recorded a maximum of 180 and 177 in Jan 2021 and Jan 2022. I've recorded max HR values of at least 10 beats above that in Sept 2021 during a long trail race - keeping a HR in the high 170s for the last part of the race and spiking all the way to 193 in the final sprint. I also have several 5k races where my HR went a few beats above the 180 mark. Can it be that the tests are not that accurate in pointing out my max? I feel like my legs are flooded with lactate before I can actually push hard enough to get to my true maximum.
Late to the party, but I hope this still helps. I found the same to be true for me: In my VO2 max test, I didn't hit max HR. I also found that I hit VO2 max before I hit the peak HR for the test. I got the test results with detailed HR and VO2 max data every 5 seconds. According to this, I hit VO2 max at 180 bpm while I maxed out on the test with 185 and a declining VO2 value. Race results from the same season saw me hitting 190+ a couple of times, so races may be better for me.
I think the VO2 max test isn't designed to bring out your max HR, although it may work in some people. I believe it is even mentioned in the video that VO2 max testing isn't the best way to test your max HR. As you said, the incremental increase in running speed may fatigue you before you could hit max HR. Also, the warm up they asked me to do wasn't very long, only about 10 minutes.
The test protocols that Dr Seiler mentioned in the video were a long warm up (30 min) followed by 2 all-out intervals of 3-4 minutes each. The workout part is shorter than the total duration of the VO2 max test to exhaustion. Alternatively, I've tested my max HR with several long hill sprints, a hill that takes me 90-120 seconds to run up. It's a bit easier on the legs to run uphill and it brings up HR faster than running flat.
Great presentation and info. Thank you. I found my MHR by doing push ups to exhaustion. Obviously not 100 % accurate, but close enough. Standard formula says 154 and push ups gives me 167, quite a difference. Interested in knowing if push ups is a good aproximate estimate for others too.
I reckon it would only.work if you are quite strong in the upper body. I couldn't get to max heart rate using press ups as my muscles would give up way too soon and I'm a bloke. For most women it would definitely wouldn't work....
Terrible method. Not even elite crossfitters or body builders would be able to find their MHR this way.
volume level too low!! have found this on many of Stephens videos
This is very irritating. I am purchasing a different cardioid microphone with better gain control and real-time headphone connection today so that I can monitor and ensure optimum sound quality as I record! Thanks!
@@sportscientist Many thanks for your reply and for your inspiring video's. I have come back into cycling at 66 years of age after 22 years off a bike and had spent the last year bashing out turbo sessions (5hours a week) with no structure just hard most of the time. I have got quite fit FTP 215 @59kg's but mentally this was too much and I was about to throw in the towel and do something more in line with my advancing age. But, I like being fit and came across your video's as I was scouring the internet and am now starting again from square one with polarised training and a new mindset as opposed to my "all or nothing" attitude. My first week was this week and I just did 4 x 2 hours (4 days) at 65% of my max heart rate to start to build my aerobic fitness up first before building in high intensity sessions. I even watch your stuff over and over again to relieve the boredom of two hours on the trainer!!! so thanks for sharing your experiences and knowledge, just at the right time for me.
Dr. the volume was very low; difficult to hear you.
I am on this problem and will upgrade microphone to ensure I can hear sound quality AS I record. Thanks!
I listened on headphones and found the volume fine.