bkotey

During a moderate run (20mins speed 4/12 on treadmill) my heartrate goes as high as 195! i am 24 and according to what iv read its dangerous. what can i do? Wanna carry on but the numbers freak me out!!!!

andye

my mate can get his heart rate over 200. he does it now and again cos he thinks its funny. i cringe like hell weh he does it.

pauly7582

There's a common misconception that cardio at high intensity doesn't use fat as a fuel. Anaerobic energy provision doesn't kick in until very high intensities so right from the off you will be providing energy aerobically. The transision from rest to moderate walk is predominantly an aerobic one. The reason why you won't start burning fat right from the off is simply because there is a lesser energy demand when exericise is just starting.

Take walking on an incline. A steady state, aerobic activity that uses glycogen and fat as a fuel. Great for fat burning. Now increasing the intensity doesn't mean that we are using less fat. Let's say we start to run on an incline gradually increasing the speed. It means that as the demand for oxygen exceeds the rate at which it can be transported from the lungs to the muscles we need to get additional energy from somewhere as aerobic energy provision using glycogen and fat as a substrate has reached maximal rate. The extra energy come from anaerobic pathways where glycogen is broken down through a slightly different pathway with the end products hydrogen ions and lactate.

So you see, the higher the exercise intensity, actually the more fat we burn in total. But why do bodybuilders shy away from high intensity, long duration cardio to burn fat? Because it releases catabolic hormones.

Incidentally, the 'burn' you feel does not come from lactate accumulation but from the production of hydrogen ions which have a positive charge hence causing the blood pH to lower- becoming more acidic causing what is known as metabolic acidosis, which in turn inhibits the sliding filament theory (the mechanism by which muscles contract). This is what causes the 'burn'. Lactate as a waste product just slows down energy provision.

pauly7582

It's not necessarily dangerous mate. I've observed exercising HR's of up to 218. You're probably just a 'fast beater'. As long as you feel no discomfort during exercise then I wouldn't worry.