Monday, November 21, 2011

What's with the heart rate?

This is interesting. At home I rarely check my heart rate, so when I'm on conferences it is always fun to watch the heart rate monitor. As I mentioned last year, when the intervals on the machines are 10 seconds instead of 30, your heart rate doesn't get as elevated. But, even aside from that, I'm wondering if maybe my diet change has affected my heart rate. Last year I noticed a 25-30 BPM drop, but this year I had a hard time getting my heart rate above 120, which is more like 30-35 BPM lower than normal...

OK, that's not what is interesting...Those of you who follow this blog much know that I don't watch or follow professional sports—haven't for over 35 years. But, today, the big screen TV was right next to me on the right, showing game highlights from yesterday's football games. I ignored it, as usual, until the guy next to me broke out laughing. I looked to see what he was laughing at; a referee was being creamed in a fumble recovery. I didn't find it humorous; my comment was, "Ouch!" But, it made me aware of it and I glanced at it every now and again. Until the Packer highlights came on. Now, if I'm going to pay any attention to football, it would be Green Bay—what can I say, I was raised in Wisconsin.

So, I started watching the highlights of the game. I watched the whole 5 minutes or so, and then looked back at my stats on the machine. Heart rate: 147! Wow! But, even more interestingly, within 45 seconds it was back down to 122-125! The workout hadn't gotten easier, nor had my cadence decreased. In fact, I increased the cadence once I started watching it. Granted, anecdotal, but interesting, none the less.

2 comments:

Joel and Renée said...

Cheesehead!

That's my 2 cents! said...

Oh, my! Just goes to show the NFL can mess with you. I now understand why so many men lose their minds during football season. If it affects the heart, what is it doing to brain?