ninetentacles t1_j6g0xnh wrote
Reply to comment by breckenridgeback in ELI5: Why is exercise good to lower high blood pressure? Your blood pressure rises while exercising, so how does that not have the same effect as high blood pressure while resting? by jeezwill
Wouldn't your heart need to beat more forcefully to move the same volume of blood completely around your body at 60bpm than at 100bpm, though?
And are these your own actual numbers, or are people more likely to see a more modest decrease in resting heart rate, like from 70bpm to 60? 100 seems awful high for "resting"!
breckenridgeback t1_j6g31kd wrote
> Wouldn't your heart need to beat more forcefully to move the same volume of blood completely around your body at 60bpm than at 100bpm, though?
No. You don't need as much blood flow when your blood is more efficiently carrying oxygen, and it doesn't have to push as hard when it's not getting as much resistance from your arteries.
> And are these your own actual numbers, or are people more likely to see a more modest decrease in resting heart rate, like from 70bpm to 60? 100 seems awful high for "resting"!
It is high, yes. It's typical of someone with poor physical fitness, but not healthy. 60 bpm is a fairly normal healthy resting pulse. But the thrust of the explanation - that the heart does less work by having mild stress during exercise and less stress the rest of the time - stands either way.
ninetentacles t1_j6g4hqr wrote
Ah, was just wondering because it's often at lower heart rates when I feel my heart pounding particularly forcefully, but I think my oxygen transfer may be a bit out of whack cause rona.
Will deconditioning cause your resting heart rate to go back up? Or if you're less active will you still maintain your low RHR past the point where whatever damage people think you're going to cause yourself by not pushing yourself to exercise til you drop through something like long COVID?
breckenridgeback t1_j6iecay wrote
> Will deconditioning cause your resting heart rate to go back up?
Yeah, because your body won't keep putting in the resources to maintain the higher level of fitness.
ninetentacles t1_j6l45vy wrote
After how long, would you say? Weeks, months, years?
And does that mean that if your RHR stays the same around 60ish, you're getting adequate cardio in to avoid deconditioning?
breckenridgeback t1_j6l5e79 wrote
> After how long, would you say? Weeks, months, years?
Well, empirically, I notice it after a few weeks and have mostly reset after a few months, but this is deeper than my knowledge goes. (The rates probably vary by a lot of factors, like sex and age among others.)
ninetentacles t1_j6l8k3v wrote
Excellent, thanks! I don't have a normal control to test, so I had to ask...
I've maintained my resting heart rate over the last few months of actively trying to rest and pace myself to try and help my long COVID. This has caused much hand wringing about deconditioning from every single person (not to mention what all of their friends say!) who knew me before I got sick! Despite me telling them I'm still hitting my Fitbit (now switched to Garmin!) cardio goals, they are thoroughly convinced that deconditioning is something you'll never notice until one day you get up to make a coffee and your legs crumble into dust. Which you can then supposedly never recover from. A presumably healthy person like you, your description of deconditioning and your knowledge of your own body and what's going on inside it isn't questioned as much as...anyone within a 10 mile radius of the 'rona.
breckenridgeback t1_j6nh5qc wrote
I wouldn't take my personal experiences as some sort of proof. If you're looking for guidance on your own health, talk to your doctor. (Notably, I have not, to my knowledge, had covid.)
ninetentacles t1_j6ogcx6 wrote
No, I was just looking for a healthy, fit control that didn't have COVID, but also had familiarity with their own heart rate.
breckenridgeback t1_j6olj9s wrote
I'm not a healthy, fit control. Even in the more-fit of those two states I was still way overweight and not particularly fit.
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