a good servant but harsh master - HRMs

Seattle area
I thought it would be interesting to see what people have learned from their heart rate monitors (HRMs). There's probably a lot of variablility in the target heart rate people have and that will show up on what they can do.

From Pac Fatigue Lab, my HR @ anaerobic threshold is 115. It seemed a bit high so I set my HRM for 105 so I'd have a little cushion - and I can get the rest of the way up the stairs I'm on without really overdoing it.

I've found that things that move the small muscle groups have a really high cost. Drying off after a shower may be the worst. Shaving and putting on a pull-over sweater are really bad too. These are definitely worse than the push ups I do or other things that use the large leg muscles.

Might be my anxiety stuff, but putting a little pressure on myself costs about 10 bpm. Turns out that is a lot. Allowing extra time to get ready for things helps. Emotional stress costs.

I've been following Staci Stevens' recommendations since I got back ( and recovered from the tests) and it has really helped. My wife says so too.

Since there are several related topics going on about cardio, showers, shaving etc, my understanding is - basically the aerobic system is broken and causing PEM symptoms. There's no way to improve by doing aerobics. However, it is possible to improve muscle tone and fitness by using the anaerobic system.

For the first 15 - 30 sec of activity the anaerobic system dominates. At 2 min the anaerobic system falls off pretty fast. The aerobic system starts to kick in around 30 sec and is the dominate one after 2 min.

So anyways, the longer an activity lasts and the closer to the anaerobic threshold heart rate you're at, the more likely it is to have PEM symptoms.

Ideal exercises are things that last 10 or 15 sec and keep below the AT heart rate. I had my first PT appt. this morning and he showed me several elastic band exercises that use large muscle gorups and don't raise HR that much. Another example is to walk up stairs for 10 or 15 sec keeping HR under the threshold and then rest before doing some more.

Staci said if I'm going to walk, to keep it to 2 min or so and then rest before walking some more. I want to be outside some, so that's what I have been doing. There are play areas for the kids here that have benches or picnic tables. So I walk to one bench and rest for 4 min, then walk to the next. Rinse and repeat. So I spend about 1/2 hr. to walk for 8 or 9 min total.

And this might be called the revenge of the fridge. I'm probably not the only one, but there are a lot of things around the house that just don't get done. The fridge was starting to smell like a biohazard when the door was opened. So yesterday I decided to throw stuff out and wash the main center shelves. Most of the problem was that the kid would keep bringing home leftovers that she would never eat. There were a number of take home containers of unidentifiable vegetable matter that was probably weapons grade stuff.

I was determined to do it - kept setting off the HRM alarm. It got to where it felt like hard work and it would take a lot of rest and then i could do just a little bit more. Sure enough - I felt really crappy last night and this morning. I got the job done, but the payback was no fun at all.

There are probably others that have a better understanding of all of this. Or maybe people would be willing to share what they've learned from their HRMs? Maybe something here will be useful to someone.