Aerobic exercise lowers heart rate

Long-term regular moderate-intensity aerobic exercise is a safe and effective way to reduce resting heart rate confirmed by evidence-based medicine. It has clear cardiovascular benefits for healthy people and patients with stable hypertension/coronary heart disease. However, short-term burst exercise and excessive exercise will not only not lower the heart rate, but may also put additional burden on the heart.

A while ago, I helped a junior student who had just joined an Internet company make exercise plans. He stayed up until two or three o'clock every day to change his needs. During the physical examination, his resting heart rate was 89. The doctor said that if he continues like this, his cardiovascular risk will be much higher than that of his peers. I asked him not to just rush into the five-kilometer clock, and jog around the park three days a week after get off work. The pace should be stuck at 6 and a half to 7 minutes. As long as he can hum normally while running, and can chat with acquaintances smoothly, 40 minutes each time. I persisted like this unshakably for three months. Last week he sent me a physical examination report. The resting heart rate has stabilized at 62, and even the panic I often suffered from before has been reduced a lot.

In fact, the principle is straightforward. You can think of your heart as an intern who meets KPIs every day. Before, the strength of your heart muscle was weak, and less blood was pumped out with each beat. You could only rely on beating a few more times to get the blood supply your whole body needs. If you do aerobics regularly for a long time, your heart muscle will gradually be trained more vigorously, and your stroke volume will increase. If you jump more than 50 times, you can complete the workload of 80 jumps before. Naturally, you don't have to jump so diligently. Coupled with the increased excitability of the vagus nerve that dominates the body's "relaxed state", the sympathetic nerves that control "stress excitement" are not so easily exploded, and the heart rate in the resting state naturally stabilizes.

Of course, not everyone can see their heart rate drop after practicing aerobics. There have always been two different judgment logics in the sports medicine community. I met a runner before who clocked in at 5 kilometers every day. After running for two months, his resting heart rate increased from 73 to 78. He was so scared that he thought he had a heart problem. One group of people believes that this is a typical sign of overtraining - he was out of breath every time in order to hit the pace, and did not take a good rest after training. His body was in a state of fatigue and stress for a long time, his sympathetic nerves were always tense, and his heart rate certainly could not drop. Later, he reduced the amount of training twice a week to jogging once and swimming once. Within a month, his heart rate returned to 65, and his overall condition improved a lot.

Let’s talk about a pitfall that many people have stepped on: many people think that aerobic exercise has to be so breathless that it can be called "useful". If you really want to lower your heart rate, you have to lower the intensity. The best effect is to stay in the range of 60% to 70% of the maximum heart rate (220 minus age). I used to have an elder with high blood pressure. I heard the doctor said that walking more is good, but I managed to walk 20,000 steps a day. I was out of breath while walking. After walking for a month, my heart rate was still over 80. Then I put on a heart rate monitor and walked slowly in the range of 100 to 120. Within two months, my resting heart rate dropped to less than 70, and my blood pressure stabilized a lot.

Don’t envy professional athletes who have a resting heart rate of over 40. Ordinary people really don’t need to curl in that direction. That kind of low heart rate is the result of heavy training all year round. If you don't achieve more than 10 hours of professional training per week, your heart rate will drop below 50 first. Don't be too busy thinking that you are in good health. Go to the hospital to do a dynamic electrocardiogram first to check for atrioventricular block. As long as the resting heart rate of healthy adults is stable between 55 and 70, it is already the optimal range. There is no need to compare the value with others.

And there are great individual differences in aerobic lowering heart rate. My best friend is born with a high basal heart rate, which hovers around 80 all year round when she is not exercising. After swimming twice a week for half a year, it dropped to 72. However, she did a cardiopulmonary exercise test and found that her heart reserve function was more than a little better than before. After exercise, her heart rate recovery speed was nearly 30 seconds faster. This is actually more meaningful than a simple heart rate drop. Nowadays, the kinesiology community is increasingly not advocating a unified standard card for everyone. As long as you don’t feel chest tightness or palpitation after exercise, your physical examination indicators will get better over a long period of time. Even if your heart rate does not drop to the so-called "ideal range", there is no need to worry.

In the final analysis, aerobic heart rate reduction is a matter of time and effort. There is no need to pursue speed or compare the number of steps with others. Find an exercise that you can stick to - whether it is jogging, swimming, aerobics or even walking after meals. Practice it regularly every week and don't overdo it. The effect will come out naturally when the time is up. It is much more reliable than taking all kinds of heart-protecting health products.