Heart rate during weight training

thedoc46

thedoc46

thedoc46

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So I got my Apple watch yesterday, and well for the first time ever I've been able to monitor my heart rate while weight training.

I was shocked to see that it was barely above normal... Sometimes as low as 60bpm. Never ever rising above 120. Which is strange cos i feel I'm putting in the effort.

Whereas, during cycling, I can crank that puppy up to almost 190 (during sprint) and in the 160's while pace riding (20mph avg)

Now admittedly, I'm not one of these veins pumping, all muscles on show meat heads... But more of the medium weights and lots of reps. Always dumb bells around the 25kg, or bench around the 70kg. So still putting in the effort.. and this is always after a good 30min of cardio. So i feel i get to the weights already sweaty. I feel that after an hrs workout, i've done my fair share. My heart feels like its pumping away, and i've worked up a sweat.

Just curious as to why the heart rate is much lower than I expected. Anyone else who's got a heart monitor noticed the same.
 
I think it would be steadier for sure. It's very peak and trough when throwing weights around - which is ideal for me.

I know when I played rugby at a high level and lots of squash it certainly was pumping hard!
 
I do wonder if it's down to the kinds of weight training the OP is doing. As a cyclist I know my arm muscles are weedy enough that bench isn't really going to tax my cardio system. Deadlifts always manage to though.
 
Any of the compound movements gets me going, but any metabolic exercises and conditioning exercises do, but they do need some loading (weight) else I just don't exert enough effort.
 
Exercise duration in heavy resistance training (I.e six or fewer reps) won't be a cardiovascular workout because the working muscles are using creatine and glycogen for fuel. Heart rate will increase because of the borytryingto stabilise blood pressure.

As soon as you move above 12 reps (ish) the body starts having to think seriously about getting rid of the nasty byproducts of interaction and heart rate increases as does "the pump" through vasodilation.

In other words, OP, you are not lifting heavy enough to get strong oreitheniugh volume to get huge... So what are you doing? ;) :D

I generally don't get too breathy when cycling because I keep the duration under 30 mins - enough for my body to not need more than the glycogen in my huge muscles... :o :cool:
 
Probably just the watch not being accurate for short spiky work. My mate has one bug has ordered a polar h7 for workouts.
 
I do 3 sets of 20 reps of medium weights per exercise, so that it starts to burn, halfway into the 2nd rep.

Yes I could go heavier and lower the reps, but as i said, i do not want to bulk up. I personally prefer the medium solid build, rather than that hey look everyone i'm a body builder...

Maybe its just the watch. But then again HR is HR, and it is correctly measuring the HR.

I'm not doing weights for a cardio workout, but my ticker does feel like its pumping and though i recover quickly, after my final rep, i really do feel like i've exerted myself.
 
thedoc46 said:
I do 3 sets of 20 reps of medium weights per exercise, so that it starts to burn, halfway into the 2nd rep.

Yes I could go heavier and lower the reps, but as i said, i do not want to bulk up. I personally prefer the medium solid build, rather than that hey look everyone i'm a body builder...

Maybe its just the watch. But then again HR is HR, and it is correctly measuring the HR.

I'm not doing weights for a cardio workout, but my ticker does feel like its pumping and though i recover quickly, after my final rep, i really do feel like i've exerted myself.
Click to expand...

I think you have some misconceptions that need addressing.

Most people will never look like a bodybuilder, regardless of training. A tiny fraction of people will look "big" without pharmaceutical support (FreeFaller is probably hard in that category) and some people will use all the sauce they can find to become mass monsters.

But rest assured: training in the useful 3-6 rep range will shape you slightly but not massively... Even if you get your diet spot on.

20 reps of anything is basically rehab work (16-20 reps of anything is basically grooving a pattern and burning both fat and muscle). You would be much better off (and probably healthier) going for the 3-6 range with a healthy balanced diet...
 
thedoc46 said:
So I got my Apple watch yesterday, and well for the first time ever I've been able to monitor my heart rate while weight training.

I was shocked to see that it was barely above normal... Sometimes as low as 60bpm. Never ever rising above 120. Which is strange cos i feel I'm putting in the effort.
Click to expand...

Ignore it

Mine's the same, so was my Fitbit. But when I use my chest monitor, it's always a lot higher

It will never be accurate when you wait train due to the tension in your wrists, the movement affecting the contact between skin and the sensor, and lots of other things

If you adjust it enough or relax in between sets, it will pick it up

Mine is usually around 60-70 after working sets of squats...however when I sit down or relax in between sets and let it adjust, it goes up to 130-140
 
Steedie said:
Ignore it

Mine's the same, so was my Fitbit. But when I use my chest monitor, it's always a lot higher

It will never be accurate when you wait train due to the tension in your wrists, the movement affecting the contact between skin and the sensor, and lots of other things

If you adjust it enough or relax in between sets, it will pick it up

Mine is usually around 60-70 after working sets of squats...however when I sit down or relax in between sets and let it adjust, it goes up to 130-140
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
Not weight training related.. But when using my watch with my phone close by, when cycling (so its using the GPS) it mirrors the calories used to my Sigma ROX bike computer. It knows the speed and HR and correctly calculates the calories burnt. Of course this is approximate.. It doesn't know if you're riding uphil, flat, alone or drifiting or on a windy day... blah blah blah... but the numbers fall in line with the Sigma.

Leave the phone and all it has to go on is the HR, and it sells you short on the calories by a good 40% Unless the watch is learning? Maybe after a couple of weeks, it'll say ok, this guy does so much of this and that, so if his HR is this much, then he's probably burning this many calories..

ATM, how does it know if i'm just unfit and struggling at low speed. That's the only conclusion i could come up with.
 
So thought i'd update this thread with an update.... I purchased a Polar H7 HR monitor as curiosity got the better of me... and yep it perfectly matched my Apple Watch... Today I had a good solid nonstop crossfit style workout in which consisted of 30mins of pretty much non-stop weights, with very little in way of pauses. 600 reps to be precise, and my average HR was only 124. Yes i could go heavier, but again, my target is NOT to bulk up in any form. If anything, love to slim down a tad...

This was all after a 30min, pretty strong elliptical session with an av HR of the mid 150's.. So my body had already exerted itself prior to the weights.

Perhaps on Weds when i go back, I'll try lifting heavy weights, in reps of 6, and see what the ticker does then..
 
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