whats a good resting heart rate or does it depend on the person, does it differ with age? what about a max heart rate? is a lower resting rate and a higher max rate mean your in better shape??

thanks-

whats a good resting heart rate or does it depend on the person, does it differ with age? what about a max heart rate? is a lower resting rate and a higher max rate mean your in better shape??

thanks-

A very fit athlete may have a Resting HR in the low 40s. It is somewhat person-dependent, but is influenced by fitness. The Maximum HR is genetic and mostly independent of fitness. It does drop with age (~ 1 beat per year) and being more fit can decrease the rate of this drop.

TF

your resting heartrate changes depending on how hard you are training during the week, not just on the time of day.

for example, if i do a one-hour ride in Zone 1 during the day and then sleep for 9-10 hours at night, my resting HR when i wake up in the morning will be about 40-42 bpm.........if i spend 4-5 hours in the saddle and do several hard climbs and generally just go all-out, sometimes i will wake up in the middle of the night sweating and my heartrate is very high, maybe 90-100bpm. i believe this has something to do with your metabolic rate increasing dramatically as a result of intense physical activity.

i think the ideal time to find your true "resting" heartrate would be the morning of a day after a recovery day on which you rode very easy or did not ride at all.