Low Heartrate When Cycling

I have a Boston Scientific Guidant unit that was implanted almost 2 years ago. I'm an avid cyclist and just can't seem to get my heartrate high enough. When cycling, my upper body moves very little.

I've been back to the EP's office numerous times to see if anything could be adjusted. One time it was set way too fast and I'd get to maximum heartrate just slowly walking around. Right now it's still a tad fast for walking but too slow for cycling.

Any suggestions???

7 Comments

Keep talking to your doc and pacer tech

by COBradyBunch - 2010-07-27 07:07:12

I would have to assume that you must be nearly pacer dependent if you are not raising your heart rate on your own with effort. I have read a lot both here and at cardiacathletes.org dealing with the issue cyclists have with Rate Response. Most eventually get it right but some have had to change techs/docs to get one that deals more with athletes.

I do know personally I pace very little but I still had a battle when I was first implanted until my doc told the techs to listen to the patient. They wanted my RHR set at 70 (my natural is in the low 60's high 50's) and my max set to 120. We finally 'negotiated' a RHR of 50 (sure, I could get a little woozy if I dropped that low all of the sudden, but I don't pass out) and theoretically no max (I can hit well above 180 on some of my mt. bike climbs, road bike rarely get to the mid 170s (I am 51)).

Any hope this helps. But the key is finding a doc and a tech who will listen and work with you to get those settings right.

They Listen

by biker72 - 2010-07-27 07:07:18

Both the EP and tech do listen. I took my bike to their office one afternoon and spent almost 4 hours adjusting the pacemaker. My resting HR is set at 60 and max is 150. (72 years old)

When I'm walking, everything works fairly well. At 5mph my HR is around 115-120bpm. That's about right for me.

The lack of upper body movement seems to be the problem with cycling. It will get up to around 100 and then just flatten out. Cycling on fairly flat areas is not a problem at 100. The hills however require 130-140bpm to keep the blood flowing.

http://www.cardiacathletes.org/Cardiac_Athletes_Forum

by COBradyBunch - 2010-07-27 07:07:39

http://www.cardiacathletes.org/Cardiac_Athletes_Forum

I would really check this out...

Damn I hope I am riding like you are when I hit 72. Sounds like you're doc and techs are working with you, especially if they had you bring your bike in and worked with you on a trainer. Like I said, I know I read about other cyclists in particular who have had issues and got them resolved. Don't give up, the answer is out there somewhere.

Thanks

by biker72 - 2010-07-27 08:07:24

Thanks for the link.

I took a trip to Denver CO last week for a few days to ride on the city trails. Great city and even better trails. Lots of things to see in a very bicycle friendly city. I was hoping the altitude might change up my HR but no luck.

Denver is very bike friendly as a city

by COBradyBunch - 2010-07-28 01:07:24

The entire front range is very bicycle friendly as cities go. Lots of bike trails, bike lanes and even passed a bicycle friendly law that says you have to give us three feet even if there isn't a bike lane for us to ride in.

However, some of the drivers, not so much. But it is getting better, actually much better over the past few years. Still I could say a lot about the types of people who tend to not be bike friendly but it is sufficient to say these are the same people who think that anything that makes them have to give a little something, even if it means just walking an extra ten feet because there are handicapped parking places in front of a business piss them off. But then again, when I run into them I always remember a much better thing to do than flipping them off, which only gets you worked up yourself. Instead you just hold up two fingers, about 1/2 in apart and say, even if it is only to yourself, "It's only this big...." Makes you smile instead of scowl.

Try Dallas

by biker72 - 2010-07-28 04:07:07

Dallas is just the opposite of Denver. Cyclists are considered as objects in the road that keep motorists from going faster.

Our governor vetoed the cycling safe passing bill.

Bicycling magazine recently named Dallas as one of the 3 worst large cities in the USA to cycle in.

Guidant's secondary adjustment

by lmaak - 2010-10-17 06:10:27

I have had similar challenges with my Guidant (implanted 2003). I bike also. For the first 6 years they had not turned on the secondary response (not sure what it's actually called) that "encourages" the heart to beat more in response to exercise. Odd, I know. I wore a monitor for a while and thought it was broken because my rate never exceeded 110 or so... Finally, a good tech noticed and turned on that secondary feature. Yet, still no appreciable improvement. He then changed the gradient to a faster response rate and maybe one other tweek. Now it goes up to 170 or so (I'm 59). Check that that feature is turned on!

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