exercise and heart rate

Had the Pm checked today. Despite very, very hard cardio I can't get my heart rate above 100. The tech told me that is because the PM is movement sensitive--if i sit on a recumbent bike or a smooth elleptical my heart rate woin't increase. I jogged in place and got my heart rate to 128.

So is exercising on low impat machines not training my heart? Do i need to jog, use the treadmill???

advice please.

8 Comments

in addition

by biceps72 - 2011-09-02 05:09:13

my PM works 86% of the time in the atrium but 0.2% of the time in the ventricle. Apparent my bradycardia causes a spark and then the heart takes over???

Rate Response

by ElectricFrank - 2011-09-03 01:09:35

From your description it sounds like hearts electrical problem in in the atrium pacing. Once it is paced it does a normal thing of sending a message to the ventricles to pace.

Since your natural pacemaker isn't doing its job of figuring out an appropriate HR the pace has to do that for you. It senses your movement and uses that to compute how fast to increase the HR and how high to go.

The problem is that activities like the treadmill and the bike have a different relationship between aerobic output and movement. They could adjust the pacer to track the bike or elliptical, but then your HR would go nuts with just a gentle walk.

The pace manufactures have worked on this issue for a number of years. Some have used respiration as a second indicator with some success. The problem is that our natural pacer is a complex beast. It senses blood oxygen, and carbon dioxide levels, hormone levels, nerve information, who knows what else.

I'm sure some of our resident jocks will jump in with helpful suggestions.

Hope this helps.

frank

thanks frank

by biceps72 - 2011-09-03 09:09:31

not sure what I can do for cardio-- jogging is out because of knees. I imagine my weight training doesn't stimulate my heart to beat faster either.

I was never told this or read it either. I geel taken aback actually!

any comments welcome!!
thanks

Possible solution

by ElectricFrank - 2011-09-04 01:09:34

I see you have a Medtronic pacemaker. It is possible to have a programming session with one of their technical reps. They can optimize your pacer settings for your range of exercises by having you use an exercise bike during the session. Since your knees won't handle heavy jogging they can turn up the sensitivity on the Rate Response.

You also might be able to stimulate the pacer by moving your upper body during the biking.

Here's a wild one I just thought of. Early on when they had RR turned on in mine, I would shake the pacer using my thumb and index finger. I could drive my HR up fairly high while sitting relaxed in my recliner. I also found the the jets of my hot tub would run my HR up if directed on my upper body. If I had your problem the engineer in me would come up with a mechanical device that could be held in place over the pacer somehow. It would produce a vibration that could be varied with a knob. So if I was lifting weights I would just turn up my HR. while I was actively involved.

Wow, that almost makes me want my RR on again.

This should bring forth some dire warnings here on the site.

have fun, life's too short for anything else.

frank

Me too

by brucecal - 2011-09-04 10:09:25

Six weeks post implant Medtronics PM. 74 years young.
Staionary bike workout or eliptical won't get my heart rate above 100 either. My set minimum is 60 so when I start out on the bike my HR stays between 65 to 70 for about 10 minutes plus or minus 2 minutes then slowly moves up to about 90 to 100 by the time I get to 30 minutes. The first 10 minutes seems to tax me but after that I feel pretty good.
When I jog on the treadmill because of the RR my HR goes quickly to 100 to 120 BPM. After 20 minutes I am at about 125 to 130 BPM.
I have tried to get my HR up on bike by tapping my PM but the RR must be set too high to get that trick to work.
So, what you are encountering sounds normal for PM's but doesn't really help those who want to work out and get some real arobic work.
Bruce

Tapping on pacer

by ElectricFrank - 2011-09-04 11:09:57

Tapping on the pacer won't do it. The accelerometer in the pacer senses lateral motion with a slow long movement. Try holding the pacer top to bottom, or side to sie and time the movement about the same as when you are running on the treadmill. Make the movement as large as you can. I can move mine until the skin on each side alternately tightens. That should get the RR interested.

frank

I am going to work on this...

by biceps72 - 2011-09-05 03:09:30

will keep group informed if I find interesting things.

I did find that using the arms on the ellepical --back and forth arms, vigorously does increase heart rate a bit but not as much as it should given the work Iput in. Holding on to the stationary handles does not jar the pace maker enough to cause an increase in heart rate!

I will be in touch.

Frank and so many of you are such great resources for this forum!!!

thanks all

by biceps72 - 2011-09-05 03:09:43

Frank might very well be a genius!!!!!

You know you're wired when...

You always have something close to your heart.

Member Quotes

I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.