Well I do 4-6 Hours of cardio per week. 4 Hours of weight training. I weigh 200lbs at 8%bf and my blood pressure is normal. I eat Berardi style around 2k daily. I use ant-oxidants, magnesium, fish oil,etc., etc. My resting heart rate is still way to high?! It is 80bpm! I think someone who is fit should be around 60! Do some people just have this problem or should I be working my ass off to fix it? Thanks I am 25 and worried I’m going to have a freaking heart attack even though I am lean and in great cardiovascular shape!
Don’t sweat it. When I was getting approximately 6 hrs of cardio weekly my pulse never dropped below 70. I was also trying to do a lot of weight training at the time. Overtraining probably contributed to my heart rate being higher than it “should.” I have dropped down to 2 20min sessions of very intense cardio with about 3.5 hours of lifting/per week. Now my pulse is lower(68-64) than it was while doing so much cardio.
Also watch the caffiene. If I have a soda my pulse will jump 10-15 bpm.
I would say overtraining.
Dan Fichter
You are not as fit as you think. Pulse is a measure of how strong your heart it, a stronger heart will normally have to work less and has a greater range of capacity. My resting pulse is about 45, i do intense cardio 3x week, hit the weights 3x weeks and do some light cardio after each weight session. I am probably around 12% BF as I eat well but I can easily do sets of 10 pull-ups and bench my body weight for 10 reps.
get your heart in shape
Resting heart rate is more genetically determined than anything else. Mine sits around 40 even if I’m training regularly or not for example.
With that being said, you are training too much for the amount you are eating and thus you are probably undereating/overtraining.
Cut down on the volume and bump your calories up a bit and monitor your waking pulse (before you get out of bed in the morning) to see if anything changes.
My resting heart rate has been anywhere from 60 or so to above 90. Right now I believe it too be around 70+. My pulse was near 60 when I was much more active. It was 90 when I was very over trained. How much sleep are you getting? Do you feel unusually high body tempurature? To you feel anxious? I’m thinking you must be feeling that last one because you said you feel like your going to have a heart attack. Take a week off and then measure your heart rate. I remember that after taking a week off mine(hr) dropped considerably and that’s how I figured out I was overtrained. The other thing that might help is not too worry. Some people just have higher heart rates than others. But see a Doctor if you really want to be safe. 
whats your normal respirations per minute?
Your Coments are ignorant. Heart rate is often genetic. I know world class runners who are in great aerobic shape that have higher heart rates than me. Pull ups-big fucking deal! FYI 12% you are fat!
Your heart rate is your heart rate. One of America’ top milers (Jim Ryan) had a resting heart rate of 72 bpm. The only way to find your range is to have it tested. A way to lower your resting heart rate if to do interval training as opposed to steady state cardio. Think of interval training as weight lifting for heart.
Best of Luck.
What Jason Norcross said, plus it sounds to me like you’re overtraining and need to pay more attention to recovery.
FitForty, polish your ego a bit, this isn’t a post for derision or for self-inflation, more for information and help I would say. On that note, I also think it is important to account for not only your caloric load but also how often you eat, since with every meal that you eat, your heart rate experiences a temporary surge, so I actually think it’s pretty natural for weightlifting/bodybuilder types to have elevated heart rates, since their body’s are accustomed to frequent feedings, thus causing more frequent heart rate increases. I found that my resting heart rate is less when I eat 4X as opposed to 6-8X per day.
FitNForty does not need me to defend him but 12% BF on 40yr old man is hardly fat. It’s not fat on any man. He’s way below normal for his age. Not everyone wants to be ripped. You don’t know what his goals are. So maybe should think a bit before your start running your piehole. BTW I notice you didn’t mention any of your stats.
You should take your heartrate when you open your eyes in the morning. Don’t move your body at all. Have all your stuff (watch or hr monitor) right at your bedside. You will probably get a lower reading doing it like this.
First up, you are not in great cardiovascular shape. If you were you wouldn’t be worried about your high heart rate or about having a heart attack. Identify the problem that you want to fix. From your post it seems to be your non-great cardiovascular shape. You’re already doing tons of cardio so that can’t be the problem. But is it helping? If it’s not, maybe you should try something else. 6hrs a week may help your body fat% but it’s obviously not doing much for your ticker.
You are not getting in many total calories at the end of the dayas well, therefore I agree that overtraining could definitely be an issue here.
Is there a chance it might be stress related? You sound like a type A personality from your post(yeah yeah I know, outdated theory but it’s still relevant). Try a couple of stress releases whatever they might be. You’re only 25 so you’ve still got a long way to go in this game before you start to slow down, so take your time, take the slow road. No need to give yourself a heart attack just from all the sheer striving! Remember, it’s hard to have a high heart rate when you’re so laid back you’re almost horizontal (when you’re not doing cardio that is). This happens in massage places ALLL THE TIME so that might be a place to start. Yoga etc, it’s all good (meet lots of chicks too so it’s alllll good).
So my 5c? Take it a bit easier, live a litte… relaaaaax. Maybe slack off on all this cardio that you’re doing right now and just go for a few jogs around your home a couple of times a week. Take it easier on your diet, analosity of any type will only increase your stress. I’m just under 200 pnds personally and i’m getting about 4000 cals a day. Yeah i’m not ripped (if that’s even important) but I’m not even close to overtraining. When i wanted to get into the cardio I simply watched a Rocky film a day. By the time I got to Rocky III I was going for a big jog on sunset every second day. It worked. From 74bpm Resting rate to 60bpm. (Ali was 52, bastard! But i’m still young)
To Fitnforty
good to hear your stats and h/r, its good to hear of someone who can actually chin in comparsion to the endless number of fools who live on the latpulldown and cannot lift their own arses off the floor, keep it going Fitnforty.