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bugshaw at 05:16pm on 06/02/2007
bugshaw at 05:16pm on 06/02/2007Is one's cardiovascular system related to one's metabolism?
I ask because I had a session with a personal trainer at the gym today (they had a free offer). It started with testing my range of motion (generally excellent), looking for imbalances (my back muscles are tighter than my abs, which surprised me and affects my posture, also my lats and hip flexors), asking stuff, then we went on to do some exercises.
He had me try a couple of cable pull exercises for chest and torso strengthening, and squats with a gym ball against a wall, which I would next do as a circuit with no gaps to try to exert myself. He lent me a heart rate monitor, and I got started! Halfway through the third exercise he took a reading - "80! I've never seen a heart rate that low. You must have one hell of a cardiovascular system!"
It got up to 150+ after a minute or so flat out on the cross trainer.
If my CV system is that efficient, could that be one reason I find it hard to lose weight? Does my low heart rate mean my metabolism doesn't get kicked up a notch? Or does the body not work this way?
I ask because I had a session with a personal trainer at the gym today (they had a free offer). It started with testing my range of motion (generally excellent), looking for imbalances (my back muscles are tighter than my abs, which surprised me and affects my posture, also my lats and hip flexors), asking stuff, then we went on to do some exercises.
He had me try a couple of cable pull exercises for chest and torso strengthening, and squats with a gym ball against a wall, which I would next do as a circuit with no gaps to try to exert myself. He lent me a heart rate monitor, and I got started! Halfway through the third exercise he took a reading - "80! I've never seen a heart rate that low. You must have one hell of a cardiovascular system!"
It got up to 150+ after a minute or so flat out on the cross trainer.
If my CV system is that efficient, could that be one reason I find it hard to lose weight? Does my low heart rate mean my metabolism doesn't get kicked up a notch? Or does the body not work this way?
(no subject)
- More pressure
- More pints per beat
- More beats per minute
As it happens, your heart muscle has only so much force in it to give per ounce of muscle, and it can't change its size on short notice, so it responds not by pumping the same number of pints with more pressure, or more pints per beat, but the same number of pints per beat, against the same pressure, with more beats per minute.So a high heart rate implies you haven't been exercising, your heart muscle mass is small, you have miles of extra capillary (fatty tissue has capillaries that need feeding too) and your veins and arterioles are narrow. A low heart rate implies you've been exercising, your heart is well-muscled, your vessels are wide, and the total mileage in your system is low.
(if I hadn't missed both the weekly repeats of Dr. Alice Roberts: Don't Die Young when she did Hearts last week (it's Eyes tonight) then I probably wouldn't have to guess)
Since, I believe, blood flow is laminar in all but the largest vessels, length and diameter of your circulatory system should be related to the volume flow and pressure by the Hagen-Poiseuille equation, which I'm not going to look up and try to render in LJ's HTML, but IIRC, the flow for a given pressure goes as something like the fifth or eighth power of diameter, so a little clearing of the tubes should go a long way.
(no subject)
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How much fuel you burn (metabolism) has also to do with endocrine system. As you get older, or diet repeatedly, that gets more efficient too. Horribly complicated tho. Adrenals, pituitary, all that.
Must go dig out my heart monitor and take it walking. It is more fun than pedometer.
(no subject)
(IANAMP)