Heart Rate Monitor Malfunction?

Bob is having strange readings from his pulse monitor and wants to know what this could be? We hope that it is a malfunction of the monitor or more probably the heart sensor, if not then he should go and see his doctor. There are a few things he should check first and here they are

Question:

I bought a Garmin 305 last fall. I have used in for Mt Biking and Road riding. The max Hart Rate I had seen was 182. I am 50 yrs old and in very good condition. My resting hr first thing in the morning is around 43 bpm. Just recently my hr monitor has been reading max rates of up to 212 bpm. I contacted Garmin I got thru to the tech dept last week and they talked me through the reset which I did. Yesterday I had a 56 mile race and averaged 22.4 mph it had about 2100 ft of climbing I held off on the climbs I was careful not to feel like I was reaching my max. My high reading was 164.

Today I did hill repeats with the guys and hit 212 bpm and then rode hard for a couple miles with my HR staying between 190 - 204. I rode to my home and quickly put on a 2nd monitor. Normally my HR subsides quickly after a hard effort but today it remained at about 175 for 10 minutes?? Both monitor read the same. Is this Possible? If so what does it mean?
Thanks Bob.

Hi Bob,

Are you using the same chest strap with the two Heart Rate Monitors? If you are then maybe the batteries need changing? When you had the Garmin reset it worked OK? So this could also be the answer. You should not be having readings of 200 or more, the Max for your age should be around 170, but as you are fit this can be higher, but not as much as 200. Try someone else's HRM, if you are still getting those high reading I suggest you get a check over by your Doctor.

The best thing you can do is to have a full heart check up when on a home trainer or tread mill at your medical centre or hospital, this is sometimes called a stress test and can tell you if there are any problems from rest up to your Max. This test is great as it will help you in your training as they will take you up to your maximum HR and from there you can work out a more efficient training scheme as you will know you're Training Zones. More importantly you will know if you have any heart or heart rate monitor problems.

What ever you do, if you find that you are having high HR readings with other monitors then don't delay, go to see your doctor and have an ECG and explain that you exercise at a high level and would like a complete check over while exercising. Good luck, Bob and don't worry, let us know how you get on?

P.S. You may have an infection of some kind, so if the HRM is OK, then get checked out, a blood test may also be needed.

Comments

HRM malfunction

I am using the garmin 301 & have the same issues, it basically the material that we wear for biking that interferes with the sensors. Wet the jersey & it works correctly. Hope this helps.

#1 - brian - 07/08/2008 - 03:17

HRM Troubles or Heart???

I am not familar with that type of heart rate monitor but by the looks of it it has the same sort of sensors as mine (Polar CS200) which i would recomend to anyone :) but sometimes in the cold of winter I used to get the same problem but by wetting the sensors before puting the monitor on makes the readings acurate and concistant.

#2 - Justin - 07/08/2008 - 04:53

HRM Malfunction

Simple and easy to me!
Dab the button on the bike computer until 'time' comes up then take your own pulse from wrist or wherever to see if it matches the HRM. If it does you're in trouble, if not buy a new HRM like mine for $20 and save a lot of time and money. RS.

#3 - Richard Spinks - 07/08/2008 - 05:22

corcoran

G'day Bob,some monitors pick up high readings from power sources such as high power cables along the road side,even if someone has a hr monitor on riding beside you can effect your monitor with funny readings.

hope this helps.

#4 - rikki - 07/08/2008 - 06:56

It is not entirely true to state that someone around the age of 50 should have a max of 170 and not have readings of 200 plus.

I am 47 years old and have a max of 201. I regularly average in the 160's on my training rides. I have been told that I am a 'high beater'. My only concern is that if it is true what they say, that we all have about the same number of heartbeats in a lifetime, then I am using mine up fast!

#5 - Stephen Bourner - 07/08/2008 - 08:20

Yes, I agree with Brian. I have a 305 but had similar issues with a timex in the past. I found that synthetic shirts and any type of necklace (in my case dog tags) caused the type of error you are experiencing.

#6 - John - 07/08/2008 - 08:30

I also use the Garmin 305. I am 59 and have had a couple of these episodes. Being a physician, I stopped to check my pulse manually, and found that it was accurate= 210. Both episodes ended in about 5-10 min. I had no symptoms. After the second episode I checked with a cardiologist. We agreed that this probably represented some asymptomatic Supraventricular Tachycardia. This, usually benign, arrhythmia tends to occur more frequently with exercise as we age. I underwent a full cardiac work-up anyway, and no abnormalities were found. Best thing you can do is to learn how to check your pulse rate and find out if your heart rate monitor is accurate. Any heart rate over 200 is likely to be abnormal and should be evaluated by a physician.

#7 - Bob Mallin - 07/08/2008 - 13:02

I have a Sunnto heart rate monitor and its separate from my bike computer and sometimes the heart rate will spike or be sporadic when the two sensors are too close together. If thats not an issue for you then I would say what the others were about getting a better reading through wetting the sensors.

just an idea

#8 - Steve - 07/08/2008 - 21:38

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