# Heart rates for women



## lawrence (May 17, 2005)

I'm a male ride leader for a bike club and most of my riders are women. I lead mostly beginner rides but not rides for people who can't ride a bicycle. Two months ago I bought a HRM. I'm in great shape but not in great shape. I'm heavy, I'm 214 lbs, 5' 11", 17.6% body fat, I could afford to lose 30 lbs, my body fat then would be around in the single digits at 185. I ride 40-70 miles a day, in winter 30-50 miles, my resting heart rate is 34.

When I ride flats, no wind, no inclines, no hills, my heart rate is 105-125 depending upon the speed, steep hills I'm in the 150s. I've ridden with some light weight men who can ride further and faster than me and their heart rates are about the same or 5 beats less until we have 30-40 miles under our saddles then my heart rate is 10 beats more than theirs. As you get tired, your heart rate rises.

Three female riders who ride with me and have HRM, two in their mid 50's, one 48 yrs old, who I've been recently riding with, 2 of them are in great shape, thin, light weight, works out at the gym, though they are brand new to biking, only a few weeks, and a third women who's been biking with me for 3 years and is carrying a few extra pounds. All three of them, their heart rates are 135-155 when riding with me.

That was the background. The question is, do women have higher heart rates than men? Indications from these 3 women who I have experience with, they do.


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## Andrea138 (Mar 10, 2008)

Part of it could be being gender-related (smaller heart, less stroke volume, must beat faster to circulate same amount of blood), and part of it could be that it's just more difficult for them to maintain the speed you are going. 

You could also chock it up to just differences between people- I have a teammate who never gets much over 185, but my 10k TT average is 191. We're both close to the same age, and our fitness levels are very close.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

There are big differences between people of the same gender and about the same age. One year back in the 80s the Tour de France published the resting and max HRs for all the racers. Some were on the low end like 32 to 170. One guy has a RHR in the 70s and max of 240!

I'm 47. My RHR is about 54 and max is 192. As I have gotten older my max has decreased but the RHR has stayed about the same, as long as I am fit. When I stopped riding for some years it went to 72.


A RHR of 34 is very low. Few super fit pro male racers are that low. There are some conditions like low thyroid function that can cause that, you might get that checked.


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## allison (Apr 19, 2006)

Definitely more than likely just physiological. I don't have any women around my age that I ride/train with enough to know their HR info, but hubby consistently is 15BPM less than I am when we are exercising (er, he was when he had a HRM).


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## jorgy (Oct 21, 2005)

IIRC, in Parker's HR book he has you add 5 points for estimating max HR if you're a woman. Of course, the best way to estimate max heart rate is a hill/stress test of some sort.

Lots and lots of individual variation, though. I think that's more likely than anything gender related.


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## lawrence (May 17, 2005)

ericm979 - I had a physical in January and everything was fine with all my numbers. Throughout the past 15 years or so I've had numerous EKG's? ECG's? because I have skin psoriasis and have been in clinical trial studies testing new medicines, some studies required one EKG a month for the entire year of the study. When I was in shape, my heart rate was always low and the cardiograms always came up normal. But the doctor always called me into the office for the first time after they rec'd the cardiogram. Then I said is this about my low heart rate? He said yes, you know abou that, I said ok, anything else?


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## Sacha (Jul 19, 2007)

Female, 110 lbs. 40 (ish)

RHR: 47
Max (to date): 197
Highest sustainable HR for 1hr+: 174
(At 165bpm on long climb, I'm still in chatting mode)


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## lawrence (May 17, 2005)

What is your average normal heart rate when you are just biking along casually and not pushing yourself on reasonably level ground and at what speed?


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