Note to mods, this isn’t a request for medical info, I am trying to understand a phenomenon I experienced today.
[backstory] I am staying in a hotel, so every day I am going to the gym and working out. In the afternoons, I use the treadmill for 45-60 minutes. The TM is equipped with heart rate monitor function which I use to keep my heart rate between about 65-80% of my max rate. This works out to about 118-144 bpm. To use the HRM you must grasp a bar that runs across the front of the unit with both hands. You must have both plams in contact with the metal plates and at least one set of fingers touching a second set of plates on the other side of the bar. When you first grab the bar, the display says HR for about 3 seconds then your heart rate is displayed.
So today I am half way though a 60 minute work out. The TM is set for a hill interval which goes like this
3%
0%
4%
0%
5%
0%
6.5%
0%
Each segment is 1 minute long.[/backstory]
So I had just finished a 5% segment the unit had gone down to 0%, and my heart rate was about 136. My throat was very dry, and it seemed like I had to burp, or maybe hiccup. So I tired. Not much happened except the heart rate monitor went blank. At first I thought my hands come loose from inattention, but no both of my hands were still firmly on the bar. After about 1 second the heart rate displays 80. :eek: Then it went to 96 after a few seconds it read 105, then 120 then back to 135. Since the system did not display a red HR I am sure I did not lose contact with the metal heart rate pickups. I have been using this machine for about 2 weeks now, and it has been steady as a rock, it is a professional grade unit, not some POS.
I felt no ill effects, and I finished the last 30 minutes of my workout with out further incident.
So my question is just what did I observe today? I can only assume that something in my body caused my heart to slow down, and then allow it to recover back to where it wanted to be. I have used HRM for years working out and biking, and I have never seen anything like this.
Anybody got any ideas?
My guess is the HRM unit in the treadmill is starting to fail. The gym I go to had a few go out over the years and they always were erratic first. I’ve used a chest strap-watch HRM for years and have never seen this.
I have had similar things happen. When it happens to me, it seems like I didn’t loosen my grip long enough consecutively for it to count as breaking contact, but loosened my grip enough that the monitor missed a few beats intermittently, messing up its calculations.
At first I thought that might be the problem so I spent the next 1/2 hour trying to duplicate the problem. I was unable to duplicate missing heart rate, then a low idication climbing back to the proper heart rate.
Every time I loosened my grip I would get the HR followed by the correct rate.
::: Shrug:::
Beats me
I work with professional grade monitoring equipment every day, and still consider monitor error first whenever I see an unusual result, I tell patients all the time “the monitors are really convenient, but they’re dumber than a bag of hammers.” Having said that, the vagus nerve runs down the core of your torso and is well known for slowing the heart when you swallow, gag, or poop. All my experience is with people already on stretchers, so I wouldn’t want to comment on the likelyhood of a vagal response by burping while running
Sweaty hands will make the heart rate inaccurate. So will cold hands. If you didn’t feel light-headed or weak, blame it on the monitor.
The reaction outlierrn is talking about is called a vasovagal reaction or valsalva maneuver. (if done on purpose) It causes light-headedness, even fainting. You would have noticed.
I tink I am going to assume it was a minor vagal event for a couple of reasons.
First is the timing. The heart rate and the hick/burp happened at exactly the same time.
Secondly the instant it happened, I didn’t feel faint, but maybe just a little light headed, it passed in a second or so, but I did feel just a bit strange.
Thanks for the info everyone.