I joined a work out team weight loss. 3 times per week for an hour, we get on the treadmill and get our heart rates to specific zones with the use of speed, incline, weights, and resistance bands. I took at test to see what my heart rate zones are and mine are not like the other women in my group. My heart rate zones start from zone 1: 154, zone 2: 165, zone 3: 175 and my (AT) is at 186. We usually stay in the high zone 3 and go into zone 4 for small periods of time. I am 40 years old and the women that are my age and a few older and a few younger all have heart rate zones considerably lower.

I have asked the trainers there and they just say everyone is different. I have googled this and can't seem to find an answer.

Is there a "normal" number to be at for AT?
Am I working on getting it higher or lower?
Am I in pretty bad shape with these numbers after not working out for a few years?

I was a competitive ice skater and cross country runner in school but it has been years of being sedentary that has me concerned. I want to work back to a "good" range but I have no idea what that is.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. I don't know much of the workout lingo either.

Thanks,

Lisa

the "at" as you call it, or what i would just call the max heart rate, is not changed much by what you do in the gym. it starts out high in infancy and then just keeps getting lower as you age. i guess higher is better since it implies that you have a "young heart". as far as i know you cannot increase it. perhaps you can slow the pace at which it goes down year by year.

and frankly, unless it is unusually low i wouldn't worry too much about it.

Thanks for the information. I researched a few sites and found the information I was looking for but thought that you might want to know that the AT, as I call it, is not the max heart rate.

Here's a link for you from my gym:

http://www.lifetimeendurance.com/public/351.cfm

Also just wanted to let you know in case you needed the info that you can increase your AT. Here's just one of the links I found from Rice University:

http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/a....threshold.html

The 4th paragraph should help if you just want to skim it.

I wasn't really worrying about my high AT, just getting information from the pros here.

Thanks for participating in our forum.

Lisa

I just had a VO2max test as part of a ChiRunning seminar. As I understand it, the AT is the point where one begins to burn more sugar than fat. I don't have the paperwork handy but I'm sure it tells me my AT. I posted a brief note about it titled My Health Assessment in the general lowcarb folder.

Thanks Doctor. Yes, the threshold is where your body goes from aerobic to anaerobic and stops being able to burn fat/calories. My question was what amount am I looking to get to as my trainer has us work on our ATs by working out at them and over them each cardio workout for a couple minutes. I am 40 years old and AT of 187. The people in my training group all have ATs about 30 points lower so I wonder why mine seems high and the goal seems to get it high. I asked the question to all of my trainers and trainers on different sites online. The answer is everyone is different. I usually train in zone 3 which is under the AT and V02 max at 175-about 185. You did have your test done with a computer and a mask attached to it at your weekend thing, correct? I just ask because it took 1 hour for mine. That was with running attached to a computer and 45 minutes of the trainer's speech. I also had a resting metabolic rate tested and know how many calories my body needs to have just to digest/breathe, etc up to what I do in a day. The trainer explained the Calories in/calories out thing. Not really into that physiologically speaking. But the one thing they can't answer is what is my AT supposed to be or what should I be aiming for. I wasn't able to get this info from any trainers but I am glad to have a doctor online now.

Lisa

Lisa

At lunch I grabbed the paperwork from the seminar. My VO2max test was about 12 minutes. That's following the protocol established by Cooper, the physician who designed the test in the late '60's. It was originally a stress test for cardiac disease but has evolved.

This is what my paperwork says:

Aerobic Base 144

Anaerobic Threshold 163

Your AT is the maximum sustainable rate at which you burned calories (fat and carbs) during your assessment. It represents your highest sustainable exercise intensity. When exercising at high intensity, you might notice that you cannot talk or breathe easily. This is the intensity that pushes you beyond your AT, causing your body to burn mostly carbs. After teaching your body to burn fat efficiently (your AB) the next step is to increase your AT.

The recommendations for me involved a lot of stretching, core work, REDUCED WEEKLY mileage and daily runs all within the fat-burning zone. Which for me is 140 t0 160. Plus wear a heart rate monitor.

I think with training you get more comfortable running near your AT. And obviously the more you do at the level, the better a runner you become.

I forgot to add, with training your AB moves closer to your AT. Ultimately they nearly merge.

DRK

thank you Doctor

call me kevin