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But at the other end of the scale are athletes such as archers and shooters, who need to slow their heart rates down as much as possible.

Athletes in speed and endurance events regularly push their heart rate to the maximum. But these athletes usually have low heart rates at rest.

What causes our heart rates and respiratory (breathing) rates to change so much, and is this healthy?

When heart rates and respiratory rates rise

If you are still and calm as you read this, your heart is probably beating 60–100 times per minute and you are likely breathing 12–20 times per minute.

These are the .

During physical activity when muscles are contracting, the muscles need more oxygen to provide them with energy to work.

To deliver this extra oxygen (), our heart pumps blood faster. In other words, our heart rate increases.

We also breathe faster to get more oxygen into our lungs to be delivered to the exercising muscles.

How fast can our heart rate get during exercise?

Aerobic means “with oxygen”. In (“cardio”) you use large muscles repetitively and rhythmically. For example, walking, running, cycling, swimming and rowing.

Muscles that are contracting during aerobic exercise use a lot of energy and need ten times .

High intensity aerobic events that involve large muscles or the entire body cause the highest heart rates.

An of maximum heart rate (beats per minute) is 220 minus your age. This equates to 195 beats per minute for a 25-year-old – close to the average age of the Australian Olympic team of 26.5 years.

Athletes competing in Olympic events of endurance or speed will reach their maximum heart rate.

You can usually only maintain maximum heart rate for a few minutes. But in a 2000-metre rowing race, the rowers maintain intense effort at close to maximum heart rate for 6–8 minutes.

This is one of the toughest events for the heart. It’s no wonder rowers often collapse in the boat .

Highly trained endurance athletes can have a maximum heart rate higher than expected for their age. from Kenya is considered the greatest marathon runner of all time. During his in the 2022 Berlin marathon, he ran with a heart rate of around 180 beats per minute for almost the entire race.

How does breathing change with exercise?

Our breathing changes with exercise to increase oxygen uptake from the air.

At low-to-moderate intensity exercise, you start to take deeper breaths. This brings in more air and oxygen with each breath. However, there is a limit to how much the chest can expand.

With higher intensity exercise, respiratory rate increases to increase oxygen intake.

Elite athletes can breathe per minute. This is driven by , the most important muscle of breathing.

, Olympic gold medal cyclist in Paris, when she is cycling at high intensity.

Some athletes need to slow things down

Archery and shooting athletes perform better with a lower heart rate. They time their shots to be when the body is the most still.

This is easier with a slower heart rate, with more time between beats.

Archers consciously lower their heart rate by .

Other Olympians use to calm pre-race anticipation and high heart rates.

Slowing the breath, , is the best way to lower your heart rate.

Beta-blockers also reduce heart rate, by blocking adrenaline. This is why they are on the of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

What about resting heart rates?

Athletes often have a , around 40-50 beats per minute, and slower during sleep.

Some are even lower – five time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain famously had a resting heart rate of .

Legendary US swimmer Michael Phelps is the of all time – he had a resting heart rate of .

Regular moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise makes the . A stronger heart pumps more blood per beat, which means it doesn’t need to beat as often.

Exercise also activity to the heart and the heart’s pacemaker cells. These both reduce heart rate.

found endurance training and yoga were the best exercises to reduce resting heart rate. But training needs to be maintained to keep resting heart rate low.

When elite athletes reduced their training volume by half during COVID lockdown, their .

What does this mean for our health?

A slower resting heart rate is linked to . Indeed, of more than 8,000 Olympians from the United States found they lived longer than the general population.

So it is healthy to do activities that increase your heart rate in the short-term, whether as an Olympian or Paralympian competing, or a fan with your heart racing watching a gold medal event.

, Associate professor of Medical Sciences, and , Senior Lecturer - Physiology,

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