Great info about heart rate, I got back from 4 weeks off the bike due to fractured bones, and I saw that my HR during threshold was near 180, usually 180 is my max HR, and my normal threshold HR is 165-170. 2 days of training after that, my threshold has gone back down to 170. I never quite realised that resting would increase heart rate during efforts and allow you to perform better. In the past I looked at my best race efforts and saw how my HR was much higher, and then I couldn't replicate it and thought that I was simply fitter back then. Now I know it just means I have to rest more if I want to sustain a high heart rate for longer and perform better.
One of the most immediate effects of training is an increase in blood plasma, which gives you grater blood volume. Your heart also adapts and is able to pump more blood per stroke (stroke volume). Your ventricles actually increase in size. When you de train, these benefits are reversed. If you ask your body to do the same effort with less blood volume and smaller stroke volume, your heart has to beat faster to meet the same demand. But the benefits return with training and your HR lowers. Athletes have lower resting heart rates because the greater stroke volume means your heart needs to pump less when you are at rest compared to someone with less blood volume and less stroke volume. Remember, your heart is a muscle and it gets tired. If it is fresh, it will respond quickly. If it is tired it will be slow to respond and unable to reach its usual peaks.
The “low heart rate while you are doing your intervals means you are not recovered” is kind of interesting to me. For about 5 years, my max heart rate was 158, but I would ride at 155 for over an hour. I couldn’t figure it out. I gradually got worse and was diagnosed with leukaemia. Three weeks into my chemo, I was able to get my heart rate into the 170’s again. This was all seven year ago, and I’m fine now. I wonder what causes the low heart rate? Maybe high levels of inflammation? It’s strange, but I can tell you that when you’re beat down, your body just won’t let your heart rate rise.
Not a doctor, or a sports physiologist, just a guy with an opinion on the internet. But from my experience and what I've read about the subject, most people have no idea what their actual max heart rate is. It's incredibly painful and difficult to put out the kind of effort need it to locate it. So maybe 158 was as hard as your heart could work in a strenuous effort while healthy, but your actual max is nearer to 180. The extra fatigue and stress of a serious illness meant you were able to achieve a much higher heart rate, closer to actual max, doing the same kind of effort? Again, just personal experience, but in the early stages of fatigue and overtraining, its much easier for me to see high HR numbers, and it's only later on in the burnout process that my heart stops responding to stimulus like you mentioned in the last sentence. Pure speculation on my part but still an interesting anecdote. Glad to hear you're fine now!
Phil, I have a cycling question for you. As a former pro rider, what do pro level riders use for sunscreen on your faces? I have nearly given up on using sunscreen on my face in the summertime because perspiration will wash it over my upper lip and eventually into my mouth. Something I have been wondering about??? Thank you!
“You should feel better at the end than you did at the beginning”. I always feel better after a ride than before. Idunno, maybe I'm a masochist or something.
i have a hard time trusting a wrist monitor. i.e. i ran hill repeats at vo2 max for ~40 minutes. my legs were absolutely cooked the next day, however, any HR monitor or recovery tracker wouldn't differentiate the tax my legs paid on hills compared to other surfaces which is a huge difference. i'll stick to listening to my body vs. a recovery tracker. and if i were to trust my garmin, i should be resting 46 hours after my bike workout yesterday - but my body is completely fine and well recovered/rested.
Can you make on on nutrition. Like training and intervole days and rest days. Like in terms of macronutrients and % of splits like protein, fats, and carbs
Great content Phil! I started following you late last year and you are definitely inspiring people through documenting your past cycling career and "retirement". Thank you and keep it going! Hope to run into on the canyons in LA sometime.
I felt so guilty for taking a rest day yesterday even though I was so sore I could barely get in and out of the chair without screaming, and was so mentally stressed that I couldn’t focus. Today I have no pain at all, slightly less stressed and feel so much better. So, thanks for that reminder to give myself permission to listen to my body!!! Quick question regarding the Whoop: What is the difference between Whoop recovery data and the recovery data you would get from a Garmin watch? I want to try the Whoop especially for the advanced sleep data (been battling insomnia for a long time), but I just cannot wrap my head around $30/month! What’s your experience?
I don’t have much experience with the Garmin watch but the whoop is way dorkier with metrics and analysis. I’ve honestly learned a lot about my body from it which is super valuable. You’re always right to listen to your body over a training plan it coach though. Nice job
So If my resting heart rate is 40-50bpm, and i wake up at 38-40bpm i can presume considering other factors that im rested?? Forgive If i mistake something Phil Said im not a native english speaker.
Better look at HR trends, is it going over the avg. or below? Single HR or HRV reading can be tricky to interpret. In general lower HR or higher HRV is better but sometimes after long endurance or sustained power efforts your HR next morning could drop down and HRV shot above avg. Which doesn’t mean you should smash your VO2. Listen to your body first, use common sense and if unsure check the metrics. It’s Better to be a bit over recovered then a bit over trained.
I have been doing a lot of intensity lately, and now heart rate is going higher than it normally would on not so hard efforts, also on some recent hard days heart rate feels high when I go to bed, makes for poor sleep. Symptoms of too much intensity work? Zwift races suck me in LOL
From a pro standpoint, do you guys have the option to get up and say "eh, something isn't right today", and actually get to go rest, or do you have to REALLY be in the red for that to be the case? Is it an issue if the numbers say you should go, but your body is saying no?
I had an "automatic" 2 day rest each week, when I was still riding to work and back, which was pretty much my only training (300-400km a week in the nicer months). Now I ride 7 days a week due to home office. I've done 17 days in a row, but i have built in active recovery. I really need the time outside. Can I actively recover several days in a row effectively, instead of a day off entirely? I've got very little outside stress at the moment, and sleep marvellously, and the weather is lovely too. Very good video though. Very straightforward and understandable.
I think active recovery is great for a ‘rest day’. As long as there is no pressure on the pedals and it’s a proper active receivers work out (super easy, spin)
Athletes with a resting heart rate of 35 to 50 bpm may develop an arrhythmia, or irregular heart rhythm. This may show up as abnormal on an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). Usually, there's no need to diagnose athletic heart syndrome because it doesn't present any health problems.
Phil, if you have time. I wondered about what a real maximum heart rate is and when to measure it. Whenever I take a full week or longer off, for instance family holudays, The first day out, my heart rate goes 10bpm or more above anything I can reach when I'm riding regularly, even with rest days. I don't feel it at the time however. So I can reach close to 180bpm after a week off (I'm 49) but under 'normal' conditions, at the beginning of a week, 165 - 168 is absolute maximum. However, most of my best uphill times were set in this condition. Is the 180 bpm my real maximum heart rate for training app purposes.
ah yes, good to see exactly what ive always known about my body. if the heart rate doesnt wanna budge doing all the watts will just ruin the next few days and likely be unable to even finish the perscribed workout. i.e. you might make it through the first 20min effort, but the next 1 or 2 will be crap and your time would be better spent recoving that day and getting more time at the target intensity the following day. if im doing threshold stuff or even high sweet spot and the heart rate wont get above the low 170s theres a problem there and imma be hurtin
Wise words from Phil. If your heart rate isn't responding, you won't be able to do the quality work required - your heart simply can't meet the demand of the session. If you continue, you are just training slow and adding fatigue to an already tired system. Call it, do a recovery ride or rest and live to fight another day.
My heart rate is weird. It hits about 160 with any type of sustained activity and spikes to the 190s during all-out efforts. I've been running marathons for 4 years and cycling as of recently. Nothing-and I mean nothing-seems to slow my ticker down.
What a rookie mistake. Out of all I’ve heard and read I somehow got the thinking backwards: I thought that if your heart rate was lower than normal for threshold work then you must be fitter (meaning your heart doesn’t need to pump as fast for the same power). I’ll be watching for faster heart rates at power, or slowing down accordingly. I hope it makes a difference. Thanks
@@scotth3354 no, resting heart rate is determined by your cardiovascular fitness and heart strength, however your maximum heart rate is mainly genetic.
@@albr4 no its not of course someone with 30 is fitter than someone Who has 70 or something but i have around 50 and still smash my mates Who have lower rhr
@@simonsimon8213 you're wrong, there is only a small amount of genetics involved in resting heart rate. Your idea that because you have a higher resting heart rate than someone and you can beat them means that its genetic is silly. You can have a better FTP than them, you can have a higher vo2max than them. You can have a better w/kg than them. My resting heart rate is 50 but I can easily make it 40 or lower if I did real training and had a diet. Those guys with 30 RHR are fitter than someone with a higher RHR, but that does not mean they are good cyclists.
@@albr4 yeah i know there are other factors but i dont understand my own case. I do a lot of endurance training since im 7. Back then i had 4 times a week swim training building up to now where im 17 and do triathlon and do 9-10 sessions. I still have a rhr around 50. Why is it like that?
It takes discipline to take rest and recovery days.
just being lazy works too
"Resting heart rate is 42, sort of on the high end", hilarious
@jenomsedivam are you implicitly telling me something? xD
Great info about heart rate, I got back from 4 weeks off the bike due to fractured bones, and I saw that my HR during threshold was near 180, usually 180 is my max HR, and my normal threshold HR is 165-170. 2 days of training after that, my threshold has gone back down to 170. I never quite realised that resting would increase heart rate during efforts and allow you to perform better.
In the past I looked at my best race efforts and saw how my HR was much higher, and then I couldn't replicate it and thought that I was simply fitter back then. Now I know it just means I have to rest more if I want to sustain a high heart rate for longer and perform better.
One of the most immediate effects of training is an increase in blood plasma, which gives you grater blood volume. Your heart also adapts and is able to pump more blood per stroke (stroke volume). Your ventricles actually increase in size. When you de train, these benefits are reversed. If you ask your body to do the same effort with less blood volume and smaller stroke volume, your heart has to beat faster to meet the same demand. But the benefits return with training and your HR lowers. Athletes have lower resting heart rates because the greater stroke volume means your heart needs to pump less when you are at rest compared to someone with less blood volume and less stroke volume. Remember, your heart is a muscle and it gets tired. If it is fresh, it will respond quickly. If it is tired it will be slow to respond and unable to reach its usual peaks.
Thanks Phil for the advice and encouragement. CHEERS!!
The “low heart rate while you are doing your intervals means you are not recovered” is kind of interesting to me. For about 5 years, my max heart rate was 158, but I would ride at 155 for over an hour. I couldn’t figure it out. I gradually got worse and was diagnosed with leukaemia. Three weeks into my chemo, I was able to get my heart rate into the 170’s again. This was all seven year ago, and I’m fine now. I wonder what causes the low heart rate? Maybe high levels of inflammation? It’s strange, but I can tell you that when you’re beat down, your body just won’t let your heart rate rise.
Not a doctor, or a sports physiologist, just a guy with an opinion on the internet. But from my experience and what I've read about the subject, most people have no idea what their actual max heart rate is. It's incredibly painful and difficult to put out the kind of effort need it to locate it. So maybe 158 was as hard as your heart could work in a strenuous effort while healthy, but your actual max is nearer to 180. The extra fatigue and stress of a serious illness meant you were able to achieve a much higher heart rate, closer to actual max, doing the same kind of effort? Again, just personal experience, but in the early stages of fatigue and overtraining, its much easier for me to see high HR numbers, and it's only later on in the burnout process that my heart stops responding to stimulus like you mentioned in the last sentence. Pure speculation on my part but still an interesting anecdote. Glad to hear you're fine now!
Meds?
Phil, I have a cycling question for you. As a former pro rider, what do pro level riders use for sunscreen on your faces? I have nearly given up on using sunscreen on my face in the summertime because perspiration will wash it over my upper lip and eventually into my mouth. Something I have been wondering about??? Thank you!
Jeff R the Riemann P20 range is good, all day f50 or face specific ones
Yes, P20 doesn’t wash off. It was developed for yachting apparently. I’ve used it, it’s good.
Rocky Mountain Sunscreen makes a great product. Goes and is dry almost immediately, never had it run into my mouth.
"A good coach knows that you should obey your body first and your coach second." I wish my coach had understood this when I was a serious athlete.
Sometimes I forget how important a rest day is. Until I take one and feel so strong on ride coming out of it
These are gold! Thanks, Phil.
“You should feel better at the end than you did at the beginning”. I always feel better after a ride than before. Idunno, maybe I'm a masochist or something.
i have a hard time trusting a wrist monitor. i.e. i ran hill repeats at vo2 max for ~40 minutes. my legs were absolutely cooked the next day, however, any HR monitor or recovery tracker wouldn't differentiate the tax my legs paid on hills compared to other surfaces which is a huge difference. i'll stick to listening to my body vs. a recovery tracker. and if i were to trust my garmin, i should be resting 46 hours after my bike workout yesterday - but my body is completely fine and well recovered/rested.
Thanks for the tips Phil. Please keep them coming. Cheers from NZ
Can you make on on nutrition. Like training and intervole days and rest days. Like in terms of macronutrients and % of splits like protein, fats, and carbs
Great content Phil! I started following you late last year and you are definitely inspiring people through documenting your past cycling career and "retirement". Thank you and keep it going! Hope to run into on the canyons in LA sometime.
Hey Phil, thank you for this video man - a few things really resonated with me
Xo
I felt so guilty for taking a rest day yesterday even though I was so sore I could barely get in and out of the chair without screaming, and was so mentally stressed that I couldn’t focus. Today I have no pain at all, slightly less stressed and feel so much better. So, thanks for that reminder to give myself permission to listen to my body!!!
Quick question regarding the Whoop: What is the difference between Whoop recovery data and the recovery data you would get from a Garmin watch? I want to try the Whoop especially for the advanced sleep data (been battling insomnia for a long time), but I just cannot wrap my head around $30/month! What’s your experience?
I don’t have much experience with the Garmin watch but the whoop is way dorkier with metrics and analysis. I’ve honestly learned a lot about my body from it which is super valuable. You’re always right to listen to your body over a training plan it coach though. Nice job
really appreciate the advice/tips. thanks phil
I find it weirdly entertaining to see Lance's commercial before/after a Phil Gaimon video.
AdBlock install You must ;-)
What about rest days in terms of "nagging" muscles. Not workout soreness, but unusual aches or soreness maybe in the low back or IT band or something
I literally lol at a hr of 42 is on the high end!!
Great timing! I was just wondering if I should take tomorrow off after 2 days of HARD riding.....Yup!
Liked, saved, and gonna watch this every week
Very well explained thank you!
Great explanation.
Thanks.
This is the best one yet imo.
So If my resting heart rate is 40-50bpm, and i wake up at 38-40bpm i can presume considering other factors that im rested?? Forgive If i mistake something Phil Said im not a native english speaker.
Correct!
@@worstretirementever thx Phil!
Better look at HR trends, is it going over the avg. or below? Single HR or HRV reading can be tricky to interpret. In general lower HR or higher HRV is better but sometimes after long endurance or sustained power efforts your HR next morning could drop down and HRV shot above avg. Which doesn’t mean you should smash your VO2. Listen to your body first, use common sense and if unsure check the metrics. It’s Better to be a bit over recovered then a bit over trained.
Nice video. Great advice.
I have been doing a lot of intensity lately, and now heart rate is going higher than it normally would on not so hard efforts, also on some recent hard days heart rate feels high when I go to bed, makes for poor sleep. Symptoms of too much intensity work? Zwift races suck me in LOL
Great stuff Phil 👍🏻
Thanks for this content. Love it.
What about cookies? Do you recommend a cookie day?
But I feel moody when I don’t ride 😂🤷♂️
From a pro standpoint, do you guys have the option to get up and say "eh, something isn't right today", and actually get to go rest, or do you have to REALLY be in the red for that to be the case? Is it an issue if the numbers say you should go, but your body is saying no?
He's RETIRED!
I had an "automatic" 2 day rest each week, when I was still riding to work and back, which was pretty much my only training (300-400km a week in the nicer months). Now I ride 7 days a week due to home office. I've done 17 days in a row, but i have built in active recovery. I really need the time outside. Can I actively recover several days in a row effectively, instead of a day off entirely? I've got very little outside stress at the moment, and sleep marvellously, and the weather is lovely too. Very good video though. Very straightforward and understandable.
Sounds like a great life!
I think active recovery is great for a ‘rest day’. As long as there is no pressure on the pedals and it’s a proper active receivers work out (super easy, spin)
Yeah but only ride 1 hour at below 150 watts better in the 120 Range. I suggest checking out dylan Johnson s Video on this
Just go for a walk one day a week, man.
The only gains are made during rest/recovery
It's need recovery ride if my ride is all endurance ride like Monday is off Tuesday to Thursday is endurance ride it's need a recovery ride? Thank you
Hi Phil. Is it better to do a total rest day off the bike, or do an easy "recovery ride"?
What about if you're ill or sick? Rest HR is higher and training HR also realy high and doesn't go down quickly. What about that?
Athletes with a resting heart rate of 35 to 50 bpm may develop an arrhythmia, or irregular heart rhythm. This may show up as abnormal on an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). Usually, there's no need to diagnose athletic heart syndrome because it doesn't present any health problems.
I do have that. Mentioned it in Draft animals but you’re right
Phil, if you have time. I wondered about what a real maximum heart rate is and when to measure it. Whenever I take a full week or longer off, for instance family holudays, The first day out, my heart rate goes 10bpm or more above anything I can reach when I'm riding regularly, even with rest days. I don't feel it at the time however. So I can reach close to 180bpm after a week off (I'm 49) but under 'normal' conditions, at the beginning of a week, 165 - 168 is absolute maximum. However, most of my best uphill times were set in this condition. Is the 180 bpm my real maximum heart rate for training app purposes.
ah yes, good to see exactly what ive always known about my body. if the heart rate doesnt wanna budge doing all the watts will just ruin the next few days and likely be unable to even finish the perscribed workout. i.e. you might make it through the first 20min effort, but the next 1 or 2 will be crap and your time would be better spent recoving that day and getting more time at the target intensity the following day. if im doing threshold stuff or even high sweet spot and the heart rate wont get above the low 170s theres a problem there and imma be hurtin
I felt sluggish and got tired easily when starting to cycle again after taking 4 days of rest. Is this normal?
Yeah take a couple easy days
Did you say when you start your interval and your HR is in the endurance zone, you’ll shut it down? Just curious why
If your heart doesn’t respond to the effort, that’s a sign you’re too fatigued for a good effort
Wise words from Phil. If your heart rate isn't responding, you won't be able to do the quality work required - your heart simply can't meet the demand of the session. If you continue, you are just training slow and adding fatigue to an already tired system. Call it, do a recovery ride or rest and live to fight another day.
Amazing that totally makes sense, thanks so much for responding!!
I used to keep riding if my whoop said I'm green still but when I do take a day off my whoop is 95-98% recovered
Any tips on recovery if your recovery days are taken up by dialysis? Obviously I'm asking anyone who might be dealing with it themselves.
Great vid 🔥🔥 thanks bro
Dang Phil! You look good with that beard.
Thanks man, get going...Who pays for Phil's hospital bills..anyone??
Whooooop, there it is 🍪
My heart rate is weird. It hits about 160 with any type of sustained activity and spikes to the 190s during all-out efforts. I've been running marathons for 4 years and cycling as of recently. Nothing-and I mean nothing-seems to slow my ticker down.
almost the same as you. What's your resting heart rate after waking up?
@@guitarrerist698 I average 57 at rest according to my Fenix 6.
I would buy a woop but, that thing of paying even after getting the device doesn't convince me at all, idk
Welcome to the new world of subscription services.
P.S. I use a WHOOP and it is a great training tool. Worth it for me.
@@graffix11us Only if it weren't so expensive I would buy it... (my country uses pesos as currency, not dollars, everything cost 2x more)
WOOP THERE IT IS...
What a rookie mistake. Out of all I’ve heard and read I somehow got the thinking backwards: I thought that if your heart rate was lower than normal for threshold work then you must be fitter (meaning your heart doesn’t need to pump as fast for the same power). I’ll be watching for faster heart rates at power, or slowing down accordingly. I hope it makes a difference. Thanks
That’s true but that process is slower. Like mr HR is lower at x watts than when I started for sure. You should be able to feel which is which.
promo code says it invalid
great stuff. Thank you Phil. Best of luck with the medical bill bullshit.
Whoop code says it's not valid (PHILSENTME)
Works for me. Maybe it’s US only?
@@worstretirementever Possibly, I am UK based
feel like shit when waking = rest feel amazing when waking = hit it
RHR in the 30s is insanely low!
HR is highly personal. For some, RHR in the mid-30s is high.
@@scotth3354 no, resting heart rate is determined by your cardiovascular fitness and heart strength, however your maximum heart rate is mainly genetic.
@@albr4 no its not of course someone with 30 is fitter than someone Who has 70 or something but i have around 50 and still smash my mates Who have lower rhr
@@simonsimon8213 you're wrong, there is only a small amount of genetics involved in resting heart rate. Your idea that because you have a higher resting heart rate than someone and you can beat them means that its genetic is silly. You can have a better FTP than them, you can have a higher vo2max than them. You can have a better w/kg than them.
My resting heart rate is 50 but I can easily make it 40 or lower if I did real training and had a diet. Those guys with 30 RHR are fitter than someone with a higher RHR, but that does not mean they are good cyclists.
@@albr4 yeah i know there are other factors but i dont understand my own case. I do a lot of endurance training since im 7. Back then i had 4 times a week swim training building up to now where im 17 and do triathlon and do 9-10 sessions. I still have a rhr around 50. Why is it like that?
move to Canada, health cares is free
leave a beard, please!
Perfect, today I'm resting then
FFS Phil, buy a mic, this is painful to listen to.
Sounds like you need a rest day ;)
I had the same thought, but decided I was being ungrateful.