Heart rate data during play....

kling&allen

kling&allen

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I played in a tournament last week and did well by my standards, but I was really surprised when I looked at my heart rate data from my watch the following day. For the entire time, even when not actively playing, my heart rate was elevated (> 110 bpm) and my heart stress was high. For reference, my typical long walk heart rate is 80-90 bpm and my stress is normally less than 40.

Here's the data, play started at 8PM and ended at 2AM. I had a break after my first match at 9 but HR was elevated for the remainder of the night even when I wasn't playing.

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Stress (low heart rate variability = high stress). This is maxed out near 100 until the finals ended around 2. The gaps are where I was moving and there's not accurate data to show.

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I now see this response is true for most players, including SVB (link) and Fedor (link). It's also true in other sports like golf and chess.

It's an interesting training question. I'm not in too terrible shape but by the time of the finals my body was stressed like I had gone for a 6 hour mountain hike, but without me consciously knowing as I wasn't sweating and didn't feel fatigued (also note I was sober and in a comfortable playing environment).

Casual practicing doesn't replicate this situation, so I'm curious if better players do anything to prepare for playing under this type of fatigue? Playing in lots of tournaments / long action is one option. And certainly some use chemical enhancements. Seems like I could sometimes exercise before practicing, although I've never heard of such a thing?
 
Some of this is simply due to how humans, and biology in general works. Your body senses something is happening with your state, and pumps adrenaline and more blood into the system to get ready to attack the mammoth or fight off an invading Viking horde. It does not know you are sitting there sipping a Bud Light with a pool cue in your hand, it's all the same thing to it. More adrenaline increases your heart rate and makes the muscles shake a bit, it's not always just panic or nerves that cause those.
 
For really accurate heart rate numbers your better off with a monitor that is worn on your chest.

I have a Polar H 10 that I use when I ride my exercise trainer. It is reported to be 99.6 % accurate.

I recently did a nuclear stress test at Duke Hospital and those numbers were extremely close to my Polar H10..
 
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Quesports said:
For really accurate heart rate numbers your better off with a monitor that is worn on your chest.

I have a Polar H 10 that I use when I ride my exercise trainer. It is reported to be 99.6 % accurate.

I recently did a nuclear stress test at Duke Hospital and those numbers were extremely close to my Polar H10..
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That’s true for cycling, but the wrist PPG monitors are just as accurate as medical 510k devices (or chest straps) when walking or standing. The technology has come a long way in 5 years.

Have you measured your HR during play with your Polar?
 
kling&allen said:
That’s true for cycling, but the wrist PPG monitors are just as accurate as medical 510k devices (or chest straps) when walking or standing. The technology has come a long way in 5 years.

Have you measured your HR during play with your Polar?
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Great question and no not yet but it is definitely something I have been considering.

The Polar app is fabulous and saves all the information. It shows how long my heart rate is in five different zones to the second. I have CAD, so it is very important for me to know everything I am doing.

While playing pool I do boxed breathing to control my heart rate.

I need to look into setting up another account or a way of using it for pool as I want to keep the info separate from my cycling info.
 
Quesports said:
Great question and no not yet but it is definitely something I have been considering.

The Polar app is fabulous and saves all the information. It shows how long my heart rate is in five different zones to the second. I have CAD, so it is very important for me to know everything I am doing.

While playing pool I do boxed breathing to control my heart rate.

I need to look into setting up another account or a way of using it for pool as I want to keep the info separate from my cycling info.
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Do you do boxed breathing as part of your pre shot routine or just between innings / games?
 
couldnthinkof01 said:
Mine goes up when I get close to my high run in straight pool. As high as 120. Not so much in drills. Around 85. Resting is 55.
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you must be pretty fit to have a resting rate of 55. Thats on the low end of average bpm. Very active people tend to fall low on the scale. I'm skinny, fairly active (walk 1.5 to 2 miles a day), in my 30s, dont smoke and am in the 70s or 80s bpm resting, which i think is pretty "average". Im kind of a hypochondriac and have anxiety issues, to the point that i wore a holter monitor within the last year to monitor my heart because i have little palpitations in my chest from time to time (probably just muscular/fasciculations which run in my family. Holter monitor test was all normal. I'm sure My heart rate definitely jumps when playing, especially competitively/league. I dont care to measure it though. I dont need something else to be anxious about. I bet 95% of people experience the same. Its called nerves and being human.
 
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If you don't have a cardiac health issue, then it's performance anxiety. The cause is psychological and it's very common among amateurs. It triggers when you attach a whole lot of importance to something. The answer lies in addressing the psychological issues that are triggering the anxiety. Perhaps it's just your overall perspective towards competition and that you may be attaching more importance to it than it deserves. It's not a life and death situation after all.

Pros experience moments of anxiety during tense spots in competition, but it's not continuous because of their perspective towards competition. You can do things to address the symptoms, like breathing exercises, but I think it's better to address the actual cause, especially since it's happening to you during the entire time that you're competing. Do some research on sports psychology and performance anxiety. That will be helpful.
 
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skiergd011013 said:
you must be pretty fit to have a resting rate of 55. Thats on the low end of average bpm. Very active people tend to fall low on the scale. I'm skinny, fairly active (walk 1.5 to 2 miles a day), in my 30s, dont smoke and am in the 70s or 80s bpm resting, which i think is pretty "average". Im kind of a hypochondriac and have anxiety issues, to the point that i wore a holter monitor within the last year to monitor my heart because i have little palpitations in my chest from time to time (probably just muscular/fasciculations which run in my family. Holter monitor test was all normal. I'm sure My heart rate definitely jumps when playing, especially competitively/league. I dont care to measure it though. I dont need something else to be anxious about. I bet 95% of people experience the same. Its called nerves and being human.
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Try measuring your HR when you are asleep. Thats often how it’s calculated (mine is 53 most nights).

I wasn’t surprised that my HR was high during play, but that it was high the entire night. That’s a level of (unconscious) fatigue that I will need to address.
 
Adrenaline definitely contributes. One way I can tell I'm going to play well is when my sinuses suddenly clear. Adrenaline does all sorts of good things to your body including tightening your sinus membranes. It also sharpens and narrows our vision. It's good. No need to fight it. But drop off with fatigue is a problem for longer events. Try to find ways to 'switch off' between matches so you don't tank.

(Easier said than done.)
 
FranCrimi said:
If you don't have a cardiac health issue, then it's performance anxiety. The cause is psychological and it's very common among amateurs. It triggers when you attach a whole lot of importance to something. The answer lies in addressing the psychological issues that are triggering the anxiety. Perhaps it's just your overall perspective towards competition and that you may be attaching more importance to it than it deserves. It's not a life and death situation after all.

Pros experience moments of anxiety during tense spots in competition, but it's not continuous because of their perspective towards competition. You can do things to address the symptoms, like breathing exercises, but I think it's better to address the actual cause, especially since it's happening to you during the entire time that you're competing. Do some research on sports psychology and performance anxiety. That will be helpful.
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Changing your perspective is good advice. Reminds me of one NBA finals, although I can't recall the year. Anyway, I believe it was game 7 of the spurs vs the heat. The spurs were down by 2 with a few seconds on the clock. Popovich called a time out and said anyone who gets open and gets the ball needs to put up the shot. He said one of two things are going to happen. Either it's going to go in or it's not. He said either way, we're all going home millionaires and our families are still going to love us. Great advice to put a game into perspective.

I'm going by memory so don't quote me on the exact details, but I'm sure I was pretty close in my recollection.
 
fjk said:
Changing your perspective is good advice. Reminds me of one NBA finals, although I can't recall the year. Anyway, I believe it was game 7 of the spurs vs the heat. The spurs were down by 2 with a few seconds on the clock. Popovich called a time out and said anyone who gets open and gets the ball needs to put up the shot. He said one of two things are going to happen. Either it's going to go in or it's not. He said either way, we're all going home millionaires and our families are still going to love us. Great advice to put a game into perspective.

I'm going by memory so don't quote me on the exact details, but I'm sure I was pretty close in my recollection.
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great advice from popovich
but whoever was open must have missed the shot
since the spurs lost game 7 of the 2013 finals 95-88
 
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