what's your resting heart rate?

a couple weeks ago i had a couple gentlemen attend my turbo kick class for the first time. i was very excited, as i am with anyone who is there for the first time, but especially since they were men. (i don't normally get a ton of guys in my classes, it's just the way it goes) they seemed very anxious to be there as well, they were front and center right behind me and they were pretty in to it. well almost half way through this class i notice that one of them is seriously starting to lose his energy and starting to lose color in his face... he was as white as the wall, and i was seriously nervous. he was smart and kept taking little breaks, but i just kept him in the corner of my eye to make sure he was ok. well, he made it through the end of the work out as best he could and i was just glad i didn't have to do cpr or anything! everything went fine, but i didn't think they would be back for class next week.

i was wrong! they came back this monday and they were both front and center again! i was impressed. usually i have a hard time getting guys into my classes, let alone come back for a second chance. i was doing the same routine i did before, so i was hoping he would be ok again. it was the same type of thing, he took breaks and i told him to take it easy. everything went ok again, however he still didn't have alot of color in his face. after class he told me he had a heart rate monitor on and asked me what things he could do during the work out so his hear rate wouldn't get up to 200 bpm. 200?! i told him i would try and offer more low impact options on all the moves and told him to continue taking breaks if it gets that high. he quickly responded in defense that it wasn't that it was too difficult for him to do the moves, but that he just got 'pooped' when his h.r. reached 200 bpm. umm... i'm confused, isn't that the same thing? he said his rhr (resting heart rate) was naturally high but he didn't want it getting out of his thrr (target heart rate range) when he was working out. so i told him to do more cardio during the week to make his heart stronger so it won't have to work that hard during his work outs, but to still take it easy and take breaks so he was working out in his thrr.

so last night, i mentioned this to one of my professors since this is exactly what we are covering right now in one of my personal training classes. she was also worried about his hr getting up to 200 bpm and told me get his rhr and calculate his thrr for him. so that's my plan next week when i see him in class! hopefully it goes well.

well this leads me to the title of my post... all of this got jeff and i talking about our resting heart rates. jeff asked what mine was and i said i think like 68 (thinking that was pretty good). then i asked what his was and he said i don't know, like 56. 56?!! that's really good! our professor often gives us scenarios in class for someone who is healthy, very active and has a rhr of 60 bpm. but 56?! that's great sweetie! but he said it had been a couple years since he had measured it. so after we got ready for bed, i insisted we figure out what his was right now. well, it was quite a bit lower than 56 this time, it was just a mere 45 bpm! i told him his heart was gonna stop beating when he was asleep because that was so low! then this morning, i measured mine after i had woken up and it was actually 58! that made me feel a little better. but i've still got some work to do since i've got some competition! i think i may be married to the next lance armstrong!!