Football, Soccer

Of course not mate.RHR at 68 is nothing to worry about. Sure there`s athletes out there that are sitting with 48bpm, which is excellent, but it takes some good hard years of training to be at that stage.When and how did you check your RHR ? Theres alot to consider when you test yourself, examples are , overtraining, stress, recovering from illness, sleep the list goes on.If you aren`t happy with your result, I suggest to re-check it...as soon as you wake up in the morning , take your pulse, do this for 5 days then take an average...And remember..just because your RHR isn`t in the 50`s , doesn`t mean you`re unfit...Happy training

Sure is, i think mine is round about 55 and im happy with that.Well done

I have play soccer for year and my rhr is about the same as your.

my RHR is currently 45 but i wouldnt consider my self fit at the moment, only just started training again after 2 years off. At my fittest my RHR was 48 so feel there are other things at work too.... what they are though i have no idea!

Excellent Helen, that`s a great example of how useful keeping an eye on your RHR is, if it goes up then overtraining maybe taking place, great...happy training

I think a lot of it is genetic and has no bearing on fitness. I'm 43, drink about 15 cups of coffee a day, live a lifestyle that could only become more stressful by moving to central Baghdad, never do any cardio (just sprinting, weights and other anaerobic stuff) and my resting heart rate is 38. If I go for a walk it doesn't really get above 60. I'm also aerobically unfit.
A better measure is how quickly your heart rate returns to normal after exercise. There are plenty of websites if you type in 'heart rate recovery' or something similar that will tell you what to do. Basically you get your heart rate up to about 130 and then see how much it falls after 2 minutes rest. On this scale I'm just average, though in theory my resting heart rate is around that of a very competitive endurance athelete. So I think resting heart rate on its own - unless it's very high - tells you not a lot.
That said, if you do a lot of aerobic works - running etc, your heart rate will come down. I won't do this as I fear mine might stop.

AT MY PEAK MY RESTING PULSE WAS BELOW 40 AND DROPPED TO 34 AS I GOT FITTER AND PEAKED , HOWEVER!!!!! MY PERFORMANCE INDICATION WAS HOW HIGH I COULD GET MY PULSE UP TOO AND AT THAT TIME IT WAS OVER 220 AND MY FITNESS MEASUREMENT WAS HOW FAST MY PULSE COULD RETURN TO NEAR NORMAL.I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT IF A CHILD BETWEEN 12 AND 14 RUNS 5 MILES A DAY/8KM THAT
HE POTENTIALLY CAN INCREASE HIS HEART BY 80% THEREFORE HAVING A SLOW PULSE , I HAPPENED TO DO THAT AT AGE 14.CERTAIN TRAINING DOES HELP IN LOWERING RESTING PULSE AND ALSO INCREASING MAX PULSE AT 100% EFFORT.TALLER ATHLETES SEEM TO HAVE LOWER PULSES LIKE ELEPHANTS(RESTING 22) THAN SMALLER ATHLETES LIKE MICE(MAX 800)SO SIZE AND BUILD DOES PLAY A ROLE AND EARLIER PHYSICAL PARTICIPATION. DESPITE BEEN 45 AND HAVING A PULSE OF 43 I SUFFERED FROM HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE , RECENTLY THE CAUSE WAS PROVED TO A BLOCKED URETER AND CANCEROUS KIDNEY WHICH WAS REMOVED, NOW THE BLOOD PRESSURE IS NORMAL PARTICULAR THE DIFFERENCE!! BETWEEN THE SYS AND DIA CALLED THE PULSE PRESSURE BUT!!!!!! MY PULSE RATE WENT UP BY 12 TO 55 AND I AM NOW A LOT HEALTHIER , SO A LOWER PULSE MIGHT INDICATE OTHER PROBLEMS.HEARD OF AN ATHLETE WITH A R PULSE OF 60 , MAX OF 85 BUT REPRESENTS HIS COUNTRY AT THE OLYMPICS IN TRACK. BOTTOM LINE IS BEEN HEALTHY , PULSE IS A PERSONAL INDICATOR ONLY TO ONESELF , PULSE PRESSURE MORE IMPORTANT THAN RESTING HEART RATE.LOTS MORE TO SAY.

A resting heart rate value of 60-70 bpm is considered healthy for a person of your age, 22 years old.

Does resting HR affect your performance? This is perhaps another way of asking how does the cardiovascular system affect performance.

Many elite athletes display bradycardia, a resting HR of below 60 bpm, with it being most common in endurance trained atheltes such as marathon runners and tour de france cyclists.

Bradycardia is usually caused by an increase in the thickness of the left ventricle. What this means is due to aerobic training, the cardiac muscle surrounding the LV have become stronger and are able to pump a larger volume of blood around the body with fewer beats, hence the heart does less work to transport a volume of blood to the muscles, which is more energy efficient.

More important than your resting HR would be your exercise HR as a measure of how your heart copes with exercise.

As mentioned by another poster, resting HR can be increased temporarily be a number of things, such as illness, anxiety and posture, with a resting HR in a lying position generally being lower than in a standing position.

If you do wish to reduce your resting HR, I would suggest undertaking about 6-8 weeks of long, slow distance running during your soccer presseason (slow 5km - 12km runs at a pace comfotable to hold a conversation at), aiming for 3-4 sessions a week. After 8 weeks you may wish to add in some faster work more specific to soccer, such as some higher intensity relays (both sprinting with and without the ball) about twice a week. Try working for up to 2 mins at high intensity with a 3-4 min recovery. Aim for about 5-6 sets of 2 min intervals so a total of 10 mins hard work. You can attain this in the form of an SAQ, skills or fitness circuit.

Just a few ideas - I hope this helps.

Andy

Your resting heart rate can be a measure of your fitness, but is not the whole story. Like was mentioned before excercise can increase your red blood cell count making your oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange more efficient. You can also increase the size of your heart this relates to your stroke volume. The main thing is how much energy you can produce without over stressing your heart. Some athletes will train at 80% their maximum heart rate (quick way of getting max heart rate is 220 - age). There are tests you can do to determine your maximum heart rate. My resting heart rate varies greatly, depending on all sorts of things it has been as low as 42 then as high as 70 within a day when I am just sitting around. I find mine is lowest after a few days of healthy eating with no exercise. Alcohol really effects my heart rate for a few days, how long since I have had food, the amount of excercise I have done the day before all make a difference.

ive been reading about the heart rate today my understanding is that studies have shown the average male heartrate is between 60-80 and femail 70-90 and as we all know this is in relationship to the heart supplying the body with oxygen and nutrients,how this relates to the exercising elevated heart rate is interesting because i understand that if ur heart rate is beating over 180bpm then the activity exceeds the muscles ability to produce energy aerobically so at which point in intensity does a resting heart rate of say 55 reach 180bpm and the difference with a resting heart rate of say 75bpm is it a substantial edge??and do the two rates elevate and on the same curve? if anyone knows what i mean?

As stated earlier RHR is a good way to monitor one portion of an individual's fitness. There are people with heart conditions that cause bradycardia (RH below 60), but many atheltes diplay bradycardia as a sign of how efficient the cardiovascular system is working. My suggestion is to monitor fitness through performance (i.e. 400,800, 1600, and 3200m). There are other facets to fitness and cardiovascular fitness. Good luck!