Medtronic Rate Response PM

When I ride my stationary bike I believe my heart is left to it's own devices to pick up speed and when I get to about 110-116-118 bpm I am really breathing hard. I feel like I am getting a good workout. 

However, when I'm out walking, within a minute my HR has gone up to the levels I've just described above. Obviously it is picking up my arms moving as opposed to my stationary bike.

My quandry is this. Why am I still breathing normally, as if I am walking fairly slowly but my HR  is 118 or higher yet on my stationary bike I am really puffing at the same HR?

I will be more than happy to go back to walking if I am getting a good workout because it means I can walk more slowly and not as far for a good workout as opposed to having to work pretty damn hard on the stationary bike. That sound too much like a good thing though.

My technician hasn't satisfied me about the breathing part. He has satisfied me about the movement. He did suggest that I move my arms and upper body around on my bike to get the PM to set my heart off into a fast beat but that doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions as to why the breathing and HR don't correspond will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

2 Comments

Talked with a tech yesterday

by Theknotguy - 2018-08-30 08:20:31

I talked with a pacemaker tech yesterday about the question you just asked.  I have a Medtronic too.  I don't think the Medtronics do as well on increasing the heart rate (rate response) unless your torso is moving too.  At least mine doesn't.  The sensors can pick up the torso movement and the heel strike while walking but you don't get the same movement while on a stationary bike.  I get along fine as most of my exercise is walking. The tech was talking about what the sensors can interpret from torso movement, heel strike, and overall body movement.  

Others have commented on changing the rate response setting on the pacemaker and I'll let them get into those details in their posts.  .  

Oh, and with my Medtronic I have trouble lifting weights and walking such as moving furniture.  I'll run out of air real fast as my Medtronic doesn't kick up the heart rate.  Once again, not enough movement in the torso area.  I get into some funny situations as I volunteer at a furniture bank.  I can do fine for short distances but you don't want me to help you move furniture out of a house.  

There are settings that can be changed.  If your current pacemaker tech isn't knowledgeable enough, you can ask about other techs in your area who may be able to answer your questions.  It may take a while to get pacemaker settings adjusted to your style of exercise.  Past posts on the forum have indicated settings have been changed and they were too sensitive for the people.  So it may take several months of tweaking to get a setting you like.  And, in some cases, it may be a compromise between what you want and what the pacemaker can do.  

Like I said, most of my exercise is walking so I get along fine with my Medtronic.   Otherwise I hope your adjustment to the pacemaker goes well.  
 

breathing hard

by Tracey_E - 2018-08-30 09:21:04

When you are breathing hard, you're giving your body more oxygen to support the workout. I'd talk to the doctor, not the technician, to see if 1) it's a good idea to be on the bike when your rate isn't keeping up and 2) is walking without breathing hard is still a good workout. I'm no doctor but it doesn't sound to me like either one is a particularly good workout, one you are working too hard, the other not enough. That said, there's no such thing as a bad workout, any time we get off the sofa, it's all good. 

Good explanation of why we breath hard when we work out. Keep in mind our heart rates are artificially kept up, they don't go up purely on demand for oxygen. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818249/

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