Cardiovascular Snapshot at 47

I will be 47 next month. Here is a snapshot of my vitals.

I use Apple Watch and the below measurements are from that.

My Cardiovascular fitness is very poor. Below Average in fact.

  1. VO2 Max : 29.7.

This is Low. Rock bottom – as per Health app.

2. Cardio Recovery : 24BPM

Couldn’t find enough material on how apple has computed this and how I can interpret.

3. Resting heart rate : 70 BPM

I have High Blood Pressure ( 130/90 ) – haven’t measured in a while.

MENS RESTING HEART RATE CHART
AGE18 -2526 -3536 -4546 – 5556 -6565+
ATHLETE49-5549-5450-5650-5751-5650-55
EXCEL’T56-6155-6157-6258-6357-6156-61
GOOD62-6562-6563-6664-6762-6762-65
ABOVE AV66-6966-7067-7068-7168-7166-69
AVERAGE70-7371-7471-7572-7672-7570-73
BELOW AV74-8175-8176-8277-8376-8174-79
POOR82+82+83+84+82+80+

Resting Heart Rate for WOMEN
Age18-2526-3536-4546-5556-6565+
Athlete54-6054-5954-5954-6054-5954-59
Excellent61-6560-6460-6461-6560-6460-64
Good66-6965-6865-6966-6965-6865-68
Above Average70-7369-7270-7370-7369-7369-72
Average74-7873-7674-7874-7774-7773-76
Below Average79-8477-8279-8478-8378-8377-84
Poor85+83+85+84+84+84+

4. Hang test : 30 seconds. Way lower.

“…males to the standard of two minutes, and females to a minute and half…at the age of forty!”

5. Heart Rate Variability : 30ms. Ideal should be 35ish.

So what next for me?

  1. Increase my Vo2 Max. I have started doing HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training – once a week for 30 minutes. Apple Watch has this option.
  2. Have to take lot of stairs. Back in Bangalore – our office is in 5th floor ( vehicle parking is -2 : 7 floors if I take stairs), Home is in 4th floor ( 3rd floor, vehicle parking is -1 ). Currently in Dallas since we work out of home and hardly there are any stairs to take. I think my Vo2 Max will not improve.
  3. Have to carry weight. There is something called Farmer’s carry – fill 2 bags with heavy weights and walk around the home.
  4. Continue Hanging. Will try to add 1-2 seconds more hang time every week. Have to take it up to a minute somehow.
  5. More runs. Will target daily 10k.
  6. Will start Pushups and planks.
  7. Will start skipping after I get back to India.
  8. I have weights back home – will add to my routine.

Let me post my numbers after 6 months. Apr 2024. Let’s see if I have improved on the above numbers.