Strategies for elevating heart rate
 

I was wondering...does anyone have a good strategy for upping your heart rate through exercise? Do you use a heart rate monitor? I imagine that starting slow and proceeding in small increments makes sense. I'm not there yet, but the walking has been going well (have gone for 2 walks / day each of the last few days). Eventually I would like to try exerting myself a bit more, whether through faster walking, swimming, stationary cycling, etc.

The irony is that for non-PCS sufferers, aerobic exercise can be so beneficial for the brain (for a good book on the topic, see Spark by John Ratey). Whereas people with PCS, who could use these brain benefits more than most, often experience symptoms from exercise.

greenfrog,

Hi! I've been using heart rate monitors when on my bike trainer in the house. I've been trying to keep the HR below about 140. I found that high heart rate was giving me severe headaches, as does abdominal workout, so I started with 120 bpm and slowly increased it every few days till I found my current limit, or threshold, then kept all workouts below that limit.

I can currently cycle at about 140~145 bpm. The heart rate monitor was a better tool to rely on than gut feeling or RPE. Rate of perceived exertion or RPE is what some endurance athletes can use to gauge their effort, but for me, I prefer using the HR monitor, less change for errors.

I tried to go above my limit a week ago and had a feisty headache. ggrrrr.

Good luck

Mike