Shooting and heart rate

[GJM]

YVK was discussing heart rate at matches, and I realized I had no data. I recently bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Tactical model, and now have been gathering data.

This morning, my resting heart rate was 57. High 60's/low 70's driving to the range. 100 walking around, and interesting 120 as I was making ready. Finished a 30 second stage and was low 130's. By comparison, I see 100 dry firing with enthusiasm, and 115 hiking up a decent hill.

Who has looked at their heart rate practicing and competing? Not sure what it means, but I thought it might be an interesting discussion.

Here is the watch just now.

[Malamute]

I have no data or numbers at all, but find this interesting.

In my very limited shooting of various matches, i discovered that trying to "hype myself up" led to poorer shooting, just being calm and focusing on shooting i did better score and time wise.

[BN]

No data, just some thoughts.

A 30 second stage is a long stage. Probably a lot of fast sprints etc. Not surprising the heart rate going up.

The 120 making ready is interesting. Did you have your zen going. It should lower your heart rate as you calm yourself. Are you calm or nervous just before you shoot?

[littlejerry]

I have HR data from most of my biathlons, but that isn't a very good comparison.

I have done a fair amount of high HR training while shooting and found it helpful. Sprints are the easiest thing to do usually, but you can get creative with farmers carry, burpees, battle ropes, etc if you want.

I saw some improvements in technical shooting ability, but I think the biggest benefit was learning where things went off the rails at different levels of exertion, similar to learning how to throttle your speed based on accuracy requirements.

One note on wrist HR monitors: sometimes they work, often they don't. Especially when using your hands to grip, push, etc, they can be extremely unreliable. They also may not respond quickly and can miss rapid changes. If you really care about the data use a chest strap.

[PNWTO]

https://mtntactical.com/wp-content/u...rksmanship.pdf

“Discussion” on Pg 8 is probably the most relevant; although the whole document is a practical, easy, and quick read.

[JHC]

YVK was discussing heart rate at matches, and I realized I had no data. I recently bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Tactical model, and now have been gathering data.

This morning, my resting heart rate was 57. High 60's/low 70's driving to the range. 100 walking around, and interesting 120 as I was making ready. Finished a 30 second stage and was low 130's. By comparison, I see 100 dry firing with enthusiasm, and 115 hiking up a decent hill.

Who has looked at their heart rate practicing and competing? Not sure what it means, but I thought it might be an interesting discussion.

Here is the watch just now.

No measured data but super interesting. The "make ready" made perfect sense.

Related but different, on two occassions over many years I was practicing at the range while seething angry. I don't have the times/hits scored but it was really really good for strings of fire multiple targets 7-10 yards. I don't recall shooting precision in that state of hate. Not that easy to bottle, I don't anger that easily.

[Archer1440]

7-stage USPSA match yesterday, heart rate range from 51 (resting) to 132 during one of the longer field courses. Average rate while moving and shooting was 99, average resting rate was 52, make ready rate was consistently 69.

I honestly have no idea what meaning any of that really has, but it seems that I don’t get too nervous over shooting USPSA.

Running was pretty painful for me yesterday (had a particularly bad back day yesterday) so the running rate was no surprise. My accuracy was OK, but due to the injury my times were a bit longer than normal (except on the classifier which didn’t involve much movement- shot a high B class on that one, CO with full power ammo and a service weight trigger).

Previous weekend, I shot a 6-stage USPSA match, range was 52-124. However, the average while moving and shooting was 124. Make ready rate averaged 79.

I should add, all data gathered from Apple Watch.

[GAP]

YVK was discussing heart rate at matches, and I realized I had no data. I recently bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Tactical model, and now have been gathering data.

This morning, my resting heart rate was 57. High 60's/low 70's driving to the range. 100 walking around, and interesting 120 as I was making ready. Finished a 30 second stage and was low 130's. By comparison, I see 100 dry firing with enthusiasm, and 115 hiking up a decent hill.

Who has looked at their heart rate practicing and competing? Not sure what it means, but I thought it might be an interesting discussion.

Here is the watch just now.

I’ve done a lot of HR-based training while competing in MMA. I would agree that a chest strap would give you more accurate data.

I would recommend trying:

Elevate HR to >130 with burpees
Switch to dry practice until HR <110
Elevate HR to >130 with sprints (or burpees again if you don’t have space to sprint)
Switch to dry practice until HR <110
Repeat…

I’d see how many rounds I could complete in 20 minutes as a baseline and go from there. You should find that your HR recovers under 110 more quickly over a few sessions and it takes a harder/faster sprint and faster/more burpees to get you above 130 bpm.

The other factor is pure aerobic conditioning. Long-slow distance (LSD) will lower your resting heart rate which means it takes you longer to reach a higher heart rate, which also means it will take you longer to fatigue. It also gives your heart a better capability to recover (lower it’s BPM) faster which is beneficial between matches and for other obvious reasons.

For reference, when I competed in MMA, my resting heart rate during “fight week” was ~42-44 BPM each morning laying still in bed.

[rdtompki]

Interesting thread. I'll look at my HR during steel challenge practice tomorrow on my Samsung "Smart Watch". My approximate 80% max is 120 BPM (at 76 y/o). I hit that rate doing steps carrying weights as the last gym exercise but don't work that hard moving targets.. I miss that days when my cruising HR during long runs was 150 bpm, but old age. I'm around 41 bpm first thing in the am. before my feet hit the floor.

[GJM]

Seems like a lot of variation in heart rates is common. Per the suggestion, I bought a Polar chest strap, as at times I find the Garmin hangs up. My wife and I had Covid twice in January, and have had some residual fatigue that is slowly resolving. Will continue to evaluate over time.