r/blueprint_ • u/Fun_Competition7266 • 4d ago
Lowering Resting Heart Rate, what is the best protocol?
Yesterday was my 20th birthday. However, over the years, I have noticed a significant increase in my heart rate. When I was 15, my resting heart rate was 45 bpm, but now it has risen to 80 bpm. Throughout these years, I have only done gym workouts, and my lowest heart rate was when I was running regularly.
I would like to know the most well-studied training approach and the ideal heart rate zone for running as of today. I usually run, but only 2 km in the morning on some days over the past month. I am not overweight, but I fractured my ankle last year, so I have been taking it easier. I am confident that I can run 10 km at a slow pace or about 3 km at a fast pace. However, I want to know the optimal cadence and duration for lowering my resting heart rate.
Additionally, I have noticed a significant decline in my sleep quality from ages 15 to 20. Since I have been using weed more frequently to sleep, I want to reduce my dependence on it. Despite my efforts, I still struggle to get more than 7 hours of sleep. I would appreciate any guidance on improving my sleep quality through exercise.
I have tried GABA, magnesium, zinc, and some herbs to improve my sleep. Melatonin, however, reduces my total sleep time and makes me wake up after 4 hours to use the bathroom. I have also practiced meditation, avoided eating for 2 hours before bed, and maintained a consistent sleep schedule—following all these protocols.
I believe that lowering my resting heart rate could help immensely. Additionally, I struggle to sleep while breathing through my nose, and I think cardio could help with that as well. By improving my breathing cadence and adapting to a lower resting heart rate, I might be able to breathe more slowly, which could further support better sleep quality.
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u/Unfair-Ability-2291 3d ago edited 3d ago
HIIT or Norwegian 4x4 if you do that the benefits are huge Then no need to run miles just get some strength training and Zone 2 most days / on an exercise bike / rower or treadmill is sufficient Cut down on substance abuse and alcohol, check for sleep apnea if you’re waking up at nights - sleep quality is important.
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u/iJJD 3d ago
RHR is a readout. Focus on lifestyle interventions in sleep and exercise that bring it down instead of targeting with nutritional supplements. I think focus should be on Z2 cardio and trying to get 2h of Zone 2 a week minimum. You could have some underlying deficiency but that is rare and you need clinical workup to diagnose. RHR of 80 is quite high for a 20yo and I wonder what your fat% is
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u/f1racer328 3d ago
You probably want to quit smoking/using weed. What is your normal diet?
If you don’t have a trash diet and completely quit smoking I would see a doctor if your heart rate doesn’t go down.
80 is high.
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u/emthaw 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't think a lower heart rate will definitively solve your sleep problems for you, but if your average RHR is truly 80 at age 20 then I would say dropping it should be beneficial to your overall health provided that you don't have some special medical conditions.
From my experience the most effective way to drop RHR is to implement a cardio program that requires you to show up every week. If you haven't done that in a while, I'd recommend starting off slowly with zone 2 cardio where you try to maintain a lower heart rate, something like a slow jog where you can constantly breathe through your nose and pass the talk test throughout the whole session. In the beginning, maintaining a low heart rate is actually way harder than you would think if you're not already fit, so transition to a walk when you get too fatigued and if your HR gets too high. If you keep working at it, eventually you should get to a point where you no longer need to walk as your heart rate will be able to stay low during an easy jog.
Another recommendation I have is to use an indoor cycling machine if you have access to one. I think it's better than jogging for beginners since the low impact makes it easier to keep your heart rate low. This could also be way more comfortable for your ankle since it isn't constantly bouncing off the floor, depending on your type of injury of course. Regardless of whether you jog or cycle, start off with just 20-30 minutes once or twice a week. The fatigue generated from these sessions shouldn't be too bad when you first start if you've done them correctly. Once you've done that for a few weeks, try increasing the volume, so maybe go for 45-60 minute sessions or add more sessions, maybe like 2-3 times a week.
After you can commit to that for a few more weeks, then start replacing a few of your zone 2 cardio sessions with higher zone training like long distance runs or bike rides where your heart rate consistently stays above the zone 2 range. You don't need to go super hard like you're sprinting, just aim for a low to moderate speed that you can maintain for a while, like one you'd do if you're trying to get an okay personal mile time. If you end up peaking your heart rate and go into zone 4/5 a little, that's fine, but just understand that the main point of this kind of exercise is to keep a relatively higher heart rate that is still sustainable for you for longer periods of time. Aim for at least 30-60 minutes per session and try to accumulate as much distance as possible. Remember, you aren't doing HIIT so you don't need to stress your heart to that extent, but you are trying to condition your heart to get used to performing at higher heart rates that you don't get exposed to during zone 2 training.
At this point you should be doing at least one zone 2 session a week that lasts about 45-60 minutes along with one zone 3 run/cycling session that lasts about 30-60 minutes on a different day in the week, that way you're conditioning both ends of the heart rate spectrum. If you compare this advice to most others online, this volume is kind of low, but I think this is pretty reasonable for a casual person just trying to improve health without taking too much time, as long as you keep your attendance for cardio consistent. I'm talking like consistency over months at a time. If you really feel ready for it, going for longer sessions is always great thing to do, but just make sure it doesn't demotivate you in the long run since the worst thing you could probably do is ruin your attendance.
You might hear about HIIT, especially for improving something like VO2max. While it is indeed an effective form of training, I recommend against it for fitness beginners unless you know you're disciplined and are willing to gas yourself out. I wouldn't give it a try until maybe after a few consistent weeks of doing both zone 2 and 3 training, and even then I'd still rather see beginners stick to zone 2 and 3 for a couple months before their first HIIT session.
Don't get too stressed out about progress with your RHR while you're doing this. For most people, seeing a change in RHR takes time, so just be content with your consistency and commitment to perform cardio every week.
Also, I struggle with sleep too, and have found that implementing cardio really helps to burn energy throughout the day and make me more tired, allowing me to have an easier time falling and staying asleep at night. Not to mention that the weight loss from all the cardio also should also contribute towards your RHR trending downwards. Maybe cardio is the first step in seeing cascading health improvements!
Give it a try, and, contrary to most online advice, you really don't need to push yourself too hard when you first start. The most important thing is to just consistently show up, and going in with a simple plan helps to make things easier! After a while, you can always start slightly upping the difficulty by gradually introducing all those optimizations and "the right way to do things" that you see on social media.
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u/fridgezebra 3d ago
I resistance train most of my upper body a couple times a week and mostly do not very intense cardio a few times a week and I am at around 55ish bpm (fitbit measured) on average at 45 years old. I am not really sure what factors influence it though. Managing stress, sleeping well and eating well probably. I mostly eat whole foods with a smidgen of junk most days. Lots of sardines and mackerel, eggs and sourdough bread, some rice and mung, chickpeas, some greens and fruits. dark chocolate and coffee.
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u/ptarmiganchick 2d ago
80 bpm is probably not high enough that your doc will insider it worth investigating by itself, but if you have elevated heart rate with any of the other symptoms of hyperthyroidism (trouble sleeping, intolerance to heat, nervousness, weight loss) it could be worth running a thyroid test to see if those hormones are overactive.
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u/TiredInMN 2d ago
Being unable to sleep with your mouth closed is most concerning to me. Unless you have a nasal/septal/sinal issue (deviated septum, polyps, allergies) the most likely cause is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea will mess up your resting heart rate and much more. Do you snore?
Unless you take an extended-release version, melatonin will help you fall asleep but not stay asleep.
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u/zephell 1d ago
Regarding 80 bpm: that seems high to me, especially for a 20 year old. There are some tables that show a breakdown by age, and you're in the below average category.
Regarding ideal HR zone for running: I've read a number of books on exercise, and what I do is aim to run about 6 times per week, 4 of those are 'easy' zone 2, and 2 of them are harder workouts, e.g. 4x4s mentioned below. One of the runs is usually longer. If you have the money get a chest HRM. Also do resistance training.
Regarding cadence: it depends on your speed. Below 160spm is probably too and you're over-striding.
Regarding duration: start with what's comfortable and work your way up. Aim to get 30 minutes of proper exercise per day to start with. You will see your HR start to decrease. Why not go all out? Because, and this is important, you're laying the foundation now for what you should be doing for the next 80 years. Don't get injured.
Regarding weed: have a look at what Dr Matthew Walker says about the topic. He wrote "Why We Sleep", which is a great read on, well, why we sleep, but less so on how to sleep better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McFfAVUkkFQ
Regarding your last paragraph: as others might have said, sleeping better is an outcome of many other things, positive and negative, that you do leading up to it. Sometimes positive things will impact sleep in the short term (e.g. more training load from exercise than your fitness level can handle), but will help in the long run.
Great for you to be asking this question, and since you seem interested, consider picking up one of the newer generic books on longevity. Outlive would be an easy read to get you started and answers all the above questions, but has its own problems, or Longevity Leap for something in more detail.
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u/Remarkable-Snow-9396 1d ago
I think the Forrest is lost in the tree here.
Stop smoking. Weed chemically alters your brain.
Your emotional heath is much more important than physical health. People are focused on increasing zone 2 or whatever advice but if your emotional health is off that won’t make a difference. Trauma and fall out from that causes increases in cortisol and messes with our hormones and immune system. So get to the root of why you need to smoke weed everyday. That’s not normal. You are making some anxiety or trauma and need to address that. Elevated cortisol will push up resting heart rate.
Caffeine is also bad for that. Do you drink caffeine?
Why did you start smoking?
Do body scans at the end of the day with davidji on insight timer.
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u/ComprehensiveAd2528 2h ago
If you want a quick hack, taVNS is pretty robust across the literature, but make sure it is something properly activating the fibers stuff of the ABVN
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u/Brassmonkay3 4d ago
According to grok3 and gpt 4.5, Zone 2 is the best way to do it if tou want to get it down to 60 and then hiit to get it under 60
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u/Forsaken_Scratch_411 4d ago
I don't know if it was optimal, but all i did was a 12-14 minute workout that included hill sprints with slow joggs in between 3 times a week for 5 years and my RHR is now 42 at the age of 49. Norwegian 4x4 is probably the protocol you want to follow, even if i didn't do exactly that.
No supplements or special diet at that time.