Is it good to train with a high heart rate ?

I bought a polar belt the other day and I have realised that I most of the time train at around 160-165 and the machine say that my rate is too high .. I am 28...

Is it good or bad to train so high ?

They are obviously your usual HRs. Those readings would be about 80 - 85% HRMax for me. The University of WV cardiac unit trains their heart attack outpatients up to 90% HRMax.

Is there any web site that talk about this ?

I got this from their cardiac unit's web site about 3 or 4 years ago. It may still be on their (University of West Virginia) server. In short, they ran a study with their patients working at or just under their aerobic thresholds for 4 months or so. I believe they also had a control group working out at less intense efforts. One byproduct of the higher intensity workout group was their decreased appetite for high-fat foods.

In misc.fitness.aerobic

The higher the better.

I laugh at your *so called* high numbers. I'm 32 and my heart likes to settle in the 185 range, but I can kick it up to 205 without too much trouble (I'm not sure how close that is to my actual max). My resting rate is around 60. Charts show averages and don't take individual difference into account. If you have any real concerns beyond that, you need to talk to your doctor.

The general case is perhaps, maybe, tentatively YES. It depends upon what your goals are...and what a high HR is for you.

The other general case is, if you are training at a high rate is to alternate with low HR days. The problem is not to over do a low intensity day and under exert on a high intensity day.

Training at a lower HR is used for long distance runners...it works for them. It gets very complex when you toss in glycogen, lactate tolerance and other chemicals.

So, assuming that you are healthy, have no heart problems, blood pressure, swelling of extremities, etc. etc. you can try to find out what your MAX HR is. You can use the following method at your peril. This is assuming you don't/can't/won't get a supervised MaxHR at a physician's office.

Find a fairly steep, longish hill on a mild temperature day. Get well warmed up (20-30) mins of light then moderate exercise), take a couple of minutes rest while doing some light stretching and then take as many running attempts as you can get at that hill. When you can no longer make progress up that hill, little black spots start appearing on the periphery of your vision, your heart feels like it really is going to burst with the activity of flopping around like a landed fish, each breath seems a waste of time trying to get oxygen, THEN: gently run in place and try to immediately take your pulse for 10 secs. Wait a bit and try that process again. Take the highest rate times. If you can't get the rate to go any higher, you are close to your maximum HR.

In the meantime check your at rest HR. This is best done over a period of a few days as soon as you awake (before the alarm jangles your nerves) and while still lying down and relaxed.

80-85% is too fast to build aerobic capacity...and 70% maybe too slow.

(approximate) 70% of max hr = (max hr - resting hr)*.7 + resting hr

Just remember to let 48 hrs go by after pushing your envelope. Otherwise you will be overtraining. You expend the same amount of energy on a long slow HR as you do on a short fast HR (some calculations needed here). Most people prefer the long, slow trip as it is 'easier' - just longer.

My resting is 48, high is around 208. I will be training at 175-180 every other day for two 3 hour sessions

You might try using http://www.hotbot.com and do a search using HIGH HEART RATE TRAIN or something similar. Google, I'm sure, will load you up too. No really good easy answer to your initial concern. It all depends on who you are, what you want to do, and what kind of supervision/watching you will have...and just how high a rate you are playing with. For most of us the body is self inhibiting. As long as you are young and healthy, it takes amazing abuse before it complains